Financial Planner Life Podcast
Welcome to The Financial Planner Life Podcast. We cover an intimate and honest account of what it’s really like to work in the financial planning profession.
Our guests share their stories of success, failures and learnings, as well as what to expect from a career in the financial planning profession! We host guests at various stages in their careers, as well as multiple roles to ensure that our audience has a variety each week.
Financial planners, business owners, paraplanners and back-office staff all have their own story to share, and The Financial Planner Life podcast is a platform for them to talk about their personal and professional journey. The podcast covers a multitude of topics, from mindset and motivation, health and wellbeing all the way to diversity and inclusion.
We approach each episode with the idea that it is going to educate and spark a conversation within the industry with topics that may not be openly discussed. So, if you are thinking of becoming a financial adviser, or you’re curious about learning more about this brilliant sector, we urge you to give the podcast a listen.
The Host: Sam Oakes is the host of The Financial Planner Life Podcast. since 2008 Sam has been supporting leading national and global financial planning firms in finding the best talent, he was the director of Recruit UK, a 7 figure turnover financial planning recruitment company that he successfully exited in 2024, Sam now works as the Head of Creative for Hoxton Capital Managment, building out podcasts, YouTube and social content for this fast growing fee based international financial planning firm.
Sam has always had a passion for financial services, starting out as a trainer for leading product provider in the UK, he has been in the industry for over 20 years.
He sees himself as a partner to the industry and wants to contribute useful resources such as this podcast to educate those further who are seeking advice and help about how to push their careers forward in this amazing profession.
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Financial Planner Life Podcast
Building an International Financial Planning Business with $2bil AUM in 6 years! Chris Ball of Hoxton Capital Management
Curious about the international Financial planning space?
Join us for an exclusive conversation with Chris Ball, CEO of Hoxton Capital Management, as he shares the impressive journey of evolving from a business set up at his kitchen table, to a client-centric financial planning powerhouse with over 250 staff in 6 countries, including the UK.
Sam Oakes was so impressed with Chris, and Hoxton Capital Management, that he decided to join the company as Head of Creative!
in this episode, Chris reveals the company's strategic growth, including navigating the challenges of 2022 and 2023, and the pivotal role of a cohesive team in achieving sustainable expansion. Gain insights into the promotion of key talent and the exciting momentum building up for 2024.
Listen as we explore the complexities of international regulatory compliance and the meticulous efforts made by Hoxton Capital to adhere to diverse regulations across multiple jurisdictions.
From the UK to Australia and beyond, Chris discusses the importance of specialized compliance teams and the rigorous processes they implement to ensure business integrity. ]
We also delve into Hoxton’s strategic acquisitions of Independent Financial Advisors (IFAs) in the UK, emphasising the satisfaction of maintaining long-standing client relationships and establishing a credible local presence complemented by global expertise.
Discover how Hoxton Wealth is revolutionizing the financial planning experience with homegrown innovative tools like the Matrix CRM system and the Hoxton Wealth app. These platforms offer real-time financial insights, enabling clients to manage their wealth proactively.
Chris elaborates on how the firm’s commitment to efficiency and transparency shapes the client experience. Finally, we discuss future opportunities, the significance of leaning into one’s strengths and passions, and the collaborative spirit driving the profession forward.
Don't miss this in-depth look at building a successful and professional future in international financial advice.
be sure to reach out to Sam Oakes if you are interested in joining Hoxton.
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Whether you are looking to become a paraplanner, administrator, mortgage and protection adviser or financial planner, the Financial Planner Life Academy is for you.
With limited entry-level job roles, giving yourself the best financial planning career education, will not only kick start your financial planning journey with relevant qualifications and skills, but it’ll also help you achieve success much faster.&nbs
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And today's guest on the Financial Planner Life podcast is Chris Ball, ceo of Hoxton Capital Management here in Dubai, and it's extra special because I'm now working at Hoxton. I like to call these podcasts the Hoxton Life, so we're going to talk about what's changed in the last three years since Chris has been on my podcast what the international market looks like, what is his vision for the future. This is a fantastic episode if you're interested in learning more about Hoxton and the international advice market. So, chris, how cool is this? You're back back on the financial planner life podcast. Three years ago was your first appearance, and who would have thought I'd be sitting in dubai with you in this fantastic studio, with this great view? Not only that, I am now head of creative for your business, hoxton capital, so technically, you're my boss. I work for you technically.
sam oakes :Technically, yeah, working on that one, yeah, exactly well, it's weird, man, because, like, I've been running my own business for 15 years, so to come in and then be employed is strange, um, but I did my due diligence in the market and I've done my due diligence and the people who run the businesses within financial planning now internationally. So when I came in, we connected and we spoke about your vision for what you want to build here at Hoxton to be the number one international financial planning business. It really struck a chord with me. Whilst I've been running a recruitment business it's now sold and building out the financial planner life podcast in the back of my mind. I've always had a burning ambition to want to build a financial planning practice. So your vision, your innovation, everything you're doing and we're going to learn about that today on the podcast struck a chord with me. So, as you said, get on the bus, sam, and let's work it out.
sam oakes :So here I am, I'm on the bus, I'm in Dubai and I'm getting stuck in, and we're getting stuck in with the podcast today to learn exactly about your journey since the last time we spoke and where we're going to be going on the Hoxton bus. You up for it? I'm very much up for it. Yes, indeed Fantastic. I'll tell you what, chris. So three years ago you were on the podcast. Tell us a little bit about what's happened in that three years. What changes have happened? What big things have happened at Hoxton?
Chris Ball:A lot. A lot's happened since we last spoke three years I think, as a business. Obviously, you know it's 50% or an extra 100%. You know it was only three years old when you first started talking to us and now we're six years old, still very much in our you know infancy in terms of growing and in terms of building the business. But I'd like to feel that we're much more established. We've changed the track of the business in terms of the advice that we've given to much more holistic, much more client-led in terms of actually financially planning. We were very geared to pension transfers for expats three years ago and now, obviously, that market is not there. We've realized that actually there's a lot more to financial planning and it's enabled us to really grow as a business. We've taken on a lot of great people. So we're now 248. I can't remember what it was last time. I suppose it would have been less yet, but we was also. We've also been more than 248 during that time as well.
Chris Ball:So you know anyone in the financial planning, you know anyone in the financial planning profession will tell you 2022, 2023 were tough years. You know. Markets were down, interest rates went up. It was a tough time to be a financial advisor and I feel now, in 2024, we're in a really positive space. There's a lot of good momentum behind what we're doing and behind the general profession as well. It's a good time to be a financial advisor. So you know we've we've cut and we've trimmed in in the places that we needed to.
