42-Year Legacy, Startup Energy: Reinventing a Family Advice Firm

This week on the Financial Planner Life podcast, I’m joined by Sean Standerwick, co-owner of MLP Wealth Management, a financial planning firm based on the high street in Surrey with a powerful story: a 42-year legacy that's now being run with the mindset and energy of a startup.

Sean and his brother have taken the reins from their father, infusing the business with a culture built on innovation, career development, and deep local community ties. From installing a defibrillator on their office wall to hosting pitch meetings where team members create service ideas, MLP isn't your average advice firm, and Sean isn’t your average leader.

We talk about:

• How being on the high street has driven client engagement and local brand dominance
• Building a startup culture in an established firm (and why that matters for talent attraction)
• The journey of James, a trainee-turned-adviser, and what great career development looks like
• How Sean’s practice of Buddhism influences company culture, emotional intelligence, and leadership
• What makes MLP’s recruitment and onboarding process different (and more human)
• Why hyper-local marketing still works in a digital-first world
• And how one small idea, pitched internally, led to new service lines like wills and LPAs
  
  

If you're an aspiring financial planner looking for a forward-thinking firm, or an established adviser wanting to run your own business without losing your soul, this one’s for you.

Financial Planner Life is sponsored by Redmill Advance
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✅ Trusted by top UK firms
👉 redmilladvance.com

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And High Street Advantage
• 1:35 Defining A Hyper-Local Growth Strategy
• 3:10 Inheriting A 42-Year Legacy
• 6:20 Startup Mindset And Client First
• 9:40 Team Alignment And Ownership
• 12:30 James’s Trainee-To-Advisor Journey
• 16:10 Building Careers With Clear Pathways
• 19:20 Pitching Ideas And Innovating Services
• 22:10 Mindful Leadership And Buddhism
• 26:00 Seven-Day Silent Retreat Insights
• 30:00 Designing A Signature Client Experience
• 33:20 Community Roots And Local Sponsorships
• 36:10 Offline Meets Online: LinkedIn And Hiring
• 39:10 The Next 12 Months And Roles We Need
• 42:20 Closing Thoughts And Culture

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

And today's guest on the Financial Planner Live podcast is Sean Standerwick. He is one of the owners of MLP Wealth Management in Surrey. His business is situated in an old bank, and we talk about how being on the high street has massively helped his business grow. He gets stuck in to the local community. That hyper-local marketing. Why is it so effective? What impact it has on his business and attracting talent to come and work for MLP. We're going to dig deep into some of the people that work for MLP, their career development, their career progression, and how Sean and his brother have supported those individuals to find their path within the business. Sean is a Buddhist and he talks to us about a seven-day retreat he went on where he didn't speak to anybody, no mobile phones, and just meditated. We talk about how Buddhism is shaping him and the culture of his business. It's a really fantastic episode. For 42 years this business is going, but right now where his brother and him have taken it over from his father, it's now feeling like a startup. So we learn what it's like to run a startup mentality on 42 years of trusted foundations. This is a fantastic episode if you're interested in growing your own financial advice business, or even if you're a training financial planner looking for your next home. Hi Sean, thanks for joining me today on the Financial Planner Life podcast. How are you? I am well, thanks. It's great to be here. Looking forward to this. Fantastic. All right, Sean, um obviously I've seen you on LinkedIn. You've been getting yourself out there quite a bit, and I think we've touched base a few times via messages. I was really impressed with your Christmas display window in your business on the high street. Did that get a lot of clients in interested in walking through the door at all?

SPEAKER_01: 1:50

Well, you know, there's there's many things that make people walk through the door, but we do get a lot of feedback from locals that even just walking their dog in the morning, they really enjoy looking at the windows, but it cheers them up. We have children stopping, pointing, there's local school, and it just provides a little bit of cheer and it's a bit of fun. So yeah, it's it's a compounding effect of things like that with everything else we do.

SPEAKER_00: 2:14

Oh, I love it. I'm really into that whole hyper-local field. Been speaking to a lot of businesses lately who really want to position their companies as being like the number one financial planning company in the town or in the city or in the region. Um, when you think about your financial planning business situated on the high street, very busy, affluent area, do you position yourself as being a national firm and growing clients across the UK? Or are you trying to dominate locally?

SPEAKER_01: 2:40

Yeah, so actually, really good question. We well came up with a business plan with the whole team. So we all sat down and we did it, and one of our goals was be the local go-to financial planning firm to be known everywhere locally. You know, Richard Branson speaks about this and he says, get known and sort of not maybe not dominate, it's not the right word, but get really well known locally, expand it then regionally, nationally, and then internationally. And so, yes, it's something we've been uh really keen on doing and really important to us.

SPEAKER_00: 3:13

Oh, I love it. One of the things that I love the most about our pre-podcast call was your business feels like a startup, but on the foundations of a great deal of history and trust because the business has been around for nearly 42 years.

