hello and welcome to SJP advisor stories in this series we interview SJP partners and advisers to share their real life experiences I'm your host G for tit and if you have any questions that you would like to ask an SJP partner or adviser please feel free to comment below or reach out to me on LinkedIn if you enjoyed this episode please subscribe so a very warm welcome to SJP advisor stories to Natasha Percy backer hello it's lovely to have you Natasha thank you for br to spend some time with us thank you for having me oh well we're really excited to understand a bit about your personal Journey um but we're gonna open the show with a question that we ask to everybody which is what does Financial advice mean to you i' say for me it's helping people to better understand and maximize their money um to help them achieve their goals and to be able to enjoy spending the time they have the way they want to I love that sumary brilliant so before we get into the detail of what you're doing now and how you help clients which we will get to what I would really like to do is find out a bit more about you in terms of what you were doing before you came to our Academy and things like that so shall we start there what were you doing before you join the SJP Academy so if I go back to potentially just quickly from uni to like just before I started the academy so I did uh English Lit actually at University uh at UEA so University of East Anglia in Norwich um and then wasn't quite sure what to do next so ended up doing a masters in publishing at City University London um which led to be working in children's publishing uh for six years so the last job I had was as a senior Editor to uh children's publisher in Chelsea and it was lovely and I really enjoyed it and I got to work some amazing books um but then as you do I thought I'd take my career in a completely different direction um and I moved across to corporate finance obviously everyone should do that and um did that for a few years really enjoyed it um but then Co struck and I thought I do a bit of sour searching um and we'll go into a bit more about that kind of s searching and how that led me to it but basically off the back of that uh realized I wanted to be a financial advisor and that led me to sjp's Academy wow so yeah I think we need to go step by step along that journey and that story but fascinating background so from publishing to corporate finance covid struck and you want you knew you wanted to do a bit of soul searching so let's start there what was it that made you realize that Corporate Finance wasn't the job for you I think part of it is I'm someone who's very driven very ambitious and I like to I'm naturally a goal- based person anyway um even though I do that for a living now um and I was kind of sitting down and I was thinking what's my fiveyear plan and I was talking it through with my boss uh throughout the year I uh I initiated reviews actually at that job they weren't doing a previous to me joining the company and I was like no we need to do reviews we need to naturally just do these kind of things um and it was one of those where I thought the job could go in a certain position but with covid um quite a lot of change happened within the company and I'm not very good at kind of sitting back and twiddling my thumbs I'm very like right what's the next task I've managed to you know achieve all these things can we do with it now where can we take it I really like the fact you're kind of pushing things forward and pushing the envelope and things um and then when everything got quiet with Co I was just like okay feel like I need a new challenge plus the fact that I liked the finance side of what I was doing but you're working with corporations which are great and I still do work with some companies now but I prefer the kind of face tof face the um like onetoone interaction um and so I thought I kind of do a bit more s searching to see if there was a way of potentially shifting what I would doing into it being more uh direct I guess with those interactions yeah wow but didn't know exactly what that was at that point NOP no idea and I love The Bravery so you made that decision and I know that you you quit your job before you knew what you wanted to do next and I think for anybody watching that might feel like a very brave step not just because you didn't know what you were doing but for me it's it's that Financial step so how did you prepare yourself for that El so I definitely I I wouldn't say it wasn't like a a spareth the minute decision it's something I've been thinking about for quite a while um and I think oh about nine months before I handed in my notice I thought I might at some point need to have a backup fund I know in the industry we call an emergency fund with my clients I call it a thank goodness fund it's that kind of money that's there it's like oh thank goodness I can kind of you know if you need to take care of someone or go on a random holiday or something is money there that helps you out and for me it was helping me out with transition from what I was doing to exploring it and I did uh talk with my boss about it and he was great he was very much like where are you going and I was like no JY I'm not going anywhere else I just need to um the way I put it is remove the safety net of having a job and I'd been thinking for a while you know it might be that I do a bit of soul searching and I come back and we discussed that and he was open to it thank goodness um but I was like I know that I need to remove any like outside voices or any kind of other opinion so I can focus on what I really want to be doing because I think from quite a young age it's easy to be like you turn to your parents you know what are their jobs what do I want to do or you have like maybe a career coach which we did at school um who sits you down you think where are you going to UNI what's the eventual job and all this stuff and I think I'd never fully sat down and thought what do I want as a job you get a general sense of what you want to do potentially but it's rare that people sit down and go you know certain times into your career is this still what I wanted to do when I first entered my career and I thought right CO's unique hopefully fingers crossed um and I thought this is the time to fully take a chance to assess everything so yes I had the kind of financial uh backing I gave myself I guess um by setting that up and then I was like right let's have the time to to do that soul searching yeah wow so there we were Cod lockdown not much going on outside and you took that time for yourself so where did you start what were your next steps after in that safety net for yourself in terms of a deployed role what did you do next so what I originally thought I might be doing again there Taps into the voices and things earlier my parents thought I should be an accountant because I loved Mass growing up mass in English my two favorite subjects which again I feel is a bit rare um and they were like oh maass we know that's an accountant job so you should be an accountant and I have I I don't I usually say this but yeah I have a um I gave up a monthly facial and um cat who my facialist was like you're not an accountant like that's so not you no offense to any accountants listening um great job my best friend's an accountant um but she was like I think you need something that's a bit more interactive a bit more kind of like you're sitting there having the conversations you're not there doing the analysis basically um and she recommended this book what color is your parachute and oh my gosh so glad she did and I keep telling her this all the time and basically it's a book that I think has been around for about 50 years I'm going to guess not TI of sure they bring out a new iteration every year or every