Financial Planner Life Podcast

Thriving in Dubai: This 22-Year-Old Financial Planner's Journey to Success - Ellie Gracie from Hoxton Wealth

August 30, 2024 • Sam Oakes

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Unlock the secrets to thriving in a tax-free entrepreneurial paradise as we sit down with Ellie Gracie, a driven 22-year-old financial planner from Hoxton Wealth who traded the historic streets of Edinburgh for the bustling avenues of Dubai. Ellie recounts her adventure of diving headfirst into Dubai’s high-energy, opportunity-laden environment, gaining invaluable experience in paraplanning and client relationship management under the mentorship of Hoxton Wealth's CEO, Chris Ball. Discover how the fast-paced lifestyle of Dubai contrasts with the more serene pace of Edinburgh and why this dynamic shift has been pivotal for Ellie's career.

Ellie shares her strategic journey of breaking into financial planning, detailing her proactive steps from university to securing roles that honed her soft skills and practical know-how. We explore the challenges and rewards of managing multi-jurisdictional portfolios and the vital importance of building impeccable client relationships. Through a blend of administrative, analytical, and client-facing roles, Ellie is meticulously crafting a path towards obtaining professional qualifications in both the UK and the US, setting a solid foundation for a thriving career in financial planning.

Lastly, tune in for an inspiring discussion on the role of women in finance, especially those navigating international waters. Ellie opens up about the support and mentorship she’s received at Hoxton, the importance of confident, strategic networking, and her lofty ambitions for content creation and connections. With stories of potential collaborations with influential figures like Jo Malone, this episode brims with ambition, inspiration, and actionable insights for anyone looking to carve out a successful career in financial planning, particularly in the vibrant city of Dubai.

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Sam:

And today's guest on the Financial Planner Life podcast is Ellie Gracie. She is a 22-year-old female in Dubai working towards becoming a financial planner. We look at her current role, which is a combination of pplanning and client relationship management. She's being mentored by Chris Ball, the CEO of Hoxton Capital Management, and we talk about her career to date, where she started, where she is now and her visions for the future. If you're a female in financial planning and you're interested in international financial planning, you are going to love this episode. So, ellie, welcome to the Financial Planner Life podcast. How are you?

Ellie:

I'm good, thank you, how are you?

Sam:

I'm very well, busy old day. Grab a water if you like.

Ellie:

Yeah, perfect, thank you. Yeah, do you like?

Sam:

that I just put it on there. I didn't have it on my last podcast episode, but I think it's pretty cool.

Ellie:

Yeah, maybe get one for your house.

Sam:

I'm definitely going to get one for my house. It's really cool. I love matcha, so I could imagine like my little matcha set would have yeah I'm actually going to get some financial plan of life matcha. So I'm doing I'm doing a financial plan of life event, okay, and I want a goodie bag in it, and I want the financial plan of life matcha. It's like a like a branded matcha, that'd be interesting.

Ellie:

Yeah, I could get some like logo on that. Maybe, I don't know, add something else in. Set a wee cup a little wee cup.

Sam:

Yeah, it A wee cup. A little wee cup. Yeah, exactly that. I love that a little wee cup. You're from Scotland.

Ellie:

Yeah, exactly from Scotland. So when I say wee, sometimes people get confused, but just small.

Sam:

Just small Whereabouts in Scotland. Are you from?

Ellie:

I'm from Edinburgh originally, so capital city.

Sam:

Edinburgh, fantastic.

Ellie:

So how did you end out in Dubai? So I'd done a year out here, just after COVID. Just think, when you've been in your house for a year you're kind of keen to explore and get somewhere else. So done that for a year, really enjoyed it. You know Dubai's got great opportunity, it's kind of buzzing city. So went back to Edinburgh for a year. It was great, it was fun. But then afterwards I thought I definitely want to come back to Dubai and kind of focus my career here anyway, got two completely different cities right yeah.

Sam:

Dubai. Do you miss home though?

Ellie:

yeah, definitely I think you know. You know, being young and having a family that's back home it's definitely hard. But, um, you know, we have an office in the UK. You can go back at times and work remotely, which I am doing over the summer, yeah, especially because it's so hot out here. So it is, it is good. But apart from missing family and friends, you know, not massively. Edinburgh's a great city. I'm sure lots of people have been on holiday and stuff but a massive drive and culture there in terms of working, okay, it's quite a slow-paced city, I would say.