SPEAKER_01: 3:27

Correct. So my dad set it up originally 42 years ago. You know, he was there's a lot of hard graph there. He started knocking on people's doors, selling them savings product. I saw him last night, we were talking about this. And, you know, the business has grown and we've got to this point now where we're in this really exciting position because we've got that history, we've got the heritage, but me and my brother took over two and a half years ago, although we've been here a lot, lot longer. And with that, we've got this real drive to take things to the next level. We don't rest on our laurels, and you know, it's just such an opportunity. The average age of an advisor is 59. There's such an opportunity for young people in the industry. I think there's a problem that people don't realize what a great career it is, or maybe there's even it is a career. So, yeah, that's something we're keen on getting out there.

SPEAKER_00: 4:18

No, I just're on the right channel then for that, because this is what we were all about. The financial planner life was set up to be able to create a window into what it's like to work within the financial planning profession, not only to attract new talent into it and help reduce that advice gap, which the numbers aren't really shifting massively. They're still not shifting. Um, but also to educate those already in it about how to potentially progress within your career. Because again, there wasn't a great deal of content out there about career development within financial planning as well. So just tell us a little bit about your own personal journey. You're you're you're a business owner, right? You're managing a business now. How much is under management of your business currently? So currently it's about 240 million that we've got. Yeah, yeah. So 240 million, that was your dad's business. You've been working with your dad for how long before you went through like a management buyout?

SPEAKER_01: 5:03

About seven and a half years, I would say. So I came on, as I said, I was self-employed. We didn't have any structure there. It was just me, obviously with family, right? So it's it's a little bit different. But I was just constantly going up to him asking questions. I just given a desk, right? Get on with it and you know, make it work. But he was there for me if I had questions, my brother likewise. But you know, that gave me a massive shortcut to learn something he learned over decades and decades of experience that I didn't need to do because I could just get all the answers quickly. And so very quickly, you know, I caught up. Whilst I had experience in financial industry, not in the financial planning industry.

SPEAKER_00: 5:48

So I want to go back to this kind of so it's you and your brother that have come together now to manage the business. What's the name of the business again? MLP Wealth Management. Okay. So you're coming in on the back of a 42-year foundation. And what approach are you taking to this business now? You know, are you coming in there with a fresh pair of eyes, a fresh energy? Are you looking to now build this business and grow it? Is there that startup mentality feel to something? I'm just really interested how like how it must feel to have a startup mentality, but on really strong foundations.

SPEAKER_01: 6:25

Well, uh, one thing I am is really, really grateful for the fact that we have that heritage. And yes, we definitely have this startup mentality. So we're a small team, there are nine of us. We've got, you know, some young people here. Um, quite a few of them um are quite a lot younger than me as well. And you know, what's important? Why are we talking about this? Because our industry, I we've got a hashtag, not your ordinary advisors. And I think there are quite a lot of boring places out there. We've had people join us and they just said, you know, it was quite dull there. I didn't get much support. We want to be this incredible team. What is a business? A business is really just a group of people gelled together by a culture. And if we're, you know, we've got some really big goals. I mean, we've got the infinite goals, things like financial peace of mind and a vehicle for people to be successful. So that's career, it's clients, it's everyone. And that these are things we're really passionate about. We have some targets, you know, in the next three years to get to 500 million, you know, longer term, a billion and plus. What's really important though, and I think we talked about this on our when we spoke the other week, is that at the core of what we do is looking after the client. You think of uh of Ronaldo, yeah, he's an incredible football player and he's got this massive personal brand. But if he was a poor football player, it would all fall apart. And that's the way we look at it. We don't want to grow in such a way that we take our eye off what we do, and at the core is just giving top advice, looking after our clients. But you know, we'll we'll probably get into it. But there are a lot of things we're doing when you talk about being a startup where the team are heavily involved in the process of the business growing with ideas, etc. So yeah. Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_00: 8:21

Just tell us a little bit about how you get that team involved then and you work collectively as a unit to be able to A, deliver an amazing client experience, but B, help those individuals actually grow as well and progress within their career and help the business push forward. How are you doing that? What do you do? Do you have like one-to-ones? Do you have weekly kind of huddles? What type of things are you doing to include those people that were within your business to be aligned to the goals that you have as business owners?