Chris Ball:Um, I think, like with any fast-growing business, that's always a worry. You know you grow really quickly and can you sustain that, and also you also you know you become fat in certain areas and you overlook certain things. So it was a really good chance for us to reflect and to make sure that the business was good. We got some fantastically you know brilliant people that work for the business. Obviously, you would just hide yourself, which is great, and we'll include you in that, of course, but you know the advisor talent that we've been focusing on. Chartered financial planners I know we'll talk about maybe one of them later that's coming to run our uk offices.
Chris Ball:Jacob's been promoted to head of advice. He's probably one of the most caring people I know and you know we've got a really, really good quality team of people that have been with us for a long time as well, and I think that's what a lot of people worry about is, you know what may it might work out, might not work out for me, um, at hoxton, and you know what I would say is our key management team have been there with me pretty much from the start. I mean, alan and paul have been there from pretty much day. Dot Charlie's come in and, you know, hope he doesn't go anywhere because I'd be lost without him. Christine has been with me for, you know, coming up, it must be 10, 11 years now.
Chris Ball:Julie and HR, everyone that is on the bus that is doing a good job, will continue to be on there as long as they want to and, as you know, as long as we're all working together, we're a team. Together we're a team. We're not a family, um, but you know that's important because we all want great team players around us and we all want to push in the right direction.
sam oakes :You said you're a team, not a family. Yeah, I never massively liked the term family yeah someone described my business as a family. It's not a family. No, it's a team. Why, why are you so distinct about that?
Chris Ball:um, because I think in the team you have to pull your weight. In a family you can drag along, and I think that's unfair to everyone else in the business as well. If you're not doing your job that you've been brought in to do, that really impacts everyone else within the business. Yeah, um, you know that unfortunately drags other people down and doesn't enable them to do it. There's, you know there's a really interesting uh, reed hastings, you know who runs uh netflix. He um made a um. You know he made a really good point.
Chris Ball:They they cut a lot of people and they were really worried about the productivity. But the people they cut they found out were actually slowing down everyone else within the business because, you know, it's not just the one person does one thing, it's multiple people do multiple things. Um, and they interact, and how they interact is how well they do. If this side is lagging, it doesn't enable you to do your job well. So you know it was, as any business, any growth, anything that what you do.
Chris Ball:You learn by experience, and not everything always works out. How you envisage it to what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. But you've got to be able to look into the distance and say what is right for the business. You have to take sometimes emotion out of it. I might really like the person, but if it's tough and they're not doing what they need to do, then you need to have a serious conversation. If they don't manage to sort out the issues, then it has to be time to part ways, and that's good for them because they hopefully will go and do something that they want to do well going forward, but it's also important for the business to continue to grow.
sam oakes :So that's what I mean long way of describing it team versus family yeah, and I also love the fact that you've got a leadership team and the leadership team is very diverse, yeah, and also in that leadership team, everybody's doing something different. Yeah, they all have a skill set. But one of the things I've noticed very early on, it almost feels like shades of gray because they're all kind of quite interlinked as well. So certain types of personalities, it's like it's like a rainbow, if you like, of a leadership team. Yeah, it's like everybody's kind of complementing each other, but they're actually quite closely linked. So you've picked your leadership team really really well. Yeah, it seems to connect. You haven't got anybody out there who's just completely rogue. Yeah, everyone seems to be working as a team, working as a unit no one's a maverick yeah, I can move through it really easily.
sam oakes :But each time you move through it really easily, that person's got a huge skill set that I'm not experienced in, so I can lean really, really quickly. If I want to talk about I don't finance charlie's there, you know he's the man around finance. If I want to talk about, about operation strategy, bang over to you. You're like Sam, sit down, we're going to work this out. Jake massively empathic, isn't he? He's like a great guy. You know that. He knows everything that's going on with each and every one of those people that are in that business. You know, paul, what a great guy when it comes to compliance. Like, I'm really looking, because I think people on the outside right look at the international market and have kind of poo-pooed it massively based on what they hear on Facebook groups. Look, historically, there's some bad things that might have happened. Right, running an international business, you've got six jurisdictions, six different types of regulators. Right, yeah, yeah. So you can imagine running a business in the UK with the fca breathing down your neck.
Chris Ball:You've got six yeah, I mean, look, regulation's a good thing, number one, we all know that. But we all know it's hard work. So anyone in the uk will tell you that dealing with all of the regulations that you have to make sure that you adhere to to be able to operate correctly and successfully as a financial advisor or building your business in the uk, it's tough. It's not an easy option. Now you times that by six, you know that takes a certain skill set and a certain person to be able to do that. Thankfully that's not me. Thankfully that is Paul who is that person. But it's about identifying the people that do well in those roles. I mean, paul is so multifaceted in terms of his ability to be able to get understand in the different jurisdictions what's needed and what's not needed. He didn't have that when he came to us. He's developed that over time but he's rapidly done it, as we've rapidly scaled as well. And also, you know we employ experts in the region. So in UK, got a head of compliance who's just focusing on the UK with, you know, three file checkers underneath In Australia, we got a head of compliance who's just focusing on the UK with, you know, three file checkers underneath In Australia. We have a head of compliance In the US. We actually outsource our compliance to a company and the person that deals with us in that company used to work for the SEC Locally. Paul was an expert with ESCA and DIFC, with the DFSA, you know, which is something obviously we'll touch on in a minute. But we've got a lot of bases covered in Europe. We outsource that as well.
Chris Ball:So you know it's it's not kind of there's one person just trying to look after and pretend they know everything. It's about taking it seriously, sam, because if you don't get that part of the business right, everything fails very, very quickly. Compliance any financial planner will tell you now is such an important part. Now, it shouldn't be everything, but it's one of the foundations, it's one of the building blocks. If you don't get that right, you have not got a financial plan in business. You are, you know you are putting your business at risk, you're putting the people's jobs that work for you at risk and you're putting your clients at risk, which no one wants to do under any circumstance. So we spend seven figures a year on compliance across the business and you know that's the scale that we operate, that's the investment that we do, but we don't see it as a cost. It is an investment into making sure that our business is valuable going forward.
sam oakes :Something happened, didn't it, in the last couple of years. You're put under a bit of pressure. Tell us a little bit about that, because I think that yeah pays testament then to the actual business and the strength. Yeah look, I mean you know we were.
Chris Ball:We're all very, uh, familiar I won't name names for, but I'm sure I've seen the person where so bright advisors. When that happened the debacle that happened there regulators around the world were all of a sudden very, very interested in companies that operated internationally. It was last year, kind of march, april time. We got a knock on the door from one regulator. Then three or four weeks afterwards, we got a knock on the door from one regulator. Then three or four weeks afterwards we got a knock on the door from the other, and another, and another. So we had four regulatory inspections last year in terms of scratching beneath what we were doing and trying to find out a little bit more about what's going on.