Sam:

So Dubai, that is something that attracts you is the fact that it is a city that is kind of almost capitalist mindset, right.

Ellie:

Yeah, I think city that is kind of almost capitalist mindset, right?

Ellie:

yeah, I think you know you hear the american dream as such. Yeah, and I feel like dubai is kind of turning into that a little bit like in the land of opportunity. Um, I think out here, you know, you've got loads of massive companies moving out here. I think it takes a certain type of an individual to move country, and most people are moving to dubai. One, for you know, the opportunity to make a lot of money, but two, because you're kind of surrounded by entrepreneurs, people who are doing great for themselves. There's a lot of networking events and most people you speak to are doing something very interesting. So, yeah, it's definitely a good place to be definitely got that startup vibe and that startup feel like I'm excited about it, what I can do here.

Sam:

It's opened loads of doors to me. Everybody here is wanting to get ahead because they're all in the same boat. There isn't a system here that's going to look after you if you can't afford to live it is expensive. Being tax-free is beneficial, so it's only going to drive more interesting people here with more interesting ideas.

Sam:

So for me it's exactly the same thing. I do feel that to buy dream, I do feel that to buy energy. Um, I've noticed that already being in the hoxton office. Everybody in there wants to be there, wants to get ahead, and there's a really strong work ethic and I don't think I've ran a recruitment business in the uk. I mean, like there was a big push on trying to make it a four-day work week. I was like totally against it.

Sam:

I'm not against people having four-day work weeks, right I just think that in a certain type of job where you are service driven, I think it's a five-day work week. I think you put in what you get out, because they're saying people who wanted four-day work weeks were people that also were earning four days yeah but they wanted more money.

Ellie:

So it's a bit of a funny one, I think yeah, I think that's one thing I like about Dubai, and certainly Hoxton as well, is people are not scared to work hard. Like you know, there's people coming in there early, there's people leaving late. Not everyone does it. Obviously people have different work schedules. But for me, you know, if I want to get ahead in my career, I'm probably going to have to come in early and I'm probably going to have to stay late if I want to be better than you know, the average person and but also, like you know, if a four-day work week, what can you only respond to your clients emails in four days a week. I don't think they're going to be that happy about that. So, yeah, five-day working week anyway for me so you've got that growth mindset right.

Sam:

You've got that hard work ethic, um, and work smart ethic, because one of the things I've noticed about you is you're highly organized. You know we've bonded actually, since I've been over the last two weeks. It's been great, um, and you have all those things that I wish I had an abundance that organizational type skill set, and we had a good chat about it, didn't we? About like the difference between being a creative and then being somebody who's like super organized, and how some things come easy to me but some things become come easier to you. But certain things that you would be anxious and worried about, I don't tend to worry about.

Ellie:

I try and go with the flow with it yeah, exactly, I think it's a good balance as well. I mean, you know, you post LinkedIn posts kind of when you feel most suited or when you feel like it's the right time, and quite, quite fast. And that was something I was quite taken back by, because I'm more regimented in terms of you know, write the post and I schedule them later on because it's all structured out and kind of like a plan as such yeah um and the same with the podcast and stuff like that.

Ellie:

It's just something I like to be very organized with, but then maybe I don't feel as much in the moment and that's something that you use a lot, I think yeah, I think we're going to really help each other on this journey.

Sam:

I think we're definitely going to bond over that. So I'm excited to get to know you more, excited to work with you more Now with the Financial Plan Life podcast. It is about careers within the financial planning profession. There's going to be lots of people that are listening to this podcast that want to know a little bit about you, how you ended up in Dubai working within financial services, working now within financial planning, what your career looks like at Hoxton, where you want to take it, what the opportunities are. So why don't we start at the beginning, right? So you're quite young, aren't you right? You're younger than the average person who's training to be a financial planner right, yeah, correct.

Ellie:

I'm only 22 just now 22.

Sam:

There we go. Right, you are young, I didn't want to say your age Get shot. Yeah, and you're a female. Whoo distinct lack of females within the financial planning space. A distinct lack of females in the international yeah financial planning space. Yeah, it's worse. Right exactly, and we're saying you're passionate about and something we're going to work on with content creation, and this is part of it, right? So just tell us a little bit about. First off, how did you get into financial services, financial advice, yeah, so I'm.