other year and the idea is it has all these worksheets to help you figure out what job suits you and the thing I really liked about it is it took you from where I kind of at school it was very much become rounded so what are you not good at make that better what you're good at you know obviously keep working at it but focus more on becoming that rounded person whereas the books shift that Focus to be like well no what you're not good at and what you don't enjoy let's not focus on that let's focus on what you enjoy what are you passionate about what get you out of bed and then can we find a job where you can do that and you can get paid for it and I was like oh I quite like that as a thought so I was like well what do I really enjoy and it really made me sit down you have to write like full stories of one of you accomplished things that you were proud of and then you have to pick stuff out from the stories and it definitely takes a bit of time I think it took me two weeks without a job just to fully work through it all um obviously you can do it around job if you have one again I would not say to everyone do the root I did you don't have to quit a job to explore things but for me luckily I had the time then to do it and um the way it kind of led to where I'm now is uh my key passions were the top three because again you do about 10 you pick the top ones uh organization I love being organized I have all my notebooks all my kind of things I love it um look very organized behind you there Natasia thank you very much um and the other things that are really passionate for me is successful women I love seeing women you know not just women but I love seeing women succeed I love seeing men's succeed too but I think there's something that I feel inspires me by seeing other people achieve amazing things and grew up in a very competitive household but it was very much like I'm like it's all about cheering those people on who do well as well and I'd rather be in a Rong of people who are all inspiring each other to how can we be better versions how can we achieve more how can we do all these things um so I've always found like non-fiction books are my favorite so any biographies about successful women especially Han Morris I think I've read the books she's written everything really inspiring and then the other thing was Financial understanding I don't think I had a good understanding of Finance growing up I don't think I really did even like a few years ago have a good Financial understanding and I thought it's something that impacts every aspect of our lives but it's not taught in schools it's not something we really talk about friends and family it almost feels like the last taboo and I was like I really like the idea of doing something didn't even know if it was going to be this job but something where you're changing that you're helping people feel more comfortable about their finances and then in the kind of skill section um it was things like communicating which I wasn't at school was not Communicator at school I've really worked on it since and I love it now um leading I'm the oldest of four siblings so I'm used to being a charge um and planning I love having a plan I'm horrendous at last minute if you ask me to do something this evening I'd say no I can't do anything last minute really oh no makes my skin crawl um but a plan I could plan every weekend for a year the whole weeks like that for me is like my happy place love it so it was and again it didn't jump off the page straight away I was like thought I'd figure it out from doing all these kind of worksheets and everything pulling all together on one page um but the next kind of page says okay we'll try mixing things up and see if anything jumps off the page and it was the financial from Financial understanding and it was the planning those came together and literally and it sounds so corny saying but it was a proper like Eureka Mo and it was like oh my gosh this makes so much sense I have no idea what it does you know I don't know how to get into to it I know no one in the space but I love the sound of it that's incredible so the book didn't didn't sort of lead you to you would be good as a financial advisor it really makes you Soul search and you put the dots together and you came up with that and I I love that and just your your energy when you're talking about it I can I can imagine you doing it and being really excited I lit just like oh my gosh and again I'm Sor this very emotive and very uh I can't hide things if I feel a certain way it's very obvious and I was actually like I think I called out to my husband like oh my gosh I found out what it is we need to we go for walk and talk I was like we need to go for walk and talk about it I need to figure out what the next step is I mean my first step was Google basically I feel like that's everyone's first step when you don't know something about something um and that's how I came across uh the financial planner Life podcast with Sam Oak and basically thr for me as history um listening to that I heard about St James Place Academy about how you can get in that way and I like the idea of it being FASTT tracked that really like appealed to me I didn't want to spend the next three years whatever retraining having to like do all the stuff because I was doing the ACA so the accountant exams at while I was doing Corporate Finance I had been in slight rhythm of doing exams but that was potentially three to five years so I really like the idea of being able to do it a lot quicker than that basically great so that was a second tick in the box so this is really appeeling so I can learn quickly so you found the S fin live podcast um and what else did you find did you look at any other opportunities or were you just tunnel vision to SJP how did that feel so yes I was looking at basically anything and everything to get into it I think that was the thing I knew this was the role I just didn't know how to get into it what would be the best for me to get into it and all this kind of stuff so um I was looking other acmy I was looking other routes in potentially going and working somewhere and building myself up from potentially like a power planner um and I found the quilter academy again uh outside of work I like rugby and quilter was sponsoring the Autumn Internationals that year so that's how I kind of came cross them and I was like okay that's that appeals to me um the other thing I liked was on their website they had some uh free learning material uh for some of the modules and so I ended up again as you do hadn't applied to anywhere yet I was just like I just want to quickly learn what I can to at least get an understanding because I think there's always a worry you don't know what in practice it's going to be like I like the idea of financial understanding for people and the power that can have but I didn't didn't know if actually day today I would enjoy it how I imagin it being um but starting to do the like online courses and seeing what it entailed was really kind of confirming that actually yes this is exactly what I be doing um and I remember yeah calling up St James no know what was first I went online uh and requested the prospectus I think two days after I heard about the academy so again this is all happening quite quickly I didn't want to wait around um and uh the next day I'd heard nothing I don't know how long people wait I was like no I'm not waiting um so I called up and um ended up speaking to this lovely guy uh Ken Kong and um I just said look I've request perspectus it's been a day haven't heard anything yet um and he was like well it's not running right now it's co we put it on hold we're trying to figure out how to adjust it with everyone being stuck at home um but we've got a couple events coming up where we're