Chris Ball:Number one I don't believe in coincidence. I was thinking what on earth is going on? You know like why four all at the same time? Number two you know. Number two it was anyone that's been through any kind of regulatory oversight or you know, as a big business. Regulators want to understand what's going on in your business. They have every right to. They want to make sure the clients are being treated fairly and looked after, which is what they're there to do. That's their job and that's a good thing. It's stressful because you don't know what you know, you don't know where you are, you know, you don't know why. It's kind of like it's not kind of well, you've done this, this and this you know. You know it was kind of a in and it's an inspection, it's an audit into what you're doing. So we had four knock on the door at the same time.
Chris Ball:We had the sec, we had asic, we had um, we had the fCA and we also had the local regulators, securities and commodities authority, through the different businesses. So, clearly, you know, kind of hindsight 2020, you look back and you go okay, you know. That's the reason why They'd obviously honed into something that was happening there, with Bright maybe, and then they were like right, all the other businesses that operate in that kind of way, we're going to look at more and we're going to check. So we went through that. Paul did an amazing job countless hours, but not just Paul. Multiple people from the business chipped in to make sure that we had all the information, all the management information that they wanted, all of the files. Like you know, it was a lot of work and it would take me all day to name all the people that were there. They know who they are and they've done an amazing job on it. We got through it.
Chris Ball:So sec came back with um. You know they and they and a regulator will always come back with some comments that you can do better. That's a good thing as well. They're not sitting there kind of trying to cut you down. They're sitting there trying to make your business better. Actually, the sec had a, you know had a call with us to onboard us in the US and you know, ask us, we're interested in finding out what we're doing and how we're doing it and show us. You know, these are the mistakes that other companies have made. You know you might want to do this, this and this I mean amazing. A regulator telling you what you should be doing is fantastic.
Chris Ball:Fca, you know, again, we sent files off. We've had check chats with them trying to. You know areas right, that they were slightly unhappy with and you know all the other bits and pieces that go with it. The good news is number one, we're still in business. Number two, no regulatory action across across anything. And number three, we've got a much better insight now into what regulators want. So, while it was really stressful at the time because you're going through all of these things. It's also important to understand that that's not a bad thing. They're going to be interested in what we're doing. We we're international. We're not vanilla. We don't operate how a normal IFA would work in their country of residence. But you know we now have a good working relationship with them. They know we're not out there to try and screw people over.
sam oakes :They know you know they've seen how we're giving advice and what we're doing and you know for me they seem comfortable with it so I'm able to move on it's nice, isn't it, sometimes to put yourself in that state of discomfort, because when you are in a state of discomfort and the scrutiny is on you and the eyes are on you, you learn a lot about what it is you're doing and you might sort of look in at areas where it exposes weaknesses. 100 and it's good.
Chris Ball:It's good for you to feel uncomfortable, right 100 you want to put, like anything you do in life you want to be on the edge of. If you're comfortable, then you're not pushing yourself hard enough. Um, would I have rather not have had them all come in at the same time? Definitely. Would paul not? You know, yes, definitely. But they did, yeah, and ultimately you got to deal with the cards you get given. You know, suck it up, buttercup, it's, get things into shape. And, um, you know, and and make, make the changes.
Chris Ball:If you don't make the changes and you keep messing up on the same point, that's when you got a problem. I bet that built great team morale, mind it did. I mean they can also break teams as well. You know, it's not just because that happens and you all get. If you all get through it, it's great. You slap yourselves on the back, but relationships can be fractured from that process, depending upon how certain people react. I find myself, personally, when I'm under a lot of pressure, I come out actually quite well from it. I tend to be much calmer than if I have a small problem. I can lose it sometimes. Like you know, small thing, you know, but actually big problems when you need to be all grouped together, fantastic team, fantastic mentality, and you know it was really positive the outcome.
sam oakes :And you know we're sitting here today growing our business exponentially, acquiring businesses in the uk and moving forward it's good to hear actually, because big problems for me and it aren't an issue is small ones for me. I've got to be very careful, yeah. A friend of mine used to always say it's the flies you've got to watch out for. Yeah, because they build up and if you don't deal with the flies, another fly will come along, and another one, and all of a sudden you're like oh, it's too much like overwhelm.
sam oakes :Yeah, the small ones, because you minimize them, don't you? You push them away. Yeah, you think yourself. I don't need to think about that right now, because I've got bigger things to think about. And if you don't deal with it, it builds up and another one comes a big problem. Yeah, it becomes, a big problem.
Chris Ball:So the easiest time to put out a fire when it first starts? Yeah, now you don't, obviously. You know prevention is better than cure. Yeah, um, clearly. But you want to put it out as soon as it happens. You don't want to give it oxygen, let it flame and let it turn into something big six years, then you've done really well.
sam oakes :So what's your aum at the moment?
Chris Ball:so aum is just over two billion dollars at the moment, which obviously is, as we've seen, rapid growth. You know, again, that's being holistic. I mean we're up to I think q1 of 2024 uh was about 125 million uh sterling. That was what's that in dollars? 150 million dollars of inflows into the business from? You know all the different areas and the different advisors. We've also, you know, really looking at acquisitions. Now it's acquired three ifas in the uk uh retiring ifas um and started to integrate them into the business. That's been a learning curve as well, again out of our comfort zone, doing something that we haven't done previously but really, really enjoyed that. It's been really satisfying to work with these people who are it's their life's work and you're taking that and integrating it into your business and ensuring the continuity of service. You know these guys have had a personal relationship with some of these people for 20 plus years. They're trusting you to take that forward. It's a big thing yeah really big.
Chris Ball:Thing absolutely.
sam oakes :And also that again you've got to deal with that credibility of the offshore market, the international market coming back, coming now into the uk, which is ifa as well. Everyone needs to understand that you guys are ifa in the uk, right, um, which is a big deal. It's good to be like. It's good to be ifa like um. They robinson would say on my podcast ifa or the highway, yeah, you know that did well that podcast episode, yeah, so it's good for them to what's their reaction when you say, like, you know, we're an international firm yeah, I think some people like it, some people don't.
Chris Ball:I mean a few, you know, ladies business Bartholomew, karen, who who we uh, who we acquired she actually had a few international clients, uh, people that were living abroad, people who maybe wanted that. So actually it fit in really well. And the fact, you know, the fact is, is that as a bigger business and operating across multiple jurisdictions, we have things that others might not. So we've got a tax team, in-house charter tax advisor, chart accountants that sit in our business advising people on tax, not financial advice. We have a legal team that deal with trusts and wills. We have, um, you know, investment advisors. We have financial planners. We have, you know, investment advisors. We have financial planners.