Ellie:

When I was school I started a degree, a master's degree in business, because I wasn't too sure what I exactly wanted to do. And while I was at university I got a job for Scottish Widows working within insurance, and so that gave me a bit of exposure to kind of you know, dealing with financial advisors on a daily basis and also what they done in their role. And obviously I was kind of on the more admin side of it because I was running the basis and also what they've done in their role. And obviously I was kind of on the more admin side of it because I was running the quotes and stuff. And then after that I joined Lloyd's Banking Group as a customer kind of banking advisor. So I was in the branch, speaking to people face to face, and also when you're in branch you're looking at people's accounts and then you can identify when they've got you know a lot of cash and then you can refer them over to a financial advisor to kind of assist them with kind of certain products. And that was great. I loved that.

Ellie:

And then when I came back from my year abroad in Dubai I got a job working for St James's Place for one of their partner companies in Edinburgh. So in that I was working part-time doing a kind of admin, powe planner role. So that was great. You know, I had three, four years exposure while doing a university degree in this space. But I think for me me it was always very strategic as well. I knew it was going to be hard to break into finance. I think it was going to be harder as a woman and probably harder at the fact that I was really young, and so for me, getting that experience was going to put me in front of a lot of people and make me more desirable once I left. And so, yeah, that was kind of my experience.

Ellie:

And then obviously I moved over to Dubai, actually just before I graduated. I had to fly back to graduate and so I was very keen to to get into the kind of working environment and I joined another company out here in Dubai and that was great. I learned, you know, a lot. I was kind of more on the on the power planning, admin side of it, doing a lot of reports, doing a lot of analysis, and that was great. You know you got to start with the basics and but I was definitely keen to get a lot more kind of client facing and I think that's something I'm quite strong at. I'm good at building relationships and quite personable person and to kind of. You know, I think I'm quite good with talk talking to people, something that I think I'm quite strong at. So when there was an opportunity to to move to Hoxton and work for Chris um, personally I thought that would be like something I, you know, should jump. Not many opportunities like that come up very often and I've loved it ever since. Really, Fantastic.

Sam:

Thank you for that lovely overview. One of the things you said there is that you work within the branch of a bank as a personal banker.

Ellie:

Yeah.

Sam:

It was such a great place to learn the skill sets of face-to-face and a bit of an entry point into financial services and exposure to financial planners. I used to recruit into the banks and I used to recruit these personal bankers and customer advisors. I once actually headhunted somebody. I was probably responsible for the downfall of the banks at one stage because I used to headhunt people from like Phones4U because they were really good at selling right and they were really good at cross-selling.

Sam:

So they had all the characteristics of what a personal banker would need, would need they see customers on a face-to-face basis. Anyway, long story short, I was headhunting some people from these branches. I had to phone up and say do you want to work for a bank? I said to this guy I said what's your name? He went sam. I said brilliant, what's your surname? Went oaks. So I headhunted somebody called sam oaks from a, from a phones for you.

Sam:

Put him into the job, got him a job offer. A little bugger didn't actually take it, so uh that's very annoying ruined my dream. Yeah, a little story for you there, right, fantastic, and you're sjp as well, so there's a little bit of exposure yeah, yeah, exactly obviously a great wealth manager in the uk got so much going on. Okay, you did all this whilst you're sitting in university yeah yeah, you are driven, aren't you?

Ellie:

yeah, definitely, I think that's um. One thing about me is I'm always kind of trying to do more than others, maybe yeah. I don't know if that's the way to put it, but yeah, I think, even since I was at school, I've always wanted to do do loads and I just, you know, I've tried to do the normal job, worked at Sainsbury's for like six weeks when I was at university. I just couldn't do it.

Ellie:

I just hated it so yeah, I think I just really enjoyed working in the industry and like gaining real life experience. University is great, teaches you a lot of things, um, but in terms of real work kind of placement, I think that's you know, you can't teach that human to human interaction right the soft skills and the practical skills required to be really good at a relationship role, which you now do at Hoxton.

Sam:

So you, you, at the moment, your job role in hoxton is power planner, um, in chris's team, right? So chris has still got clients, chris still advises whilst running the business, yeah, so you do a lot of the power planning there, and we'll get into that in a minute. And then we've got the client relationship manager side, haven't we? Yes, so really, if we married those two together, essentially it's like a trainee advisor, where you're not on the pathway, which is what's called the pathway here at hoxton, which is what we're going to call the trainee financial planner role. Right, you're really being exposed to lots of different moving parts of the business. You're getting mentored by chris.