SPEAKER_01: 8:47

Yeah, and do you know what? That's key, being aligned. One thing about my brother and I that I noticed was we had to negotiate the deal to buy the business. It wasn't a handover, it took a year and a half. It's difficult, it can be when it's family. When our interests were aligned to do that, everything fell into place. And that was a wake-up moment for me. So, first of all, I mentioned we have a business plan. If I came to the team and said, right, everyone, we're doing this and this, they're not going to buy into it, right? So, yes, there are some high-level decisions we need to make and be leaders, but we want them involved in the plan. And you know what? They have some incredible ideas that we never think of. So we have a monthly business catch-up, a meeting in which we all have different roles that people step forward to, take accountability for, and then we go through things and we mix up these business meetings. They were getting a bit stale, so we had to change what we were doing there. In terms of the people themselves, yes, we do some one-to-ones. I'm also a fan of just regularly checking in. Before I came on here, I was downstairs making a coffee. James, our advisor, who came on as a trainee. We're having a chat in the kitchen. And, you know, he's just had his biggest month ever in terms of new business. And I said, Why do you think that is? And he said, Well, it was the change that you made and me managing fewer clients. The problem's never been the opportunity, but now I feel I've got a more manageable client bank where I can make sure I review them as regularly as possible, but then stay on top of the opportunities and I'm not getting distracted as well. So it's a mixture of the one-to-ones, the regular check-ins, how are you getting on, what's going on there, um, amongst other things, and and recognizing them as well. I said to him, you know, oh, one of my first comment was, you've just had a really good quarter, well done. You know, just saying that, people feel feel proud of what they're doing. He should, you know, he's doing really, really well. He's grown so quickly and matured a lot as well. And it's just amazing and to see. And, you know, without selling patronizing, I'm I'm really, really proud of him, you know.

SPEAKER_00: 11:01

I think businesses that are investing in trade financial planners need to be champions. So let's just talk a little bit about James' journey then. So, where did he come from before he came to your business? And how do you approach bringing on a trade financial planner? It sounds to me like you give them a client bank. Is that the case? Do you employ them? Um, how do you train and develop them? Is it outsourced? Tell us a little bit about the process of bringing on someone like a James into your business and how do you get them up to you know getting the best quarter that they ever have done?

SPEAKER_01: 11:32

So, James, if we talk specifically about him, first of all, everyone is employed here. We don't do self-employed anymore. Um, it's what people want, it's the right thing, it gives them the support they need, and that's what our business model is. James was at a firm where it was around COVID time, he was just left to his own devices. He was sitting at home, barely earning any money. He managed to get himself fully qualified, and he just didn't know what to do. He was promised that he would get support, he would get training. He didn't really get he got one meeting where he was shadowing. So when he interviewed here, we told him what we were looking to do, and he said, This is exactly what I want. At that time, my father was still in the business, so he had him to learn from, he had my brother, and he had me. And he came on, we said, Look, you're gonna have to start an administration, you're gonna be a trainee. And he did that, and to this day, he says the thing where he learned the most was doing policy summaries, and he said, Oh, I used to love them. And he was, yeah, and we would regularly check in with him, we would have regular catch-ups and make sure he was progressing and feeling like he was progressing. And there was even a moment where we had, you know, we had some old staff members, you know, our culture has shifted and they weren't really aligned with the direction, they ended up leaving. And James had at this stage started transitioning into client reviews. He wasn't actually signed off, but he was helping with them more and and etc. And he actually took a step back and came back to administration to help us out while we were hiring, and then we recognized that in many ways, also financially, because we knew he wouldn't be getting some of the new business he would have been otherwise. So he it was where our interests were aligned. He knew we cared about him, that we were going to look after him, and he had no problem doing that because he knew that's what the firm needed. Once that was sorted, he went back and he quickly progressed to the point where it wasn't that long before I'd overhear him speaking to a client. And I think, wow, you sound like my dad, me, or my brother, you know, after all these years of experience, you've only been here a year or two, and already you're sounding amazing. You know, he's one thing James was also very good at was constantly he talks a lot, he asks a lot of questions. Uh, and that that really helped him grow.

SPEAKER_00: 13:56

And when he talks a lot and he asks a lot of questions, is that directly asking clients or is it asking his colleagues, friends around him, people within the business, yourself, for example?

SPEAKER_01: 14:05

Yeah, it I was talking about asking me, my brother, my father. So just always, and he still does it now. Uh, maybe he should do it a bit more again. But you know, also we're a little bit more busy, we've got more staff members. But yeah, it was like downstairs when having that conversation. I then ended up, we we started talking about some clients, and then I gave him a few tips, and he was like, Oh, yeah, that's really interesting. And he asked a few questions. That kind of thing, we've got an open door policy here. Come and talk to us. You have anything you're struggling with, anything you're unsure. He asked me a different question yesterday about an investment. So, yeah, it's about look, why would you not, especially in a firm where you've got direct access to the business owners' directors with a lot of experience, why would you not take advantage of that? Cut out, you know, I've got what is it, 18 years uh you that I've been working since I left university. Why would you not leverage that knowledge?

SPEAKER_00: 14:59

And do you spend a lot of your time client-facing still now you're moving into more of a business owner position, or you know, or are you um 100% on sort of running the business and training and development, developing staff? Is it a balance between the two? How do you how do you do it?