Chris Ball:We have, you know, all the facets of a business under one roof, a financial planning business that you would want, which is really attractive to someone who's been operating as a one-man band and relying on other people. So you know they've embraced it. I mean, obviously it's not for everyone and some people turn around and go. You know the whole international thing doesn't do it for me, but that's cool, you find that out at the start and it's not right for everyone. We can't be everything to everyone but establishing that local footprint and, you know, working with the likes of the person that you've brought in, essentially introduced to the business to run the UK side of it, and Nathan, our director in the UK, been massive, you know, to build out that local presence.
sam oakes :Yeah, you've got. You've got a lovely office as well in st albans, really nice. Yeah, it's great. I know we've been talking about, but I want to say who it is who's joined because I don't know when this podcast is going to be out and we want to kind of announce it properly yeah um, but somebody I've known for quite some time is coming in to head up the uk, and that's fantastic, isn't it?
sam oakes :because having somebody on the ground in the uk who understands the uk markets understands the uk audience, not to say you don't chris, well, I don't, yeah, I haven't operated in that market, let's just know. Yeah, that's, that's. That's the general just call it for what it is.
sam oakes :It's good for you exactly so. Having that person come on in and understand the uk market and start to be able to communicate and build a presence there is going to be huge, and some of the locations we're looking at in respect to building out office spaces, teams, flagship branches of our business it's just going to be amazing like I understand the uk market. I talk to the uk market all the time and I know there's such a huge opportunity. Yeah, for me, though, what's really interesting another reason why I come on board is the international side.
sam oakes :I think sometimes the international, international advice gets played down a little bit too much or gets, like I say, it gets pushed to one side. Yeah, the more you look under the bonnet and the more you understand it, the more huge opportunity there is. The world's becoming a smaller place, and when we're talking about things like the 401ks over in the us, I mean that's just a huge opportunity the sheer volume of wealth in the us, and to sit down with an advisor in the uk who's advising us clients from the uk massive. He's like what. I never really understood that and heard it, and the thing is, I don't think many advisors get it. They kind of push it to one side because they're hyper focused on the uk. Yeah, if they open their mind a little bit to the opportunity of being international, what will that bring them? Yeah, what level of service can they deliver? Do they become an international advisor? Is there a stigma attached to it? Does there need to be? No, I don't think so.
Chris Ball:I think it opens you up to the whole world, agreed I think, how I think of things is global, and that's very fortunate because I've been i'm'm very fortunate in the fact that I've been operating in a global environment for a long time. So the business I last worked for was global. So that's pretty much all I've known. But if you think of big brands, they're global brands. They're not unique to that country. So, you know, the brand that I really like is HSBC. The reason why I like HSBC is it caters for everyone.
Chris Ball:So in the UK you can go into a HSBC branch. It doesn't just mean because they're an international bank, you can only bank with them. If you've got some US assets that you want to, you know, you want them to take custody of, or you want you know to open a US dollar bank account, you can go to them. You can have a sterling bank account. You can deal with them. They're great.
Chris Ball:But on the flip side, they can deal with. They can deal with really small clients. They can deal with really big clients. They can deal with super high net worth clients. Covers the whole spectrum. And that's what we're trying to do with hoxton we're trying to build this global brand but has a local presence in the jurisdiction where you are. Yeah, you know, I, I agree and I think that as an ifa, it's very difficult if you're working with a client that doesn't have, that has an asset that you can't help with, because as an ifa, really to give full advice, you need to have a full picture of their overall wealth. The days of I don't deal with that you know are gone.
Chris Ball:You need to be able to position and help people and, unfortunately, if you can't and you are dealing with people that that do have assets, let's say, in the states, or want to retire to Europe or want to go to Australia to work or whatever it is, you will lose that client fact. They will go, they will find someone who can help them and they will go from there. You know so. For me it doesn't mean just because you're working for an international business. You have to have clients all over the world, far from it. But it gives you the opportunity to offer that service. It gives you the opportunity to attract those type of clients and we all know, you know someone who has worked in the US for a long period of time is highly likely to need clients, financial advice, and your services will be highly valued by that person and they will be really, really important to them and their family's future I think as well the whole like smart move getting the tax under the roof as well.
Chris Ball:Yeah, I mean mark and dan are great. You know mark, older, older guy chart tax advisor early 60s. Dan um, you know early 30s training, learning everything you can off mark to take forward that business over time. Um, you know chart account and chart tax advisor both you know super intelligent guys and they understand the the space that we operate in. They're looking at it not from a well, I need to do your tax return and I can't advise on that. They're looking at this from a international tax understand uk. You understand the European regimes and things like that work with US tax advisors on that side. So they encompass a lot of the things that are needed for how we operate.
sam oakes :You touched on age there. Let's just quickly just touch on that, because you're a young business. Yeah, we are Another reason why I'm attracted to it. To me, a young business isn't, you know, about to exit. You know you're not building up towards an exit, you're looking to put your foot down. Yeah, you've got that growth mentality. So let's just talk about the culture of the business, the age the business, the um, the fact you've got quite a fair few women in the business. It's multicultural. Yeah, you know, you walk through the door. It's multicultural.
Chris Ball:Tell us a little bit about chris yeah, I think it's 16 different nationalities we've got in the business, which is I don't know too many other IFAs that have that We've got 30% of the people in our business are women. Obviously, I'd like that to be closer to 50%. You know something we're actively working on and, you know, trying to build out, but you know that's really important in it. I think you know you. You told me that was 13% of IFAs are female and you know 87% are a male. You know the fact that we're kind of bucking that trend, which is great.
Chris Ball:Average age in our business for an advisor at the moment is 37. Average age for a trainee financial planner is 29, I believe you know it's a young, dynamic business. I'm 37 years old. I'm you know I have no intentions of retiring. Number one because my wife will probably end up divorcing me, you know. Number two, I couldn't think of anything worse than to sit at home on my hands. And number three, I'm really passionate about what I do. I enjoy getting up for work every day. I couldn't imagine exiting and then trying to find my feet and doing something else I really like. Like it, but also to the point was, you know, I realized I might not always be in charge of the business as well. If there's someone better to do it than me I'm, you know I'm happy to hand the reins over and and work with them on that as well.
Chris Ball:So, yeah, so look, I think we're young, we're dynamic, we're utilizing the, the way that the world operates now. We're not an old, stuffy financial planning business. We want to do cool things, you know, like bringing you in as head of creative. That's not a normal ifa, traditional move, that is. You know, that is something that's a little bit forward thinking, maybe a couple of years too late, you know. So, you know, but the fact is we're doing it now and you know the whole purpose of that is to try and elevate our brand, is to try and elevate the advisors, to give them opportunities as well. Um, put the name of our business out there. Obviously, you know love the dynamic that you bring to the business, but they're the kind of things we're thinking about. The technology, you know, which maybe we'll come on to in a bit, but we know where the business will go over time and ultimately, it's really important for us to be making moves forward, not making moves sideways.
sam oakes :Let's jump onto technology, then because you're massively tech focused. Yes, Tell us how many people you've got in your tech team.