Ellie:

So, technically, in my eyes, you're a, you're a trainee financial planner right you're doing some qualifications on the side as well yeah, so I've done two of my exams with the London Institute of Banking and Finance. I'm due to do my next one in August and then after that I'll be level four qualified, which is great, and then after that I'm looking to do my Series 65, so it means I'll be US qualified as well towards the end of the year. So hopefully have US and UK this year, which will be good.

Sam:

Brilliant. Tell us a little bit about the power planning side, then. What sort of does it? What does power planning entail over here, um, in Dubai?

Ellie:

yeah, I definitely think it's. You know it's kind of individual and personal to who you work for and what they want from you. Um, in terms of Chris, you know we do have UK clients. It's not something that I purely focus on, um, I do more US stuff. But in terms of the UK and the US, you're writing a lot of reports. You know if you're rebalancing portfolios, if you're recommending ISA top-ups, you know that's still very similar to the UK in terms of reporting side of it. Um, but the main difference is you've got clients who've got they could have assets in in Asia, they could have assets in the US and they could live in the UK and it's different.

Ellie:

Difficult to kind of manage that because, one, it's different currencies. Two, you're you know you're having to liaise with the tax team, you know what are the implications of this and you know you're getting after very technical questions that you need to speak to people about. Really, you're not going to know the answers, and one you're not really qualified to say either. So, yeah, that's definitely a massive difference, I think, in terms of the technicality behind it and a lot of the work you're doing. It's really relationship management one with the client but two with the other teams to get the client the best results yeah, okay, good, so multi-jurisdiction different clients, different locations, giving you that variety of work, report writing things like that okay good.

Sam:

So on that client relationship management side, do you often pick up opportunities for new business?

Ellie:

yeah, so you know, for example, sometimes I'll refact, find a client and that you know clients can have extra cash. They maybe have, you know, a pension that we didn't look at transferring before, stuff like that. So you do identify new opportunities as well. You're obviously always wanting to provide a holistic kind of experience for the client, so you're always trying to look at you know what other opportunities or what other things can you assist them with. And you know, with that. You know I assist Chris a lot with the reviews. I'll sit on meetings with him as well and then I'll help with the follow-ups as well. So, yeah, it's definitely you know you're basically an advisor without giving the advice. You've got that person there For me. I've got Chris to kind of go back on if I've got any questions and he's, you know, ultimately you know the one that they've got the relationship with. But you're building on that with them.

Sam:

Do you feel like you are, do you feel like he's sort of passing over some clients to you and you're sort of now developing those relationships as an addition to Chris?

Ellie:

Yeah. So I think you know it's great because you know we're given let's say I'm given 100 clients, for an example, and you're managing the day today kind of. You know if it's just admin queries, they want withdrawals, or you know they're letting us know that they you know they've come into additional cash. You're managing those day-to-day relationships. You know you message them happy birthday. They text you on WhatsApp if they need something. You know that's the kind of relationship that I've got with them. I think I'm I try to build past.

Ellie:

they're just clients for me. You're trying to make them not friends but close enough to the fact that they feel comfortable to come to you with majority of things. So yeah, I think when you go from a power planner to an advisor you don't really have those kind of necessarily people skills, but in the client relationship role you're gaining on those people skills. And I think you know as a power planner you sit behind a laptop a lot and reply to inquiries for email. You've got time to think about it, you've got time to talk about it with others. But when you're on a call you kind of not think on the spot because you need to know what you're talking about. But you've got to kind of reply back in real time and you've got to make sure that the information that you're portraying clients are going to understand, because sometimes you talk very technical and they don't know. Maybe sometimes they don't know the difference between equity and bonds. So you've got to really break it down for people and I think that's a skill that I'm really developing now.

Sam:

Well, jargon's a services have been hiding behind for so many years to justify fees to clients, right? Um, we want to know that. We know that information. You just pay us the money, right.

Sam:

But this now people want to understand more about where their monies are invested, how it works, and you've got the likes of youtube and the diy brigade when it comes to their own financial planning. So having that relationship, explaining things and allowing somebody to understand it, I think builds A a deeper relationship, levels of trust, but I think also helps with their financial well-being. When someone explains something to me that I don't quite understand and I'll be honest with you, finance isn't something that is natural to me. I'm an emotion, I get on with people. I can sit down with somebody and go on a journey with them on an emotional basis, but when it comes to money, like I'm like what the fuck you know? Like numbers, I'm just like it spins me out, you know. So having somebody that can articulate and explain without using jargon and take into consideration that it does make me anxious I think is a really great skill set.