talking to people and if you have any questions let me know and I remember just laughing I was like I have I've got two pages of notes in front of me right now like questions would you mind um and he was great he was like yes we went through every single one um and then he put me in touch with you and then I think I had another two pages of questions that I ended up asking you and I just that for me as a start I really like the idea that you can ask questions and you can have those conversations you're not being fobbed off it's not like oh you know there's this on our website you can figure it out for yourself or we'll come back to you and all this kind of stuff it was very much again instant it was like how can we help you now and even though we're not running the academy we can still talk you through it we can you know share what it will be like as and when you start applying um and yeah I really like that fantastic so we moved at your pace yep we did our best to move at your pace even though you're super fast and so I can very very vividly remember our meeting Natasha and our selection process is ever evolving so it's probably slightly different to when you went through it now but quite quickly after you met with me you would have met one of our selection manag team and that was Charlie Charlie Brown yep Brown so talk us through what that looked and felt like for you at the time so how long ago did you go through the training it was in covid right it was just after covid so I first heard about sjp's Academy end of October I think it was literally 26th of October again I don't exactly but I got in my note somewhere um and I think yeah I probably spoke to Charlie a couple of weeks later um and he and I think I don't know if I spoke to you or him but one of you said um I can either wait till there's a date again because everything was being reset up or you can start applying now and we'll let you know as and when there is a date and I remember asking how long did it take and it was five rounds so I was like well we might as well start now and then again I think there's a running theme here um as when we have a date let's go for it and yeah he was really again helpful again I'm someone who has a ton of questions so I was just like right can we talk through what I need to know and I think the biggest thing that Charlie did for me was when I was applying because I didn't have the experience and I didn't know anyone in the space I wanted to join originally as an advisor join a practice have that kind of Mentor above me who I can learn from and kind of get a general sense of how things operate but without the added stress of wearing every hat within a business and um being to just build focus on the actual Financial Planning and you know meeting with clients as opposed to marketing and costs and um hiring and all the other kind of other things potentially come running your practice and when it came to doing the business plan to the third stage um I like the second stage as well because I feel like that really talked about what to expect and what was coming up and it was a nice chance to meet other people applying as well so it was good to see what kind of a mixture of people there were applying um and that really appealed to me I like the idea it was a mixture of Ages gender um career backgrounds and it wasn't it didn't feel like there was just like a cookie cutter it wasn't like one mold it was like all these different people were coming in like quite that really appealed to me I didn't feel like I wasn't the right person for IT effectively um um and then yes so when we're doing the business plan I said well how do you want me to write it because I've been told and again it's probably changed since then you either write it with the practice you're joining or you write as if you're setting yourself up and I don't know who I'm joining because I don't have that connection and he said to write it as if I was joining a practice um well as if I was setting myself up and then they would send it out to practices as a kind of like a pitching deck I guess um again that's Corporate Finance you have a pitching desk and you send it out um and so I did that so I wrote it as a I was setting myself up and I thought what would my name be and you know break it down into um I remember we had to do I don't know if they still do this now but a SWAT analysis on yourself so strengths weaknesses opportunities and threats and I remember thinking at the time well if I'm going to do it for myself I might as well do it for SJP too because you know it's the partnership and we're both going to be analyzed by the clients I sit opposite and I don't think Charlie said many people have done that before and I was like well I want to know you know fully what I'm getting myself into um and I fully even wrote down the cost my first second Maybe third I can't really I think third year and I knew it was going to go up because you get quite a bit covered at the start and it's potentially like 50% cost so i' done all of that as well I'm going to do sounding exercises again I don't know that still happens I think to do about 10 or 15 and i' got again Keen bean I done about 25 I like know I want to gather as much kind of market research as I can um and Charlie was the one who said right you're not you know you're not joining a practice you're setting yourself up and I was like Wella Charlie we've had this conversation like it's not like you're a new person you know this and honestly life-changing and I'm so glad he suggested it I did need a couple of weeks to think it through and talk it through with my other half and uh spoke to my granny actually my favorite family member feel like she's like The Matriarch or like wisdom of the family and she was complete opposite to my husband she was like terrible idea do not do it um which I don't think I've told you this and was very like um too risky and amazingly she came back to me about a year after I joined the academy and said I made a complete mistake I think this is the best decision decision you've made and she is not a woman to apologize so I was quite taking so what did your husband say in contrast then so yeah he was super supportive he was like look you haven't been working for the last I don't know what it was at this point three months you're still treating it like a job you're at your desk by 9: you're working till 5: whether that's writing the business plan uh asking your friends and family for feedback um whether it was doing the quilter online course or I was trying to access stuff through the PFS at that point as well so I was doing um what's it called PFS or something like that which is like their online guidance videos he was like you are fully treating like a job no one's paying you you're making no money at this point you just using the thank goodness fund but you're so passionate about it why wouldn't you like run your own company if this is already what you're doing he's like you're such a self-starter so I was like okay and and generally I didn't ever think I'd run my own company that just like was a bit alien to me but oh my gosh I love it so much yeah it's amazing and I think what's nice about the way JP works is we we obviously believed in you that you had enough to make a success of it and we'll come to that later it isn't an overnight success for anybody no but if you did get to a position down the line where you thought actually I do need the supportable practice you can always join a practice at that point so it doesn't have to be a final decision and if it doesn't work you know that's it it's it's it's a supportive environment where should you have needed to join a practice at any point you could have but but I'm delighted that here you are a year out graduating the academy and you're still in business