Chris Ball:Chris. So we've got 25 developers that work in-house and, you know, led by Mansell. So Mansell is our CTO Insane, really, really great guy. You know, in fact, you know and again that's another profession that there's quite a high turnover. Our very first developer, natch, is still with our business today. Lovely, lovely guy, you know, and we've brought people over from different countries to work, but that's 25 predominantly based here with us.
Chris Ball:We've developed out a backend system, matrix, and we've developed out our frontend system, which is the Hoxton Wealth app, and that's for our clients. The reason why I've had to do it, sam, is because, operating across multiple different territories, it's very, very difficult to find one operating system. It's impossible. There's no operating system for financial planners that operates across all those different uh jurisdictions, so we've had to build it from scratch, which is great. The front end, a lot of tools that advisors use or client portals, are balance sheets, and by that I mean it's a snapshot of the valuation at that point in time. That's it. You know that that's and that's great. Okay, great, I can see my valuation, but what next?
Chris Ball:Well, as a client, I want to go on there and I want to see if I've got enough to retire. I want to see when I can retire and a lot of advisors will do that with cash flow planning. But if they're only seeing you once a quarter, once a year, whatever it is, then you're only doing that once. They want to play around, but in their spare time they're sitting on the couch. We all do it on our phones, looking at you know what, what car I might buy next, what, um, you know where I, what house I want to live. You don't want to go have to go to a car showroom or go to a estate agent. You want to do it there. And then, and it's the same with financial planning I feel that people, more and more going forward, will want to do things quickly.
Chris Ball:We had a really interesting meeting the other day, so we have regular updates, quarterly meetings, on what we're going to be doing over the next three months, reviewing what's happened over the past three months, and one of our things that we want to do is one day client that's, if I say that I want to invest shouldn't have to take 10 weeks to to, you know to for me to be able to decide what's best.
Chris Ball:It should be able to be done in one day and in the age of the information and speed that we have available at our fingertips, we should be able to do that and turn it around. So that is our. You know that is our aim is, if you you were interested in financial planning, you want to move it forward and you were ready at that point, you should be able to do it in a in a manner that works well with you. And you know we want to make that. Whether that's 10 days, whether that's, you know, one day, we want to make it as quick as it can be for you to be able to process, digest the information, obviously, get all that, but for you to be able to take things at your speed, not at the speed that we set.
sam oakes :I love it. Again, another reason why I'm joining, chris. I love hearing you talk about the future. I love hearing you talk about the solutions to problems that people are facing. That's again, I think, the innovation that comes from being in a young, dynamic company. You have that growth mindset that drew me to you. Yeah, you're not. You're definitely not somebody's exiting out, and I love your vision, your north star, of being like an hsbc. Yeah, and ever since you said that to me, I'm like, yeah, I love that, I can think and I can see it, I can visualize it in each and every one of those countries. And each and every one of those countries have a different culture, different client base, a different level of service, and we can play around with those in all those different jurisdictions, but it all sits underneath the hoxton brand and it feels the same, it's joined up yeah, I know I love it.
sam oakes :It's brilliant. Um, you're talking about that bit of technology there, so that's the app, right?
Chris Ball:yeah, yeah, so what's the app called hoxton wealth app? Um, so within there we've got a uh, you know, for the advisors talking I can kind of talk technical jargon. I banned cash flow planning in my office is the word, because could you say cash flow planning to a client? They're like oh, yeah, um. So you know, it's about understand, make, using words that are friendly for clients and that they understand. So we call it wealth flow. Right, so it's a flow of your wealth over time.
Chris Ball:What does that look like and how does that work? What you can do is you can connect all your bank accounts. So you've you've obviously just moved from the uk to dubai, prime example. You're going to have accounts in uk, you know accounts in dubai. You are going to have investments. You're going to have stuff that we might manage. You can have stuff that we don't manage, but you want to see that all in one place. You don't want to be having to log on to six different places to pull off the information and get a view of your net worth.
Chris Ball:So what we enable them to do first of all, is link all of their accounts, and you can link bank accounts. You can link investments, pensions, cars, houses, mortgages, liability, credit cards. Everything can be linked on there. Pull it all in gives you a snapshot of where you are today and we use Wealthflow to define where you want to get to, and then we understand whether you're going to fall short. Then we understand whether you're going to, you know, massively exceed that. So therefore, we need to start looking at legacy planning. You know, the whole idea of wealth flow is to help you understand where you are, and that's the big. You know, the two biggest questions I generally find that clients want to understand is when and how much like when can I retire and how much do I need to have when I retire. You know, we all see these instagram adverts that say or these instagram people talking about you need a million dollars and you need this, and why?
Chris Ball:why? Do I need a million? What? What is that going to be? The whole reason why you need a pot of money is to give you an income later on, maybe to clear off your mortgage, maybe, to you know, fund a couple of other bits and pieces, but the general premise of retirement is built around. I need an income then, to take the income that I'm earning today and to enable me to have the same quality of life. So what do I need to do that?
sam oakes :it's building the habit as well, isn't it? So what we want the client we want the clients to do is to be going into their app all the time, checking on it. You know how is it performing. How's that transparency?
Chris Ball:yeah, you live in an age where you want things now. You don't want to wait three weeks for me to send you a valuation that I've had to request from a provider. They post it to me. You want to see at the touch of a button now. I mean to the point where you might look at deliveroo. Deliveroo can tell you minute by minute how far the food is away from your house. If you live in an age where that is possible, why can't you see real time everything that you have there and then what? There is no reason, no, um, and ultimately that's what we want to get to. We want you know when you become a client. You understand where you are in the process. Like your documents are currently getting compliance reviewed. Your documents, you know, are on their way to you for review. Your meeting is, you know, like, almost like a pizza wheel, but for yeah, like a timeline yeah, for for for clients and you know that that's what we want to get to.
Chris Ball:It's transparency, it's you being able to see where you are and that's you know. Generally, where the most groans come from clients is they will get lost, they don't understand where they are, and for advisors, it's a lot of unnecessary time. You want to be advising clients on how to better their financial future. You don't want to be chasing up a provider and understanding when they're going to process the application form. You don't want to be, you know, not understanding when things are in compliance. And these are all the systems and stuff that we're building to give the client transparency and also the advisor so they can focus on what they want to do.
sam oakes :You've always been process driven, because you're like the one thing I'm learning from you in the short time that I've started working for you. You're you love a process, you love mapping things out, and there's a lot of time and energy in your business that goes into that. Has that come through working with tech people or is that something you've always been able to build out?