Sam:

So I think think the more you do that, the more connected you become to somebody, the stickier the client becomes right.

Ellie:

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I think that's a good skill and I think you know, you see, maybe a lot of people who are, you know, there's people that are really technical and they're great at what they do and they're probably people best in terms of the client facing front. So I think that's good. Where a relationship manager comes in as well, some people are really good on the relationship side but maybe not that experienced or got that technical kind of ability. And then you've got people that are in the office that are so technical, are really smart, but maybe don't manage their own book and they're just kind of there to kind of help you on that side, which is great.

Sam:

It's interesting, isn't it? You could have some brilliant people who can go out and win clients, but from an organisational skills perspective they suck right.

Ellie:

I can imagine that's what I'd be like I'd be like get me out there talking to people and bringing people in.

Sam:

But if I had to write the reports, if I had to onboard people and all of that, I think I would struggle massively. And I think having the balance of the skill set is great. Would you say you're 50-50 on that, or would you say you prefer one to the other?

Ellie:

I would probably say I'm 60-40 just now. I think you know I've worked in the industry for, let's say, three, four years. I don't think I've got the technical ability of some people just now, but that's why I've not stepped up yet. When I step up, I want to be very knowledgeable in what in terms of the client relationship side. I think that's just, you either got it or you don't. You know, I I enjoy talking to people. I'm you know, when I done that test, I'm, I'm an extroverted individual. Um, I enjoy talking to people. I could probably, you know, chat to a brick wall if I really had to. Um, so you know, I think that's something that's just a quality that you either have or you don't. Don't get me wrong, you can definitely work on it, um, but yeah, I just think that's something that I'm. Probably something I still want to develop on is the technical side.

Sam:

So so client relationship managers like giving you exposure to, to lots of clients is in the back of your mind. Are you thinking financial planning? That's where you want to go. You want to be client facing financial planner.

Ellie:

You don't want a career in power planning, for example no, and I think that is an expectation that's set on a lot of women. You know, if you tell people that you want to step up, they're like oh, wow, really, you don't want to be a power planner, um, which I think is a massive thing in the financial space. You know, I think it's like 80 of women are power planners. Um, yeah, for me, I definitely want to step up in the next couple of years. You know, I want to have a big book and I've got big expectations for myself. I think I'll be really good at what I do. There's not many advisors out here that are women. No, there's not many in the world really, but especially in Dubai. I think. I put a statistic out kind of last week that I think 70% of the population in Dubai are men. So can you only imagine that if 30% of them are women, think about how little are on finance really.

Sam:

I know somebody who's over in Abu Dhabi and he is focusing on like family office approach but he delivers advice to um the daughters and the wives within those family offices. So there is appetite and I think the right female in dubai delivering the advice in the right way and positioning and marketing herself in the right way is just going to absolutely smash. It doesn't mean you have to deliver advice just to women.

Sam:

You can deliver advice to men as well, you know there's a lot of men. I like to sit down with women and talk to women. It's like I I have a really strong bond with my mum, you know, more so than my dad, so I feel more comfortable a lot of the time with women than I do with men. Um, I think women have a natural empathy as well. Men tend to be quite bullish and I think not all men, but majority, I think, is the case. So yeah, the opportunity is pretty damn big. Go back a second right.

Sam:

Do you feel that way? Do you feel like women are kind of shoehorned more into the administrative power planning side and when expressing an interest in becoming a financial planner, do you feel like there's a barrier here within you or a perception that the rest of the profession predominantly male perhaps might not want you to push forward, or what do?

Ellie:

you think, um, for me, personally, I don't think, you know, there definitely is a barrier. For me, it's not something that scares me, it's not something that intimidates me. It kind of just pushes me to to do it more I think, when someone tells me I can't do something, it makes me want to do it more, so it's the same in this industry.

Ellie:

Um, I think you have to be very strong and a very confident individual to one work internationally but two to be, to be a female, and you really need to say what, what you want and what you think right, I think there's probably a lot of individuals who are maybe not as confident as me to and I think you know a lot of a lot of women do just want to be power planners, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, yeah, but we shouldn't be put into this kind of shoe box and when you want to step out the shoe box, be like, oh, wow, that's, that's so shocking.