which is brilliant yes and you mentioned to we had a call the other day just to catch up and you mentioned some of the things that Charlie did in addition to the the business planning and and talking to people is the personality profile what did you learn anything new about yourself during that process yeah I thought it was fascinating so uh I looking back I always thought goals uh like being goal focused was my top scoring thing but actually it turns out I think entrepreneur uh was one of my top scoring ones which kind of threw me looking back then I think I've completely blanked that since um and I'm trying to think actually if you don't mind I've got my notebook my notebook my notebook here so I'm gonna have to quickly flap back and see so yeah top one oh my top one was persuading and influencing okay that's an interesting one didn't think that either um and then yeah presenting and communicating has got to a point now where if I'm at an event I want to be the one up there talking which wasn't me like 10 years ago but now I'm just like oh I want to share my experience I want to share what I know and I know I have so much more to learn and I'm just to start of my journey but I love presenting now and I love talking to people and all that kind of stuff so that's being a big change yeah achieving personal work goals and objectives again I love a plan I love a goal makes so much sense and yeah entrepreneurial commercial thinking was another high-scoring one so yeah that's quite exciting to kind of see but again I think because I'm a goal-based person as much as I enjoy seeing what I was good at is seeing my areas for improvement so I can see what do I need to be working on to help me with this role yeah absolutely so yeah just to to that point then that personality profiler isn't part of the selection process it is part of the feedback which says these are strengths these are weaknesses and we can help you develop any areas and we can work on those things at a time that's right for you so it's sort of bespoken your Learning Journey that's right isn't it so so it's an Insight rather than it being part of the selection criteria okay so when did you hear out that you s of passed the selection process yes so I think I started applying in November yeah and then I heard back on my actual birthday um of all days uh so 25th of January um and yeah it was really A really lovely call from Charlie and he said I've got great news for you but like on three fronts so one was you've been accepted and I was like oh amazing and I was so happy as well because on my final interview beforehand they said oh you'll here back in a few weeks and then by the end of the interview they were like we'll let you know by the end of the week and I was like okay fingers crossed that's a good sign so yeah so one was he being accep in the academy two was I was starting in March which was the first month of intake since pre-co and I was obviously really Keen to get going so I was like fantastic and the third was you being accepted to join as a partner um because they kind of kept that in the air as well they were like we don't know we'll see how we you know feel about it so it was like oh everything I was hoping to get out of it I did so that was a great birthday fantastic and how many of the did you manag to do before you started or did you wait till you join the program so when I was applying they said you had to do once R1 and they did drop it in at the end of that phone call oh by the way you've got just under two months to do too so I was like oh great fine let's see what we can do um so managed to pass both of them first time which was great but the big learn was I had an old Mac at the time I think it was about 10 years old and it wouldn't load their software to watch you as you're doing the exam um so I was on the phone 15 20 minutes for the exam started and then I think at least half an hour after the exam had like TimeWise started and I remember asking on the phone can you please guarantee that I'm not an instant fail because i' seen online that that was the case um and I ended up uh while I was on the phone again they knew I couldn't see a screen or anything my husband came in the room he had a a monitor desktop monitor M laptops um and we ended up doing on his but oh my gosh it was so stressful going into it let alone the fact my exam and I kept leaving to take toilet breaks and not telling me how they were gone for and they just paus a screen being like we'll be back and I'm being like for how long they be like we'll let you know you just sit there being like cool I can't see anything I'm just satting the room where I can't move I can't look around they were very like wary of what you were doing so I think what was meant to be a three hour that might be threes was definitely over an hour and a half longer than it should have been so I was happy that one got past first time and I was like that's I mean that's the thing you an exam it's nerve-wracking enough isn't it without any additional complications so well done and I think now we're out of sort of covid exam centers are open and I think people have the choice of going physically to an exam Cent to do an exam or doing it in your home but like you say that's a really good tip check the tech well in advance so you don't have that challenge but well done so you've done two exams and then you joined the academy and the next three exams were sort of one a month yes yes so started 22nd of March so I think yeah it must have been like April May and June yeah I'm pretty sure that was it and how were they like in terms of difficulty so you you you've done gcc's a levels and degree and you were studying accountancy exam so how did you find them so I will say I think the on are slightly harder um just because there's so many calculations in it and I thought when I was applying to the academy there'd be a lot more mass in this uh job than there is and I remember Charlie being like I don't know why I keep bringing up mass as a strong suit like you don't necessarily need it I was like oh damn it I was ready to like test my mental arithmetic um but no I I think when we were doing it we were all the most afraid of the pension one that's the one we're all quite scared of so I ended up and again this is me being organized um I have an app that I don't use that much but I do when I get stuck on something and it's a mind map app so you draw like a spidergram in the middle and then you've got all these little things coming off it and I did it for the pension exam so I had all the modules for pensions coming off it so DB DC different DC different way to access it um what were a changes all this and I ended up um mentioning it in one of our lessons uh workshops with the rest of my intake and U they all requested it so I ended up taking screenshots and sending it to all of them one of them was like and it's rainbow colored as well and one of them was like I am 100% printing that and putting it on my wall and someone else was like side hustle sorted just like sell that I was like okay that did take like a couple of weeks to create but I still refer back to it I love the fact that penss is generally not my favorite area I love it so much even though it is ridiculously compc at at times um but I really like the fact that I took the time to understand it and have that to refer back to um so I think yeah some of them are definitely harder than others but just find a learning technique that works for you and nice visuals works for me love that brilliant um so what would you say so exam's okay for you which is good to hear and I'd like to say actually for for others that might be watching there could be people that aren't like you who haven't done an exam for some time and I think those first two exams that you sit before you join