Chris Ball:you like a process where you can see where there's opportunity to improve it, for instance yeah, I think it's probably the latter, which is I've always been interested in improving the process, so I like a problem and I like trying to solve it. Yeah, and to do it you need to understand what the process is. To start off, if it's more engineering, if that makes sense, yeah, like engineering the process and maximizing efficiency. I love efficiency, like if things operate efficiently, like if I go into a, if I go into a hotel and I'm checked in and in my room in five minutes, I am buzzing, like that's pretty sad, but you know I'm like that's bloody efficient love that.
Chris Ball:You know I like to be on time for things and that's my personality and I realise that and that's probably where the process driven comes through is. I want to understand what that process looks like and I want to understand is it it optimized as much as it can be to make sure that the person who is benefiting from that process is, you know it is efficient as possible as it can be for that person? It's like you're awake at night. Yeah, it does. I mean I often wake up thinking about I could probably. I could probably save half an hour here, 45 minutes there, yeah, if I did it this way.
Chris Ball:Yeah, sweet it's great because I'm sad. No, it's not you know what.
sam oakes :It's really not sad because I'm learning a lot about you and the more I'm talking to you, the more I learn about you. And I enjoy learning about people because we all, we all operate differently, we all think differently, and it's about recognizing. What can I do to work with that person in partnership and help that person to be content and happy in how they are delivering their job role. Can I add value in any way? And I'm learning it more and more. And I'm learning it about myself as well, which is great, because you know I've never been a. I'm coming in as head of creative mate. I made that role up, didn't I? So I'm quite a creative person.
Chris Ball:It's get on the right, but so I'm quite a creative person. It's get on the right as, like we were saying before, it's get the right people on the bus and then figure out where they sit, and it was about getting you on and making sure that you're comfortable with where you sit. And you know, no doubt the head of creative the actual job role underneath will change over time and evolve as you evolve. That's cool. Yeah, I love that. No issues with that you know it's not a very.
Chris Ball:It's not a regimented thing yeah and I think that sometimes you know actually where people do get confused. It's just because you're process orientated and efficient orientated. It doesn't mean that you are inflexible. Yes, um, ultimately, you know, jim that's jim collins is get the right people on the bus and sit them where they can sit. I mean, that guy's legendary in terms of management, consulting and you know best practices for businesses and stuff like that, but it's you know so. So, true, you were the right person to get on the bus. I saw that. You know and you know. As we say, we haven't talked for three years, but you and I've been catching up multiple points yeah, we have actually touching, yeah, you know, and that's cool as well.
sam oakes :It's like building that relationship, and just because something's not right now doesn't mean it won't be going forward, but the fact that we had that relationship, the fact that you made the bold move to come out, the reason why we're sat here now we always shared ideas, yeah, and I always came to you with something and, like I knew you would listen to it you know I knew if I booked a time into your diary you would entertain my idea yeah, and I pitched loads of things at you to, and because I knew you'd give me feedback and you'd be keen and to hear it as well.
Chris Ball:I think you soak up that information, that's also the credibility that you bring as well, and you don't, you? You earn that credibility and respect. You know, you don't. It's not a given. You know, and the fact you know I think a lot of people need to realize that as well is is that the amount of in post that you will get in your linkedin or I get, you know, people just expecting time, whereas you and I had built a proper relationship over time? And you know, of course I'm gonna listen to what you say. I value what you say. I can see you can add huge value.
Chris Ball:There's a lot of people that don't, unfortunately, and it's yeah it's demonstrating that first which you did.
sam oakes :It's about being honest as well, isn't it? Yeah, you've got to be honest. You've got to kind of lay on the table the areas that you're really really good at and the areas that you need improving on. I never say you're bad at because I'm just like. You definitely can improve everything. Neuroplasticity proves it. With the brain, you are able to develop new neurological pathways and you can change your thinking. I've done that numerous times.
sam oakes :So for me, coming into a business like this I've been entrepreneurial for the last 16 years right, I know my areas of weakness. I can self, I can self-reflect pretty damn well. Yeah, um, I crave that discipline, say, coming into like a business that's way ahead of where I got mine and seeing that it's been done through discipline, process, procedure, it's like, oh, it's like a breath of fresh air to me and to know that I can, I can ask somebody how to put a process in place or to keep me in check. Because I crave that discipline as well, because when you create, if you can run away, everything's shiny, everything's brilliant. You know loads of ideas, but often you have all these ideas you might not get anywhere. Yeah, and being able to come into a business where I can lean into multiple different people who can then help me on that journey and keep me on the on the track.
Chris Ball:If you like, it's like, um, it's like winning the lottery yeah, I think the thing that you hit on there is the discipline and the focus to get it done. Yeah, and that's what a lot of people struggle with, in my opinion, is a lot of people have great ideas and you know, I don't believe that anyone has got the monopoly on good ideas. Yeah, yeah, good ideas are everywhere. The difference between someone with a good idea and someone super successful is that the super successful person will execute that idea, but they will also not be afraid to give things a go. If they fail or don't work out, they will quickly change, make a change to, to recognize it. So fail quickly, um, but you know, I'd like to think that we do provide that, that, um, you know that basis. We do execute. We do say what we're gonna. Uh, you know, if I say I'm gonna do something, I'll do it.
Chris Ball:Yeah, um, and you know it's important to create that atmosphere where people like you can come in, we can work together. You know you're super creative. You've got all these great ideas. There's so much you brought to the table already that you know we've not thought about and different ways of doing things. You want to surround yourself with people like that all the time that are raising the game in the areas that you're weak in and identifying. Like you said, if you have a weakness in an area, yes, you can improve it, but if you want to improve it, the best way to improve it is to surround yourself with people that are much better than you.
sam oakes :It's the quickest way yeah, that is the quickest way. It's hard, isn't it when you're running, like there'll be people listening to this podcast now and they're well, we spoke to a guy yesterday, right, like he had aspirations to run his own business, thought he was a business owner, but it hasn't very quickly because it's taken him a little while to work out that. Okay, maybe I'm not so good at this part, but I'm really love this part, but he's been trying so hard that it's burning him out, and I went through that, you know, and it's burning him out and I went through that, you know, and it's just like when's the time to let go and actually align yourself with other? Yeah, letting go of that, what is it?
Chris Ball:It's like I'm letting go of the it's the fear of failure as well, because you're inbuilt into you that you can't give up and all the rest of it. It's not giving up, it's pivoting. It's only giving up if you and you know and just don't do anything. That, to me, is when you quit. It takes a certain type of person to realize that it's not for them to do something. Yeah, and unfortunately a lot of people, especially in financial planning, become accidental business owners.