SPEAKER_01: 15:13

Yeah, really good question. So that's something that I'm constantly assessing where we spend time. And one thing we realized recently is not spending enough time with clients. So, yes, I have a client bank that I'm managing, it's not as big as theirs, and I tend we, me and my brother, tend to look after the bigger clients. We take on all the new inquiries, but it's actually look, it's potentially or certainly one of the most fun parts of the job. And it's really important at this stage where we are with the business that we are heavily involved with that. We don't want to be, we don't want the business to rely on us 100%. I think if you can have a really successful business, it needs to run while you're not there. We're not there yet, but it is important, and you know, with where we are in our journey, that we are spending more time with clients. So, you know, that there are probably, you know, well, we talked about with my brother, what is it? That there are probably three things we should be doing. We should be clients, and that means looking after clients, uh, bringing on new clients, and also staff. So that's staff in the firm, but also recruiting. You know, we've been on a recruitment journey almost constantly, certainly over the past few years, and that's really important because you need to get the right people. It's all about the right people. So that might come at a time where you're not looking for that role.

SPEAKER_00: 16:37

Okay, so what are some of the challenges you've had around recruitment then? Because it's a tough market to recruit in. Um, how have you um approached it? Have you had much success? And what sort of challenges are you coming up against?

SPEAKER_01: 16:49

Do you know what? The hardest thing about running a business is managing people and finding new people and bringing staff on. We've made mistakes, we've taken on the wrong people where it didn't work. I've learned myself as a manager as well how to manage people. And but we've got to a point now where I mean we're constantly improving and we constantly try to. I think you've got to be realistic though. I mean, you know, and again, I like to speak to people who've got more experience than me. I even spoke to a recruitment agent last week. And they said, when when I recruit, I still don't get it right every time. Yeah. So, but we would just want to minimize. So it's that thing of hire slow, fire fast. I mean, look, we don't want to be firing people. That's where we don't want to be. That's why you hire slow, right? So, yeah, there have been challenges. There have been people that didn't work out that you know, we had one case of where someone ended up being quite nasty and uh they were still in the probation. At that point, we just we can't have that in our team. It's like a disease, it infects people. Um, so we we just had to unfortunately let them go. It's it's a horrible conversation to have. We do not enjoy it, but what we've also let things slide over time and it builds up and it builds up. So now we've got to the point where at a much quicker rate, we will realise if they're the wrong person. Plus, we've got the experience of taking the wrong people to know who they are.

SPEAKER_00: 18:16

Learn from your mistakes. And what about sort of um career development plans? Have you created a career development structure? Do you sit down in front of someone and say, look, if you join our business, this is what the roadmap looks like. And by the way, here's some people that have gone through the process. Maybe you should sit down with them and have a conversation and they'll tell you firsthand where they are on the journey. Do you do you have something which is quite visual, which is a guide? Because I know that people massively value being able to see, and I used to do it in my own recruitment business. I used to sit them down and they were in my meeting room, and on the board I had a big poster and I had it made up and it was all graphics, but it was one to five years. And someone, I would, I would say, Oh, I'm just gonna go get a coffee. Do you want a coffee? And they're like, Yeah, great. I said, I'll be back in five minutes. But whilst you're waiting, have a quick look at that over there. That's our career roadmap. And it would kind of articulate all the things that they could do along their journey and how their salary would change, how their bonus would change, if there was any incentives or benefits, when would they come in? And like almost kind of guiding them on this journey. So when I end up sitting down with them, they've already got a picture of where this business can actually take them. So they should be in a completely different frame of mind because they're thinking, whoa, I want to be part of this business. Um, because a career roadmap, I think, is a massively powerful thing. Do you do you have that? Do you have a career development plan?

SPEAKER_01: 19:29

Yeah, absolutely. So we have a template which we always talk people through. What's really important though is to tailor it. So we've taken on different people, different stages in their career with different skill sets as well. So, for example, Katie, who joined us as an advisor, had some marketing background. She was doing LPAs, and she was the person that did that at that firm. We wanted someone to do that, she was keen on doing it. So we said that's Part of something that you should do if well she wanted to do it. Why don't we set up this service? We haven't got someone we can refer. And and that's also a really interesting story because within her probation period, she was pitching everyone internally, explaining to them what it is, how it works, how we should explain it to them pass it over to her. And we would talk about wills. And we said, Yeah, unfortunately, we don't have anyone we can recommend for wills. And she said, Well, if you want, I'll train up. Said, okay. And so within her probation period, we funded and she passed to be able to help with Wills. And now we've got a Will service and an LPA service. So that's something that's very specific to her. We do have progressions depending on where you are in your career and what potential earnings could be. So yeah, we always sit down, and even with her, we said, look, if you with where you are with the LPA service, we actually projected what she could earn through that. And she's smashed through that. So she's actually earning far more and will be than than what we projected. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 21:10

So bringing her into the startup mentality, look, there's an opportunity here, LPAs, wills, you can get stuck into that. You could take ownership of that on the side of what it is you're currently doing as well as a financial planner. So that's one of the benefits, isn't it, with a smaller business is being that agile, where somebody, if they want to be part of the growth of it and actually shape the direction of it, they can. It's not like a cog in the wheel. You're coming in and this is all you do, and you're sitting there. And your culture is one about sort of sharing, developing people. If there is something that comes up where you see an opportunity, then you might enthuse that person to take charge of it and push forward to it and develop themselves in that area and hopefully develop the business overall.