are a good little litness test aren't they to say gosh can I get myself back into the flow of remembering things for exams but yeah I think you find your flow and um once you're in the academy there's there's lots of help and support and how did you find like Redmill the system which helps you with there's videos to watch in there and all sorts of different ways to learn was that helpful so the one thing I remember and I have to been if it was Redmill or somewhere else was um audio of uh preparing for the exams and that worked really well for me i' go for a walk outside and I just listen to them over and over and they had questions at the end so it was really good of recapping of being like well did I remember that information um and the other thing I really love as well is um get I should mention this or not but uh BTS uh is a type of training and they ask questions exactly how they're ask in the exam so I found that really helpful as well um and then it gives a full like long paragraph about why something was right or wrong um so I think for me it was just like setting so much time aside to be doing the questions so it's really good to be reading it and doing it and I like to have Redmill broke it down week by week so it made it a lot uh kind of easier to digest chunks rather than just one of the kind of the books which is like what full door stop in itself um so I like the fact it was broken down a nicer way and I like the fact that there there feels like there's so many different ways yet of accessing the information now so whatever works for you there's different formats absolutely um and so was your Academy was it all virtual because of Co it so I think the training changed slightly since you you did that but you went from qualifications then into skills so yeah the first three months was all about the exams and then the second three months was all yeah about how to run meetings um uh I don't know if you guys still do this we all got like posted out cards um that had all the kind of like case studies on them and that kind of stuff uh because yeah we didn't see each other until uh the ACM January the year off after um so yes the second half was all about online videos showing how people had those meetings um and just kind of doing case studies with each other and kind of testing things and again the way I work I remember the first time it came up uh when we were watching all the videos making notes and I ended up doing and my ADM was Gary porn he remember cracking up at me uh a 15 page script of what I would do for each scenario so one page was like saving and investing one was like pensions one was protection and it was everything from like hi how are you and I always have said from the get-go I always ask two meet uh two questions start of every meeting and one is you know what would be a successful outcome from today I always want to dress out the star so I can make sure at the end I always reflect back and go did we you know help to achieve that and the other one is always you know what is your experience coming into it or what made you kind of do this today so again you're building that understanding and Gary was like I love kind of what you've got in there but let's not have a 15 page script like that's a bit too much and again being the kind of fast tra person I am by the end of that week I had on one page of bullet points and I love it I still refer back to it every now and then when I'm feeling a bit lack of confidence or just like oh my gosh did I do the right thing there it's nice to have that to refer back to wow I love it and just your approach to everything very organized and you know you make sure you give yourself the best opportunity when you're going into things and I think that's a really great lesson for people uh listening to this so so we've been through exams we've been through a bit of skills training um the next thing I guess on your list is how on Earth do I find my first client yeah yeah I I get ask this quite a lot actually now um so for me I again being me threw myself straight in the deep end so I didn't speak 20 friends or family I spoke to someone that my facialist cat had referred to me never met her before didn't really know much about her background but actually I quite enjoyed it because it was fully on the spot and what I felt like a real situation would be she was like not calling any punches um and I do remember again Gary pull my ADM being like Oh youve just like fully gone in the deep in there you could have like had friends and family and I was like to be honest she's probably nicer than my friends and family they probably would punches about um and uh so yeah I think it was quite good but I think it was one of those where it's just just get yourself out there and don't expect to be the best from the get-go like I am still figuring out how to H my technique even though I've had that full script and everything and I think it's one of those where just the more you do it the better it gets so just expect for the first few to not be the best you're not g to look back and be like oh I was amazing from the get-go amazing if you are um but it is like okay this is a chance for me to just H my technique to run through things you're being observed so you've got that kind of backup I guess there as well yeah somebody else is in the room with you who isied I think in one of my first few I was like oh I feel terrible saying this but I'm completely stomped and I'd rather be honest up front I can't remember you know what exactly the right document is for that or I can't remember what it was uh to explain something or something like that and Gary did step in and explained it but luckily again because I'm so upfront I was they knew I was new to it I wasn't pretending I've been doing this for years I was very much like I want to do the best I possibly can for you if there's any point in the meeting I don't feel that I'm giving you the best I might ask my my ADM to step in and help me with something to give you the best experience here and I think they appreciated that honesty I was like want to do my best for you but I'm still very new and I'm still trying to figure it all out and there is a lot of different things to be thinking about and even like gosh I don't dare anymore but like Dairy I think was what we were taught on the course in terms of analyzing what someone needs afterwards and I'd be like can you just have a tea or can you just grab some biscuits I just need to like fully like figure this out like the cogs were just so slow um which luckily they're not anymore but it's having you know again I've been told by one of my SJP buddies she's like you need to build your confidence and that's something I've been working on a lot throughout this year and I think that was the thing is I just didn't want to make a mistake I was so like I'd rather go slow than make the wrong call or the wrong thing and I think it's just having people who are understanding of that and I've always been quite big at vetting my vetting my clients don't that's the right word to use but I personality is the biggest thing when I'm thinking about clients I want clients for the next 30 Years so I want them to be people I could happily see all the time whether that's in a meeting or for a catchup yeah oh thank you Natasha I love your honesty and and I think like you say it's always the best way to approach a meeting just be super upfront I am new to this I'm gonna do my absolute best and if I need help luckily I've got this great person right next to me who's going to get us to do you know everything that we need to do so super way to approach it um so cat sounds amazing by the way she makes you look the way you do tick she helped with your career change and she got you your first client I love her she's amazing so um so