Chris Ball:I'm, you know, same in recruitment. It's an industry that's built around. You can go and do it yourself. You just bet you your way or the highway, you know kind of thing, which is great, but it's not you, it's your way. Or the highway you know kind of thing, which is great, but it's not. I mean there's being running a financial planning business I can tell you now is completely different to working in one. You know, just because you're a good financial planner does not mean that you're going to be a good, a good business owner. Just because you, you're a good recruiter doesn't necessarily mean that you're gonna, you know, do uh, be, be a good business owner yourself and and it's it's not a bad thing.
Chris Ball:We need to get away from that. People need to harness what they enjoy and what they want to focus on. If I really like financial planning, what should I be doing? I should be giving. I should be giving financial advice all day, every day. I shouldn't have to be worrying about gabriel returns. I shouldn't have to be worrying about making payments to suppliers. I shouldn't have to be making sure that my QuickBooks account is up to date. I shouldn't be making sure that this advert's in line. Some people actually enjoy that and if you enjoy that, lean into it. But if you don't enjoy it and you just want to do something because you want to be on your own, find the place where you can operate like that.
sam oakes :I love that. That's just kind of hit home. Actually, it's that whole acceptance around the things that you're not so good at acceptance around the things you are good at.
Chris Ball:Spend more time doing the things you're good at and you enjoy. Yeah, you're passionate about it. You're passionate about this yeah doing this. This is what you're super passionate about.
sam oakes :I love. I love creating content, I love meeting people. So, like I'm a visionary as well, I've got growth mindset and I've always got things in my mind I want to do. I'm always a step, I'm always a step ahead, I'm always a future thinker. And with that comes a bit of anxiety sometimes, because you're kind of always thinking, oh god, you know, because you're nervous you're not going to get to the thing that you want to get to. Yeah, it's like a dopamine addiction man. You want to keep going.
sam oakes :So I've got lots of vision in me. Like it's like well, I want to come into I always't want to run a financial advice business. I've already tried to run a business. I'm not a big fan of running a business, you know. So, coming into here, building out content, using that content to now pivot into becoming a key person of influence within the financial planning space. So I'm already that really in the career side.
sam oakes :Now I want to come into it and go right, well, how can I be a key person of influence within the professional connection side? So that's kind of how I see. Like the podcasting now. So we're going to be building out the hoxton podcast, right, the hoxton youtube channel. Who can I connect with on an international basis that establishes us as that key company of influence so we can start driving really good introduced relationships to us. Yeah, so how I see myself in the future is that person a connector and I love it and that's, and I can't wait to get to that point and I can see that here. And because you're at that stage in growth and what you're thinking and how you visualize things, you're not turning around to me saying no, no, I'm staying in your box. Yeah, you're saying come on board, get on the bus and let's drive forward together. I'm excited by that. It's like I met bradley over in thes top bloke, you know really really nice yeah and we really want to build out the us because it's a huge opportunity, huge.
sam oakes :as soon as I started talking to people out there in the us, I got excited. I saw opportunity and it's just like, oh my god, like I visualized the us for a long time and and now I have the opportunity to step over there and play in that sandbox. Yeah, I'm excited like and I sort of want people to understand about Oxfam. I know the market, I've been out there, I've been looking, I've been talking to people. It's an exciting business.
Chris Ball:Yeah, I'd like to think so.
sam oakes :Yeah, it's exciting. Get on board If you are sitting there and you're wearing all those fucking hats, right, and you're pissed off and you're getting home and a financial planner come and join us 100, get on the bus, as we say.
Chris Ball:Right, yeah, get on the bus. And I think number one is just about having the initial chat. Yeah, if you are sitting there at the moment and thinking, you know, fuck, well, I've got to make sure that everyone gets paid, I've got to deal with payroll, I've got to file this gabriel return, like, just have a chat yeah just just sit down and you know it's.
Chris Ball:It might not be for you, might might be completely the opposite to what you want, but until you have that chat, you never know and I think for a lot of people who are feeling like that genuinely, it's a great place because there is endless opportunity. There are not and you know, I don't want to poo-poo anyone else and we can come on to that in a minute. You know the maybe one of the problems with our profession is is poo-pooing what other people do. Yeah, you know, for me it's really, it's really around opera, offering people multiple opportunity. There is not many businesses that you can start in the uk decide. You know what? Do you know what?
Chris Ball:Sam, I want to live in dubai, but I want to service my uk clients. I don't want to give up my uk clients. I actually wouldn't mind living in dubai, coming back and seeing my uk clients and servicing them. I want to service them a bit more remotely now because we can, with the likes of things like teams and zoom and stuff like that, live in the sunshine, all the rest of stuff. Yeah, I want to live in the us, or actually I've got some us clients that I want to work with, or I've got some australian clients that it's endless opportunity and we're not going to restrict you and go. No, you joined here. You must work there yeah that's not going to happen.
Chris Ball:It's really about creating a platform for people to excel and live life the way that they want to live it, which is important, but also for us to be able to work with them to build them up into the advisor they want to be.
sam oakes :Yeah, 100 love it. We talked about poo-pooing there. Yeah, let's touch on it, because one of the things that really attracted me to you as well, like I'm a big um collaboration, not competition man. Yeah, I'd rather learn from people, connect with people, than tear somebody down. It's not my style, it's not your style. No, definitely not. Let's talk about that, like why what does? Why does that get on your tits when?
Chris Ball:well, number one, is shit, like there's no other word for it. I mean, it's like I. So I used to work for kpmg. If we did not win a piece of audit work against ey or tax piece of work, we wouldn't start sending them articles about this other company and, you know, slating them. Have you looked at this? You know, like you, you would go good choice, fair enough. You know where did we fail? What did we do wrong? That meant we didn't win the business. Yeah, it wasn't sitting there slagging everyone off.
Chris Ball:Look, we've got some amazing businesses in the international space. What people also need to remember is the way that companies used to operate is not necessarily the way that companies operate now. I would like to think the international space has become a lot more professional. It's become a lot more well-established. You know, again, talking openly. It's. You know again, talking openly it's. You know, let's say, devir group. I used to work for them for seven years. I have not got a bad word to say about them. You know and I'm not saying last time I said that a lot of people actually on your podcast, a lot of people come back and said he's still working for nigel and I'm not bloody working for nigel. I could guarantee that now, um, but the reason why I say that is is that if you look at the people that started Skybound that was Guardian started life at Devere. If you look at the people that run AHR Group now, they started life at Devere. Holborn Bob definitely didn't start at Devere. Gsb, other businesses a lot of them have started their life off at Devere and Nigel for everything that everyone wants to say about him has created a lot of opportunity for a lot of people.