SPEAKER_01: 21:47

Yeah, so the I'd mentioned we have monthly business meetings, and one of the things we changed was pitch an idea. So pitch an idea of something you think we can improve within the business. And it can be anything. It could be we're not recycling properly, but it could be one of the last ones, which Katie came up with, was engaging beneficiaries in the younger generation. We know we've got a big problem, right? And we know there's a wealth transfer that's going to be rejected about five to seven trillion from baby boomers to the next generation. We've got 45% of our kind bank, which is 65 or older. So it's not bad for a financial advisory firm, but that is a problem at some point in the future. So she came up with this idea, she pitched it on how we could engage beneficiaries and clients children and things we could do. And then we've given her the run with someone else to take that forward and what to do, whether it's events, sending out packs to them, and there are lots of different ideas. And you know, some of these ideas we won't do, um, some of them we will, but it's that thing of you know, if in a year you try, I'm just making up a number, but 20 things, and then the 21st is an incredible idea. Whereas if you wait a whole year and deliberate it, so you failed at 20, whereas in the second scenario, you've not tried anything, you've done one thing, and then that failed. You think of, and I look at companies like Amazon, Google. I don't know if you know that the post-it note was was one of these ideas. So three eye said, pitch an idea. Someone just said, let's let's try post-it notes, and well, well, we know how well they did. So, you know, Amazon AWS, you know, they have all these ideas. They spend millions and probably I think billions on ideas that don't work, but they only need one or two that are incredible. So that's our startup mentality. That's what we want people involved in, and people love it. So the last business meeting, we had a whole list of things to do, and it was amazing to see Katie and Lee. So Lee's in our admin team, she's been an excellent addition. She's fully bought into what we're doing. I mean, she worked so hard that I have to tell her to go home sometimes and stop working. She's on holiday now. We keep emailing her saying, enjoy your holiday. And she last emailed, she said, I swear I am having fun. So um, yeah, but they took the lead on it. And then between them, they were saying, No, don't give Paul and Sean jobs. They need fewer jobs. And that's the magic. That's the magic, a team working together and the culture coming together when we're not directing it. Uh yeah, well, we're in the background, of course, and we are here to direct, but not having to always be heavily involved.

SPEAKER_00: 24:32

I love it. You yourself, though, again, I'm from LinkedIn, I've been following you and your story for a little while. Um, you recently went in for a seven-day meditation retreat where you didn't speak to anybody and you just meditated. I picked up on your journey that Buddhism is something that's important to you, something that you practice. Can you just tell me a little bit about Buddhism? Why you study Buddhism and practice Buddhism? How does that convert into your business?

SPEAKER_01: 25:03

Yeah, so look, it's it's really important to me. Um it guides how I act every day. I live by a set of values, there is something. So the the Buddhism I follow is called Theravada. There are five precepts which you can follow, but and the highlights of those would be being honest, good speech, so saying, you know, not lying, but also not having divisive speech, not gossiping, not stealing. Um and another one, which is quite funny because it kind of happened and we discussed this in a funny period, is is not taking drugs. Well, when I say drugs, I I've never really taken any other than alcohol, and uh but drugs that cloud your mind. And if you think about what you're trying to achieve in Buddhism, it doesn't make sense because you know, when you drink, it's really hard to control yourself, right? And you know, it's it's really fundamentally changed the way that I deal with people, my perception. Um and you know, being a bit more so I uh you know, there's there's two sides to me. There always has been. Um there is a very caring side when I'm in business, I can sometimes come across a little bit differently, and certainly in the past, sometimes a bit serious. But actually, deep down, I really care about people and compassion, and and something that's really big in this Buddhism is is something called metta, which is loving kindness. And how that's translated into the business is you know, I regularly check in with people. I've noticed people have been really down, and I'll say, is everything okay? And I don't just drop it, like without being aggressive about it, and I'm not doing it in front of everyone, but I'm saying, look, I'm really concerned about you. Do you need some support? You know, do you what is it? You know, like I I don't want to probe too much if it's really personal, but I just want to make sure you're okay and keep having those conversations. And and it's got to the point now where my team really understand my intentions, and it was where I really saw it come together was was Lee and our admin one day said to me, Are you okay, Sean? And I was like, Oh, yeah, why? And she said, You just don't seem yourself, and I said, Oh, um, how come you asked? And she said, Well, you're always asking me, and I thought it's only fair that I should ask you, and that really was really heartwarming. And when you've got that kind of a relationship with your team, it everything just falls together. She knows if I give her feedback and I say, Look, you made this mistake, or you need to do this, or remember this, she knows I'm not coming from a bad place, um, and that's the same with everyone, really, in the team. Um, so yeah, it shapes the way I think and I regularly think. How would my teacher Ajahn Brahm react? How would he deal with it? I mean, he heads up a massive Buddhist organization, um, but it is a different world, so it's not 100% relatable in terms of being a Buddhist monk, of course. Um, but yeah, it does shape the way I act and the way I manage people.

