The fact we’ve undertaken a graduate intake is relevant to this Eclipse edition for reasons that will become clear shortly...
The other thing I’ve done this week (it’s been a busy one!) is host one of our adviser bootcamps, the first one we’ve ever done in Edinburgh! One of my favourite cities, and the haggis bon bons served over lunch only helped cement that.
We had the usual inspiring conversations with those considering starting their own advice firm: what is driving them to ponder it, what they want to build, how they want to help their clients etc. We then had
Keith Boyes, from
Spentwell come in to share his experience. Ostensibly he was there to discuss the realities of running a DA firm, having set his up in 2019, but I actually personally took so much more from what he shared than just this (although he was very insightful on the DA front too!).
Some of my personal takeaways were:
- Keith spoke with such enjoyment of the role of a financial adviser. He described his “job” as being like a little Yoda sat on the shoulders of his clients, helping to guide them through their lives and take away the worry and stress for them. Seriously, what other job could provide that level of impact and fuzzy feels??
- I also liked that he didn’t refer to himself as a “one man band” - but instead as a solopreneur. Disclaimer: solopreneur isn’t my favourite adjective in the world 🤣 But I liked it as it was him viewing himself as businessman - not only an adviser. “One man band” is obviously an outdated term now, not just because it’s not only men running advice businesses (durrr) but because it looks at it solely through the lens of being an adviser, rather than being a business owner. We talk regularly about the importance of that distinction and the wide ranging benefits to finance as a whole when we operate a bunch of serious businesses, that just so happen to give advice.
- My other takeaway was his approach to marketing. Have a look on his LinkedIn to see the recent exhibition at the Ideal Home Show in Edinburgh (not your usual adviser marketing strategy!) as well as the Masterclasses he does with prospects.
He is taking the time to sit and think about the stuff that he enjoys doing and what will find him clients that he will fit well with, then in doing that; he's not intentionally swimming against the general tide, but instead finding his own path and doing stuff that makes sense for him and his business.
- The final part for me was that he gives so much back in free time (to other advisers as well as general people with an interest in their personal finance) and genuinely has no issue with the philanthropic side of sharing ideas, wisdom, time and knowledge, as he believes that will benefit the financial services sector overall - and I couldn’t agree more.
The link with us running our Grad Scheme assessment day is that, whenever we do these I'm reminded of the imperative of actively evolving financial services (as all sectors need to evolve, and never more so than in our AI world). And sitting in a room with one adviser who has totally evolved the traditional practice of running an advice business (as per the points above) along with a bunch of advisers looking to start their firms and change things up, adding in a bunch of fresh faced grads eager to get in and make their mark reminds me of all the change that is happening beneath the surface. Even if sometimes we do still spend 45 minutes on hold to a provider to find out a fund range!
I felt there were a huge number of lessons available both to those brand new potential business-owning advisers in the room and the old hands like me who’ve been floating around with their own business for aeons.
And on that note, I’d just like to wish my first baby, Verve, a very happy birthday! 🥳
I launched it as Para-Sols, an outsourced paraplanning company, back in 2009 so on 1
st June it turned
17 years old. Which I’m struggling to wrap my head around a bit if I’m honest. I don’t know where the time has gone, but I do know I’ve had the most phenomenal experience and a huge part of that is because of my
amazing team and the incredible people in finance that I’ve got to work with or engage with in some way over the years. Thanks for making my working life and my "job" such a bloody lovely one.
I toasted it last weekend with
a bottle of this; global warming is bad, but it does make it possible for English sparkling wine to exist, which is good.
You can see below a whole load of our musings (including one from Jo and featuring Neil the pepper guy...), a Tough Mudder challenge, a chunk of CPD and
Transformation tickets. We usually sell out of this by the end of June, so I'd suggest getting signed up soon if you're keen on coming along on 8th September. And don't forget it's completely free for Verve members 🤗
Have a wonderful weekend all,
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