Chris Ball:People might not agree with the way that you do things. That's cool. Everyone can't do things the same way and it'd be weird if we all did. But you know, and there's some things that there's some things that go on that you know probably shouldn't go on and stuff like that in different businesses. But they're not doing it to be malicious. I believe most of the way they're doing it because they're mistakes or their oversights and things like that.
Chris Ball:And jumping on and trying to attack people. You know it doesn't do our industry and our business or, uh, you know the place that we operate all from and the profession that we all love any good. You just create a crap atmosphere. You create something that is toxic, something that is not good and the only way that we're gonna, you know, move on as a business, attract outside capital, be able to increase our profession and make it.
Chris Ball:You know the qualifications that some of these guys have got now in the international space they're qualified in us, they're qualified in australia, they're qualified in uk, chartered status and stuff like that. That's that needs to be embraced, that needs to be looked at. That's a really cool thing that they've gone and done. That is the new breed of advisor. This whole kind of ex-car salesman coming out and then selling, you know, regular savings plans to everyone is pretty much done and dusted. Yes, you don't survive doing that now, and that is the space that we're operating in and I'm all about making sure that that, you know, gets put on a pedestal and people respect the profession that we're in, because I'm super proud of it, I'm super happy to call myself a financial advisor and I'm super proud of the qualifications I've got, you know, and I'm super proud of all the people that we've put through qualifications and the other companies.
sam oakes :No, I love it. There's loads of people in your business that are highly qualified. I mean lots of the power planners are sitting there as I leave the office at six o'clock. They're sitting there doing their Series 65 training. I mean they're all super pumped to get qualified. They're all really intelligent, young, enthusiastic people that want to be qualified as professionals. Definitely I'm not sitting in an office full of people that are waifs and strays you know, just deserted the UK because they want an easy life.
Chris Ball:Just living a life.
sam oakes :Yeah, they're coming out here to actually be professionals, definitely, and uk because they want an easy life. These are just living a life. Yeah, they're coming out here to actually be professionals definitely. I've been blown away actually by by the quality within the business, for sure. Um, let's just talk about the future then. So where is, where are we going then?
Chris Ball:look, I for us as a business, I want to grow it to be the number one international financial advice business. I want us to be the hsbc of yeah, if financial advice, that is what than anything. And you know, I believe that we can get there. I believe that people massively overestimate what they can do in a year, but massively underestimate what they can do in 10. You know the same from Bill Gates really great quote, I believe. You know, by the end of 2027, we'll be at 5 billion of assets. We will be well along our track of continuing our great organic growth, providing lots of opportunity to other advisors, continuing to develop our US, australian operations, european operations I'd love to have something in Asia by that point too and have hopefully acquired a number of really good UK IFAs and built out that local presence. That's super important to us and that's a real area that we see that we can make a difference in and that we can work with some really great people. And you know, again, we work.
Chris Ball:It's like this kind of secret person that we keep mentioning, but you know his his point is is there's not someone doing it really well in terms of how he sees it and how he visualizes it? And I've really bought into his vision. So my vision that's his vision, uh, and I've really bought into that and I believe that he's the guy to execute that in the uk and I'm super excited about it. Yeah, it doesn't mean that everyone everyone else is doing it is. It is not right, but it's. You know, ultimately it's the we want to do things our way and I'm I'm really excited to see where he can get of it there's a lot of.
sam oakes :It is an exciting time in the uk. There's a lot of people sitting there waiting for something decent to come along. Yeah, that's going to turn their head. I think a lot of, and I think your foresight around hiring me was brilliant. Just saying just saying, I just but I think your investment in marketing creativity and technology. That's what I mean. I think it's. You said like oh, maybe we're a bit late to the table on that. No way, you're late to the table. You're not. Like if you look at the uk, you're not late.
Chris Ball:I mean you're comparing it to an industry that is probably way far behind what others are doing. Like we cut, like we can't compare ourselves to other people in the independent financial advice business. We need to be comparing ourselves against about global, you know, industry leaders, technology, yeah, oh, we, where they are? No, we're not. Can we catch up? I believe we can with a bit of with a bit of hard work and making sure that we do the right things. Yeah, um, and that's, you know, that's what we want to focus on. We want to benchmark ourselves against those types of people yeah, another.
sam oakes :You know, to end on it, one of the things that I the opportunity that I see not a lot of firms are doing a lot to um, generate clients. Okay, they're not doing a lot around the marketing, the branding, establishing themselves as key businesses of influence that can add value, tangible kind of benefits to businesses and clients. You guys are doing that and the future looks very, very bright around that and that's where I see that huge opportunity is that how can we give more people the tools to be financially free? And that makes me excited. When you talk about your app, it's for free, right for, and it's like you want a million people using it. And as soon as you said that to me it was like, wow, I've got so many ideas about how to get that app in the hands of the right people and it's wide open, even just around a piggyback. You know I'm not going to share the ideas because I don't want everyone nicking it, but around the a huge amount of influencers out there, why can't influencers start giving people an app? Why can't they start talking about an app?
sam oakes :You know, like there's there's so many people that are concerned about their finances. It causes such huge anxiety, definitely. And when we look at the bigger picture and I'm a big picture person I like higher purpose. Like with the financial plan of life, it was about right, okay, well, if I create a podcast and it attracts new people to the profession, that's going to have a direct impact on people's mental health, their financial security, their financial health, their families, and it got me thinking. It was like wow, that would have a hugely positive impact. And it's the same here. It's the same higher purpose thinking for me is that can I be part of a business that is going to actually improve the lives of individuals and their families? Yeah, and I think money causes a lot of anxiety. That's for everyone.
Chris Ball:Yeah, for everyone and we want to solve that right. That's the mission and that is the aim. That is a financial planner. That is what you want to do. You want to relieve that stress. You want to take that stress from someone and you want them to. You want to understand their objectives, understand their goals and you want to relieve any anxiety or stress that they've got around that and let them know, sooner rather than later, if they're going to struggle to get there.
Chris Ball:Yeah, or let them know everything's going to be okay, don't worry, enjoy you know, yeah, I love it.
sam oakes :Hoxton wealth and hoxton health exactly. We like that, don't we? We do like that, yeah fantastic.
Chris Ball:Coming back to that, we do keep yeah, we keep coming back to it.
sam oakes :I love it. I wonder what our? Yeah, let's listen. What the? What do you think audience? Hoxton wealth, hoxton health yeah, hoxton life. That's what this is the hoxton life on the financial planner life podcast. Chris, love it. It's been absolutely awesome catching up with you this time around. I'm loving the fact. Three years later, we're sat in dubai, we're working together and we're going to build the best international financial advice business out there.
Chris Ball:We 1 million percent are it's going to happen, mate. Brilliant Good man, top man Love it. Nice one, cheers mate.