SPEAKER_00: 28:04

I've got to ask though, that seven-day retreat where you didn't speak to anybody and you just focused on meditation. Can you just give us a bit of an overview of what you went through in those seven days and did you gain value from it?

SPEAKER_01: 28:14

Absolutely. So I've been on a few now. That's the probably the longest one. I've been in one other long one. I meditate generally every every day. And what did I get from it? So, you know, think about work, think about running a business. I'm a father of two, my husband, just so busy, right? And I had got to the point where I felt I needed a break. And for the first, for one of the first times ever, I didn't feel guilty about taking a step back. I was like, I need this. Now, initially, you've because you're saying this silence thing, people think, oh that, oh, I'd hate that. I mean, I've come to love it because what happens is you become much more mindful, right? You have an idea. I didn't have a phone, so you know, oh, what's this? And you want to look it up, or what's that? And I've got to say this to that person. You stop all of that and you become. I liken it to driving a car, right? If you drive a car really fast and you suddenly put the brakes on, anything in the car will fly forwards. You've got the momentum. It's the same when you go on a retreat like that. Your mind is gonna go, and then suddenly it starts slowing down. And midway through it, quite honestly, I got really bored and I was struggling. And I started to think about my family, getting excited about seeing my children. And I was like, that's not why I'm here. Let's because I'm supposed to be in the moment, right? And and actually, it just also taught me to be okay with that. The moment will pass. Because I because you can, it's really easy, and you start noticing giving yourself a hard time about things, and it just I I my energy came back. Um, I came back and I just felt incredible. Um, you know, I turn up a much nicer person. Um, my whole family got ill. Um, say my my wife, my two kids. I didn't get ill, and I used to get ill, by the way, all the time. I've had a bit of a problem. So, yeah, it's it's um it's an incredible experience. You don't need to, by the way, go on a seven-day retreat. That would be a bit probably aggressive for most people initially. You can do a half-day retreat, you can do a meditation session, build it up. You don't, yeah. But if if you're interested, uh definitely check it out. Oh, I love it.

SPEAKER_00: 30:27

So you found like after our seven days, you know, taking off the uh the Buddhist gown and then did they call it a gown or do they call it something else?

SPEAKER_01: 30:35

Rogue, robe.

SPEAKER_00: 30:37

Okay, so taking off the robe, putting the suit back on. How how quickly how how how polarizing was that? How uh you know, did it did it did it take a while to sort of step out of that mindset and then back into the work one? Did anything change? I'm interested to know if anything has changed for you specifically when you do something like that, because it sounds like life-changing when when someone says it. And I wonder if it can be in some way life-changing. Can it affect your business positively?

SPEAKER_01: 31:07

Yeah, definitely. So, you know, when you come back, you're very slow-paced and you're you're used to taking things calmly. Suddenly you come back into a crazy world and you're all excited, so your mind starts racing again. But, you know, I have noticed my energy levels I exercise a lot, were not what they were. I couldn't work with the same intensity, but I was also patient with that and compassionate about it. I knew it would come back. I've got the experience now. In terms of yes, it is, you know, I just noticed things like um, you know, there were some stressful moments that were happening, but deep within me, I just felt this real peace. So it was like I realized there was something stressful, and I realized it was a thought, but actually within me and within everyone, there is this deep peace. And if you learn to connect with that, and the more you connect with it, then then that's only gonna be positive for everybody. So, yes, it's but it's also again, it is a compounding effect. Um, but I feel like that particular retreat had a massive impact. And, you know, I'm keen to go back. It's not easy though, right? I've got to be honest. You say, well, I've got to take this time out of work, family, etc. But you know, I've come to realise it's actually an investment.

SPEAKER_00: 32:25

Yeah, I love that. Well, I love your openness around it as well. There's a leader of a business talking about, you know, the power of meditation, um, values, belief, taking time out for yourself to recharge those batteries and look at things from a different perspective, I think is hugely healthy. Um, so you know, if I was on the outside looking into your business as wanting to go and work for somebody, I think I'd want to work for somebody that has those values. And to me, it's you know, it's super interesting that you care about that. And like you can see how that transcends then into your business because you care about others and the development of people, you're interested in them, how they are, how they are within the company, how you are as a as a manager. You're looking for that feedback and you're looking to change as you go. It's not your way or the highway, which I think is, you know, it's a nice way to articulate your culture through your own personal journey. You know, it's interesting. It's not, it's not a cookie-cutter type, you know, approach to being a leader within the business, which I love. Um, one of the things that we did talk about as well, which I you're you're a high street business, right? You are on the high street, okay? You've got your you know, lovely Christmas display window that people see and they walk within. Um, you've got this business that was from an old bank, wasn't it? And it's got an old bank vault in it. Tell us a little bit about that bank vault first, actually, because that sounds really interesting.