Ellie:

Because it isn't shocking. So, yeah, I definitely don't think it's something that scares me personally. Um, and I think for me it's. You know, it's a great opportunity if there's. You know there's a lack of women in the industry and I am one of those women who are in it. There's gonna be more opportunity for me and there's gonna be an opportunity for me to hopefully at some point inspire more women into it. I mean, if I can do it, then so can anyone else really 100.

Sam:

Yeah, it's about 9 000 power planners, I think, and you mentioned there's like 80. Them are women. So when you look at things like in the UK advice gap I know you're in Dubai, you might not look at the UK advice gap as much 16% of advisors are female.

Ellie:

Yeah.

Sam:

So if you look at the power planning side of it, there's a huge opportunity to increase those numbers. What you find in the UK is that there's a lot of small to medium-sized firms and they don't really have great career progression opportunities. They don't really have great mentors within those businesses and a lot of the advisors who are running those businesses are like advisor owners and also like the average age is 56 years old, predominantly male, and they are exiting out of the profession. Why do they want to invest time and energy in somebody coming through at 22 years old? You are, you know, you're in a company which is unique. It's.

Ellie:

the average age is 37, I think the advisors are young in comparison to a lot of companies it's got 30 females within the business as well, I think.

Sam:

16 different nationalities, yeah crazy it's pretty cool, right. And also you got a young ceo in chris that you're working with yeah mentorship has. Has his mentorship been valuable to you?

Ellie:

yeah, I mean to be perfectly honest. The main reason I moved to Hoxton was to work for Chris directly. I'm not too sure if I, if I would have taken the jump as such, if I, if it wasn't for Chris, because I was working for a great advisor previously. But Chris is very well known in the industry. He's very good at what he does and for me I was like, if I want to be the best, if I want to be like Chris, maybe one day I need to work for him. I need to understand how he thinks, how he manages his clients. He's built a great book and he's serviced them very, very well. So how does he manage to do that when he's so busy?

Ellie:

And that's me and Chris are quite similar in a sense. We're very organised people and we have a very set process on how things are done, which for me brings me comfort, because I like that. It's very regimented and we have set times that we speak and everything like that. But if I need him for five minutes, even though he's the CEO, I can pop into his office and ask him a question. You know he's always going to take time to kind of help you and assist you, and so is everyone else in Hoxton and the team as well. I think you know the power of mentorship is massive for me because, at the end of the day, like I'm learning directly under someone, so his knowledge is going to be my knowledge. So if I'm working for someone who you know maybe I don't respect or I don't look up to, I I don't respect or I don't look up to, I'm not going to get the most out of myself and they're probably not going to get the most out of me.

Sam:

Bang on. You need somebody in the business who's a leader and leads by example. Nothing worse than someone telling you to do something when they don't do it themselves. Yeah, you know it's awful, really, because they're so out of the loop. In reality, I think the fact that everybody in there is hard working and a lot of them are servicing client you look at jacob, but like he's gonna have to like 40 people whilst serving his own, servicing his own client. But guy works extremely hard, as does your tommy and goldie, and you know they're all running. As you pointed out, they're running their little businesses, aren't?

Sam:

they, yeah, within a business within a company, which is really cool. Actually. I like that. There's a lot of firms in the uk that do that. There's some really good ones actually. It's a bit like the sjp model really yeah you know it's like it's good. Yeah, it's not far off, interesting. So when you lean into others in the business, then okay, so you've got, you're a power planner, you're doing crm stuff. Do you lean into anybody else to help support you in any way?

Ellie:

yeah. So I have quite a big team around me, which is great because obviously you're serving so many clients you cannot possibly do it yourself. So we've got two admin who work directly for me and a couple of others so they help with things like dealing instructions, chasing providers when you're doing letters of authorities so more the admin side of it that potentially I've not got time to call a provider for an hour a day or HMRC as such. And then we've got the tax team, which I think I touched on before. You know they're great. You know you can get them on calls with your clients. They can give regulated advice in that kind of area as well, and you can just ask them generic questions as well if you're a bit confused between, like, double taxation treaties, for example.