how do so how did you find so what's the advice within your business plan or like how do you then grow your business from that first experience with a client so I think for me I'm still very much uh more initial meetings in the sense of growing it as opposed to referrals and I know quite a lot of people who are up to that point now where a lot of the clients are just coming off the back of referrals and I do want to get to that point but for me all off we've initially met somewhere so I'm doing a lot of networking again I don't know if they still do this in the academy but they gave us a monthly activity tracker um which I don't know how many of my intake are doing it I spoken to a few not many are far I was aware but again being who I am I do it every single month and I love it um and it just really helps to kind of see well what is translating to other stuff so in my first so I launched first November 2021 so I originally was doing my year year till the end of to Halloween to 31st of October I've now switched it this year for the first time from January to December but yeah in the first year so November October I did 50 networking events so that could have been things like um go I joined a few members Club so I was going there and they were doing like events about startups or um well one was more startup Club kind of thing the other one was very much more uh do you want to make jewelry or do you want to come do all this kind of stuff so it's quite an interesting mixture of things other ones uh God Allbright was quite a good one that's another all members club that I joined had like uh monthly lunches women in finance don't know if they're still doing that but that was really handy the start um and it's just I think putting yourself out there and talking to people um so far this year I think I'm already on 60 70 then that's from January to where now so August start of first week of August um although I've give myself July off I didn't have any networking I think no I had no one networking in July so I gave myself a month off um because it can be quite timec consuming but I love it I think it's really interesting just getting to know other people and again that's probably why I do what I do um and it's a great way to meet people and the one lesson I've learned again that I want to pass on is it's not always the person you meet who might be the client I think that's what I thought originally but now it's very much A lot of people I meet it's it's people they know it's colleagues of them it's their family it's their best friend who's wanted to talk to someone about for ages but they didn't know who to talk refer them to so even if the person you meet isn't necessarily looking for what you're offering they might know quite a few people and that's being my kind of key learn yeah wow and I'm a big grid on my face but just again your your attitude to this so many people might feel uncomfortable you know networking it might be new for them um how did you feel at the start did you get imposter syndrome at all or 100% And even even now like it totally varies so some uh networking I'll go to is feels quite caky it feels like people have gone there with their friends and that's what they're there for um and like I went to a um so I I partnered with hoers bizar earlier this year on an article and I went to an event they did with ver CER which was amazing um a few months ago that was more clicky it was definitely groups of girls just going there to have a great time um but I've been to other events like I've just signed up for a group called the sporting club and it's all about people who love sport um which obviously I do and uh oh my gosh they are the loveliest Bunch like I knew no one in the room and by the end we're all just like chatting Away really welcoming so even now some scenarios I go into and you're just like okay this isn't quite the event I thought it was going to be it's more just people spending time with their friends um and that's fine it's just still fun to go to um and I did actually connect with two people there but you one of those and um other ones you end up chatting to so many people and making so many things so I think it's not worrying when you go in it's just being open to whatever it is and not maybe having preconceptions of what it might be like I think the thing is if it's networking you're all there to meet each other usually so just be open to that I love it and it sounds like you you've made it your own in terms of the types of things you've been to they all sound super interesting to me and maybe not what I would imagine networking to be so it doesn't have to just be the local business Network in your village it could be like you just said sports or whatever it is that you're already passionate about go and spend time with people who are also passionate about that and then it will feel like so much more fun uh well congratulations on your attitude to um empowering yourself to just go along to those things and Brilliant things have come from it so your collaboration with the magazines have come from I mean that is amazing so congratulations that was one of my New Year's resolutions quite happy with that I love it we're g to come on to your your goals in just a moment so before we get to that then you mentioned Gary your Academy development manager do you want to tell us a little bit about the support that you that everybody gets when they come to the academy so everybody gets an academy development manager and also a mentor do you want to share what those two people have been like for you definitely and I think that's something I talked about a lot even when I was applying to the academy what Drew you to the SJP Academy before I joined it and I remember saying I love what I've heard about the support you get so yeah through uh your ADM Academy development manager which for me was Gary Paul um and he basically so everyone serves a slightly different function I guess he was there so if I had any technical things I could kind of go to him and be like Oh I'm notsure about you know the internet which is a bit of my field when you're first starting out you're like oh my gosh everything's everywhere I don't know how to find it um he was great with that and just generally kind of like um got a meeting coming up it's a different uh type of client to what I've done before can we just run through things he was great at doing that kind of stuff so helped me prepare for meetings and we always did a lot of analysis around my meetings what were my key learns what had done well hadn't done well and I really appreciated that feedback that was really kind of one of the key things I thought was really helpful with our uh relationship I guess and then with mentors because I wasn't joining somewhere it was about finding someone who's in a similar position to me so a partner and I think I did a video I think someone mentioned it to me recently they saw my video so I don't if it's still doing the around somewhere but um and it was just kind of talking about why I got into it what I would look for from a mentor effectively and um ended up having a few interviews with different people off the back of it and uh the first one I spoke to actually became my mentor his name is Nigel Helen and um we just really hid it off I really liked um the fact that he was quite new to it as well I think he'd been a partner for about four years back when uh we had our first chat and so he kind of understood what position I was in just joining and what kind of things i' need need to be aware of and to consider um he actually came to my graduation back in June um which was really sweet because he he told me his daughter had just had a first sleepover the night before and he still got on the train came up to London to sters Hall and was there for my