SPEAKER_01: 33:41

Yeah. So you look, we've got a real experience when you come into the office. We are an in-office culture. When clients walk in from the high street all the time with with large sums of money, but you walk through the office, you get a warm welcome. We've we've also, you know, got some really nice desks, and we get, you know, a really friendly staff who welcome you in. We've got we bought a really special coffee machine, we invested that. We've got barista training. So you come in, you sit in the waiting area, which my wife designed. She's an interior designer. That's something else we added. And then we have some nice jazz music in the background. We give you a nice menu, so you choose your drinks, like you're an afternoon tea place. We've got Harry who recently joined us, who worked in a really nice hotel. So he comes in with his tray and he does all this presentation. But it's just making people feel a bit a little bit special. And I think in a world where, you know, AI and online, this is what people want. And then you walk through and we've got the vault room. So it was an old Nat West bank, and we've got the original vault doors there. So we've got two, the massive, really heavy doors. And, you know, when we redeveloped this place, most of the investment and time was spent in there, had to have diamond cutters. I mean, you think about how safe those rooms are. It wasn't very nice in there. We had to put windows and things, and we knocked a wall down because half was the safe, half was the vault. We've now got this really nice, you know, exposed brick, vault doors, one of the doors we've exposed so you can see the internals, and it all opens up. And yesterday I had a new client in and I showed it, and I opened the door, and they love it, and they really enjoy it. And it makes just a really nice place to work. We all love it, and that's the vault. We say, Right, we'll book the vault, and it's it's the name of the room, and um, people ask about it. And you know, because we are local, a lot of people also hit bank there many years ago, and they say, Yeah, I used to bank it, or I know someone who did, or yeah. So that's really important. It's all part of the client experience. Um, there's many things we do, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 35:46

What about the the the local marketing? When we look at like hyperlocal marketing, some people sponsor football teams or they advertise in you know local newspapers or are involved in putting on events locally. Do you subscribe to that? Do you get stuck into the community? Is that something that you do?

SPEAKER_01: 36:03

Yeah, and that's really important to us. You know, I feel, or well, I know that local businesses are the backbone of the local community. So we've done a number of things. We installed a defibrillator on the side of our office. Um, we all then had training. We've had two sessions on that, and we also had a first aid training. So we've actually had three kind of life-saving potentially sessions. So if something happens locally, our team feel confident on what they can do. But also, it's just really nice to know that if something does happen, we could play a positive part in that. So our business plan is called DFib. It was a bit of a joke at the time. So originally my dad had the idea when we came up with a business plan um with the team. So we had to give it a name, and I said, Well, let's call it DFib because then we have to buy one. It was also a bit of a joke of we're bringing the business back to life, not that it was ever dead. But um, so that's one thing. We, yes, we spoke sponsor the local bowls club. They took us down there. We had a session with the whole team, which we all loved. By the way, some people think it's just for old people. I love it. Um, and so did the whole team. And and you know, one of the ladies there came out after a while and she just said, Do you know what? You said you want to do this as team building, but I can just see you're an amazing team. You don't need to do this. I could just see how you work together so well. And when you hear comments like that, it's you know things are coming together. Um, but yeah, we just uh agreed to sponsor local cricket club, so the juniors, 28 teams there. We sponsor the May Fair, so Bansted. I mean, it's a lovely village, has a big catchment area, but there's a May Fair, we sponsor that. We have a stall outside the front, there's no selling, we just give out some drinks and sweets to kids, and we also have the Christmas lights, so we sponsor that. That nearly didn't happen a couple of years ago, and so this is all part of local business being a backbone of local communities. Um, so we sponsor it, we feel it's really important, and then clients come by, and you know, we again we've had the feedback. Um, one of our you know, clients who's got a significant amount that moved over to us in the last few years, they were with another firm actually. That one of the things they love was how we're part of the local community. But yeah, we do things like leaflets really work for us, so so we've we've really stepped that up recently. We have sandwich boards, it's just as I say, compounding. You know, I'll probably keep repeating this. It's many things, it's not just one.

SPEAKER_00: 38:32

But what part does say digital marketing play in your strategy, if any at all?