graduation so I really appreciate him kind of making the time for that and I know so with Gary it felt a lot more uh regimented I guess so we knew having regular I think it was got every other week checking in I think can't quite remember um and with Nigel I think at the start I tried to be as regiment and I was like right we're going to have Tuesday Mornings every other week we're going to check in but then uh with the academy things were at different times so that was a bit tricky to kind of keep hold of and it's one of those now where we don't have any routine a total to how we catch up but I know as and when even this year if I've have any queries or have anything that I'm not quite sure about he has always picked up the phone that day back to me and just said let let's have a quick chat how can I help you um and he's been really really helpful to have and I would say as well as having those two which are set up like everyone I've spoken to has been really helpful so I've got uh we set up a WhatsApp in our intake so we're still messaging all the time to check how we're doing and there um there's a nightsbridge WhatsApp group that we've got that I send questions to and everyone does to see how changes are coming about and which like things to know um but also generally people SJP I've been for quite a few lunches now with different people uh KN Bridge does different events so we had one at the science museum early this year and it was really like I don't sweet the right word but it was really good can't about a word right now that I thought they got everyone to stand up who hadn't been to a meeting event like that before I hadn't so I was standing up and then they said everyone who sat down look at the people standing up go say hi to them try and connect with them and I thought that was so lovely so there was a guy on the table behind me who'd being s JP for 30 years he came over and said hi and we went for lunch about a month later and he kind of shared his experience and everything like that so I love that sense of community I felt from being with SJP that everyone's connected we've got Unity which is like the women's group um even I'm nice bridge I go to Lombard Street events every now and then and stuff and I feel like yeah there's a really lovely Community I've now got like my SJP buddies I guess who were different to all of those things as well um so in location in nightsbridge I have my best friend there Elliot uh we literally spoken I think every day this week um he's been throwing tons of questions my way so that's been great and um my other one is Charlotte and she's based in Milton ke um and we met one of the night Bridge lunches uh last year and again she's almost like another mental to me I know if I've got any questions I can find them her way um as when she's in London we try and meet up so I love it it feels like on so many different levels beyond what you get through the academy there's so many other kind of friendships and support Networks so you can build with it and I love that it's so nice to you speak about it like that and and that's what your reality is and because you are starting your own business and effectively some people might be fearful of it feeling lonely or um you know you're having to look like find things out for yourself but it doesn't sound like that's the case oh totally I said like to my husband recently it feels like I've got the best of both worlds in the sense that I'm running my own business and I Am My Own Boss which I love and you know I get to work how I want to work and who I want to work with but I'm not alone I have like the family well do you know I've never really been a massive fan a family to do with work I think they're separate things but you have the support around you have that network of whatever it is if it's you know super technical or you just want to pick up the phone and say you know what it's been a really tough week um I just need someone to talk to and have a chat because it is a roller coaster you have weeks that are amazing and you're on a high and you have other weeks you're just like what am I doing what's this the right decision said oh life is so hard this client that I really thought was amazing has turned around and said no and that might have been a not yet or they might just whatever um and it's you never know what's going to come each week which is great and really suits me I really like routine but not repetition and that's what this does as a job but it's having someone whatever comes up you can pick up the phone to and have and even if you don't like speaking on the phone you can text them like it doesn't have to be a phone call but you can just talk to someone and have that chat and that kind of someone to share something with the support that's is there that's fantastic so let's talk a little bit about um what you do for clients because there might be people you know tapping into this podcast like you did your initial research and they're getting excited they're listening to what you're saying so let's paint the picture of the types of things that you do actually do as a financial advisor now you are qualified and out there so in terms of what would I do in a meeting or no not necessarily but typ what are the things that we typically help clients with okay so my favorite document again I love again structure um so I always use the wheel of services document with the client in terms of I think it's a really helpful way of explaining all the different areas we work in and I usually start by talking about protection and explain it as that's the foundation of the house so what people don't understand protection I find in terms of clients they can understand investing they kind of understand pensions as Concepts probably not much more than that but they they've heard of it um but when you talk about protection I feel like they don't fully understand what's available how they're different and all that kind of stuff so I think that's a really kind of key area as an educational piece I say as much as anything with clients that's definitely something I always try and cover on the wheel um and then yeah the other main areas are investing and I'd say pensions for me particularly I have got a few other cases where it's more Estate Planning and trusts and that kind of side of things but typically I'd say it's protection uh pensions and basically Isis or unit trust are the kind of Main areas with clients but again it's nice I always I always talk about from the start of the meeting being like oh I've got this document coming up that shows all the different areas I can help you because when you say you're a wealth manager people assume what that might be but rarely do they know what it actually is and that's why it's quite nice to just be like here are all the different areas of where we can work together and I can help you and again I'm always like whatever you decide today it's not set in stone I'm not going to go back and be like well you said on that day that's it I'm like this is adaptable it changes with you you might have a place that covers all your protection today but if you leave it let's reassess um and likewise with Investments okay you might have had all these Investments you've just bought a house so a lot of that has gone into that so let's reassess it so it's about constantly checking in and seeing what they need from it as well so I'm like this is an ongoing document for us to use I love that thank you I think that's super helpful for people to understand the types of things that you can help and help people with um so you mentioned this already you set yourself is it news resolutions or goals for the year in January both resolutions and goals okay so um what were they and how you how you doing this year do you know actually I have got that notebook open next to me I was like Oh I thought you might ask this I was like right better double check um so top of my list was to get Cyber Essentials certified which for everyone now will be standard but for the rest of us that only came in the end of last year um so that was top of my list I've got cyber Essentials plus and that felt good so that was one tick on my go for the year um another thing was to be in the times brings up every year a list of top rated advisors and the way you make the list is to be on a platform called vouch 4 where clients can leave testimonials and if you get 10 I think it's four and a half or five star reviews in a year then you're on the list I feel very fortunate that all of mine five star so far touchwood um but yes so I've been on that list so I started again first November phew just about managed to get 10 before the end of that year so I managed to make the 22 list I wanted to make 23 happily made it and I'm currently two away from making next year's so I'm trying to get that that will be next year's resolution um I wanted to have a certain amount of assets under management because again when I was going for the and this property change again graduating that potentially was part of it but we didn't know exactly so I was trying to build up towards that but I had a a bigger figure if I'm honest by the end of the year that I wanted to achieve and I just achieved that by the end of July so that was really exciting so I was like yeah and then other things were yeah to build that relationship with Harper bizar I really like the idea of doing things in financial planning that I've not seen be done before and I think that kind of approach I hadn't seen anyone do that before so I really kind of likeed that I'm hoping to do more there um oh social media again I feel like that only just opened up as I join the academy in 2021 and so I'm really trying to build my following online um so I want to reach a th000 followers by the end of the year I started on 500 I think and yeah I just hit that last week so that was really exciting so I'm like come on again another one managed to do before the end of the year so well not the end of year we just past the halfway mark so you're well ahead of your your intended goals so yeah feels really nice and again so these are again I have a notebook right here that's why I'm looking down um of what I set for myself um second of January that's when I wrot it down but I do also have my own business plans as well as doing one when I applied to the academy I've kind of updated it it's now a couple of PowerPoint slides and I check in every quarter on how I'm doing and that's more day-to-day stuff so for me the notebook is more overarching big goals what am I working towards and I have uh my business plan is more well how many again this is what I wrote down my original one how many coffee meetings do I need to be having that lead to CFR meetings that lead to presentations that lead to like clients and effec reviews now as well um and so it's all of that kind of stuff so I have that in my business presentation uh business plan basically to look at and to see that so I've got both the the nitty-gritty I guess the detail of what's actually happening with my business as well as the overarching or what we trying to do to build my reputation I guess and my brand within the industry to try and grow that amazing and you're well on track to achieving all of them and it just past the half year so that's very very inspiring U so you made this this big career change you've worked incredibly hard I think anybody listening to this can tell that you do work very hard to get to where you got to um so what are you most excited about now that you've made this transition about your your future and your family's future so I mean I feel like again there's so much coming up in the pipeline at the moment even before like the year ends so I mean that's about as far as my brain's going right now um I'm currently doing a bsp so for those who don't know it's the selling and purchasing of uh other practices effectively or client lists within SJP um so I'm in uh well I've got the list we're just finalizing it at the moment so we're hoping to do that in the next month or two so that's kind of the next big step in my business is growing it by taking on this other person's list of clients um and then I think at some point and again I was being a bit Keen with this and though I'm being a bit slower is I would like to get charted at some point but I think it does take a lot more work to do that so I want to kind of dedicate I'm going to try and do it within 12 months is what I'm saying to myself again TBC what happens on that front um but I think I'd like to just know that's my year and just fully put everything I can into studying and doing it and I haven't done aside from the internal exams any exams since September last year fully gave myself a bit of a break but I'm like maybe the next year or two maybe three um might get back into trying to do that I really like the fact you got that next level of knowledge um so that's definitely something I want to try and do the next five years and further out than that the big decision that I'm going to take a quite well probably to decide is whether I stay as like a I'm not sure about phrase but a oneman band so effectiv it's just me with some more kind of support or if I take it in the extent of growing it out and taking on advisors and having it more as a like a business separate I guess to me so that's the the longer term plan I'm trying to figure those two out but for me that's a while off I feel like I've still got so much I'm trying to do shorter term that we'll come back to that at some point I love that all of those opportunities are available to you at the time that's right for you and um making sure that you're getting the balance right with productivity and funding your life right now versus investing in your future um but that sounds brilliant and I have no doubt you'll achieve all of those things Natasha so good luck so final question is um for people watching who may be in the position that you were back in 2020 what piece of advice would you give them um if they're looking to explore this as an opportunity themselves so the best thing I think I heard when I was in the academy the one that really stuck with me is BBQ um and what that means is be bra quicker so it's the idea that this might be something that scares you or you might not be entirely sure about how to approach it how you're going to kind of whether that's the academy or after the academy and it's the idea of just pushing yourself a little bit outside your comfort zone because that's how you grow it is by taking a slight step out and doing something that right now might scare you and oh my gosh if I look back there's so many things over the last two three years that have been terrifying but it's just thinking you know let's try it let's see what happens and just giving yourself that chance to explore it and see what's possible and by doing that you grow your confidence and your comfort zone and I think that's a really kind of uh important way of approaching life well I think you are the examply example of doing exactly that being brave quicker getting outside your comfort zone embracing the things that you know on paper make sense for you to do and you've just gone out there and done it and the success is theming through you right now with your confidence levels and where you've got to in your business much quicker than you thought you would so um a shiny example to everybody watching so thank you so much Natasha for being with us today sharing your experience with us and your valuable insights um I hope everybody watching has found it useful thank you very much J it's been wonderful