SPEAKER_01: 38:36

Yeah, it's also really important. So look, we we also have a monthly newsletter, we're regularly sending things out to clients in terms of our general marketing. Not, not, it's got to add value, right? Not the spammy stuff, and we don't want to be sending every something every week, but you know, we within our newsletter have the MLP update, and people love that. They get some of our best readerships and about our community work. Also, as you know, you know, I'm very big on LinkedIn. Um, I think this is really important as well. Um, it's you know that I've learned so much from it. Uh, it takes up a lot of time, and uh, there have been a few times I've nearly stepped back. Um, but just as I've always done that, something's come forwards. So, you know, that that works in a slightly different way for me. Um, it's been a good recruitment tool. So Harry recently joined us, contacted me at LinkedIn, and you know, we were doing a recruitment campaign, and he's working here and he's been an excellent hire. He's young. Um, he he was working in Dubai for a big firm, but uh a financial firm. But he's just been excellent. And you know, Katie who joined us said it was part of the reason. She felt like she knew me. So just by having those two people say that, it's all worth it because it's so hard to get the right people who really want to work somewhere. And if they can see who we really are, then they buy into it, then it's all Much more likely to work well. It will work. And also things like mentors. You know, I've I've actually spoken to a local businessman who set up his business in 1988. Long story short, is he grew really, really well and not too aggressively. They've got a boutique for feel. They really got taken over by another company and now two billion under management. Now that's not something we want to do, but he was giving me advice. He just jumps on the Teams with me and he's coming down in January to have a chat with me. You know, these are the kind of opportunities which you just don't necessarily find. And in the modern world, you know, I think it's really important to keep social media in check. I was not on any social media, by the way. I was extremely uncomfortable with putting all these personal things out there. You have to get over that. But it overall it's a net, very positive result.

SPEAKER_00: 40:54

I think you come across really well, Sean. I think you're a, you know, you're a leader that's willing to put themselves out there on a personal basis. And I think if you're going to build a strong employer brand and a strong brand for clients as well, I think you need to be true to yourself and be really authentic. And I think you tread that line really, really well. I mean, if someone's thinking about joining your business, they're going to look at who you are and can I work for that person? And if you can attract people as well as put people off, that's a good thing because you don't you want the right people coming to you, not the wrong people. And I think the more you put out there, the more you share about who you are, your values, where you're going as a business, the types of people that work well within your business. It just be it's a total talent attraction and detraction tool. In a positive way. Does that make sense? You don't want the you want the the right people that buy into you and they will reach out because they'll feel compelled to do it. And I see it all the time. So you're doing a really good job on that front. What does the future hold for you then, Sean? Where you know, what's the most important thing? Let's say over the next 12 months for you, your brother as a business, what's the most important thing to you guys over the next, say, 12 months?

SPEAKER_01: 41:57

I would say building the team. I mean, people have said to me, what's the thing you're most proud of in the last year? And it's the team and getting the right people in place, because you know, clients at the heart, we don't have a business without clients, but we also don't have a business without people. And with the journey we we're going on and where we're going, we cannot do it on our own. So we just need those people. So in 12 months, you know, just want to continue to hire the right people, get the right people in place. And, you know, with that, of course, grow as well, grow our client bank, but grow up grow our client experience constantly, always make sure that we are evolving and offering, you know, just the best thing for clients, really.

SPEAKER_00: 42:38

Fantastic. And what type of person? Let's just break it down here. We know the next 12 months, what are you looking to hire who specifically they could be listening to this episode right now?

SPEAKER_01: 42:47

Yeah, so I mean, I'll first of all say that it's about getting the right people, as I said earlier. So we'll find a position. If you're the right person, we'll find the position. Ideally, we'd love another administrator. It's really hard to find administrators. Um, I mentioned Lee, who's been excellent. Um, so yeah, an administrator would be would be excellent. Probably a power planner at some point. But again, you know, we would love another power planner, and we will need one. And maybe at some point another advisor as well. But again, you know, you could be a trainee like Harry, who's come on. So he's starting in admin and he's got a progression plan to move through. I mean, Aaron, who is our power planner, started off as a training advisor, realized it wasn't for him, and we transitioned him into a power planner, which completely suits him. And he's our he's our main man that does our power planning. So, yeah, it it could be any of those roles. It could be almost anyone, but I would say mainly those three, four in terms of a trainee, yeah, as well.

SPEAKER_00: 43:44

Fantastic. So, career development, we're looking at culture, continuing to improve on that, keep that startup mentality, bringing the right people into business that fill the right gaps so you guys can collectively grow together. Keep that hyper-local feel, make sure your clients are the center of everything you actually do, and that's what it's all about, is giving the client the most amazing experience, and then helping people develop as they go as well. So that sounds like a really strong 12-month plan. And I'm sure that if you implement that, that's going to go incredibly well. But Sean, listen, thanks so much for joining us today on the Financial Plan of Life and just sharing your journey, a bit about you, a bit about your business, the people within it, and where you're going, and most importantly about the culture side of it. I love the fact that you're into Buddhism. I think that's really cool. I've never had anybody on the podcast as well openly sort of talk about that. And I think it's such an attractive trait for a leader within a business to have. And I think it should really sort of attract the right people to your business if you had the same philosophy.

SPEAKER_01: 44:40

Yeah, well, thanks very much for having me. Fantastic. Have a great one. Cheers. Take care. Bye bye.