Ellie:

And then you've also got we've got investment analysts as well who work on our team. So, for example, when we're changing our Hoxton model portfolios, they can rebalance them for us. Obviously, previously I've done that and it's great. You work it out on the spreadsheets and everything, but it does take a lot of time. So having someone to do that takes a lot of workload off you. And then you can just send the numbers and the figures and analysis onto the client and when you're explaining what you know, what changes you're looking to make to their portfolio. And then with that you've got kind of the the kind of technical consultants. You've got Matt Telford, who's great, you know. He helps with trust and stuff. And then you've got Jack who helps with wills and powers of attorney and stuff as well.

Sam:

Fantastic. Are you doing much networking out here, then? Are you going out and meeting people? Is it something you're gonna do? Where are you on that journey?

Ellie:

yeah. So it's definitely something I want to try and do more. And recently, you know, I've been a lot more active on linkedin, especially with you joining. I think it's kind of sparked maybe a bit of ambition, um to kind of get that going. I am part of a book club which is like a women's book club, so that's great. Um probably didn't want to go to more events, probably try and make one a month, um, but that's great because you're you're with like-minded professionals, um. I've ran a couple of events previously, um down in difc, which was really good, and it's just great because you kind of speak to different people and you're not necessarily, you know, getting anything out of them. You're not always looking for them to be your clients, um, but just understanding how other people have got to where they want to be, I think for me is really good um. So, yeah, I think it's definitely something I want to work on, though, something you want to do more of well, I'm definitely going to help you.

Sam:

That's one of the reasons why I've come on, you know, as head of creative is looking at opportunities, opportunities to be more, um, creative around how we communicate with, uh, our clients, um, and future clients, right, or the profession, you know, we want to be able to communicate in multiple ways, don't we youtube, really looking forward to building a youtube channel out for hoxton, becoming a key person of influence within all the introducers across specifically, first of all, for me would be like the uae I've been, or ua, as someone said to me yesterday ua.

Sam:

I. I've even reached out to some guy at the moment he's about 90 000 followers but he's massively well known at obadiah. His name is, or something is, um. He's really well known in the family office space and I was like, well, that'd be really cool and really interesting. So I was like, right, I'm gonna connect with him. And he's responded to me. He's over in abu dhabi. I'm like I wonder how many people I can connect with in the UAE that have huge followings and have the type of clients that we want to be working with that we could offer solutions to, and so I'm really excited by that because that's kind of like my long-term goal with this right.

Sam:

It's like create content, love it right, and I want to help you create content, help people in the business create content, raise your personal brands and raise the brand of the business. But I want to think to myself well, if I'm going to do this and you should be thinking this way as well right, if I'm going to build content, who's my audience? Who am I trying to connect with and why? If I spend a huge amount of time on linkedin, for instance, how much of that time is spent wisely posting and communicating to an audience that are eventually going to add value back to me? If we spent hours creating content, but it was for our friends and our family or other advisors within the community, for instance, is it going to add benefit to them or not? So that's one of the things I want to get people thinking about.

Sam:

It's not just about mindlessly creating content. It's about how do I use it as a Trojan horse to get through a door? So, for me, building out a podcast, building out a YouTube channel for Hoxton is so I can surround myself with other people doing the same thing so I can start working with them and generating clients through them. So I'm very excited by that. I'm very excited by bringing people like you onto it as well to create things like financial education. So you've got a platform, then, straight away, where you can position yourself as you know, a female within the profession, internationally in dubai that women should be connecting with. Come to my new event.

Sam:

I love the fact that you're doing events already yeah one thing I've noticed in that place because jack's the same, jack's 22, right. I'm so impressed. I I wish at 22 years old I had that awareness that you have and that discipline that you have. But it's only going to snowball. If you keep it up and you look after yourself, it's only going to snowball and get better and better. And it also kind of showed me where I was environment-wise at 22 to where you are environment-wise at 22. And the environment plays a massive part in our journey.

Ellie:

Yeah, 100%.

Sam:

Do you seek out that environment? Do you feel that energy when you go into certain environments?

Ellie:

Yeah, I think that's probably one of the big reasons I left the UK as well. I think the people that I was surrounded with were quite negative. And I think if you tell someone in the UK I want to be a millionaire or I have these massive dreams, people come back down to reality when I think Dubai's kind of got the more American approach, where you know if you work hard enough, anything's achievable. And that's one thing I like about Hoxton, especially about Chris, is I've worked for companies previously when I've said you know, I want to have 100 mil in under management by 30. They're like, you know, work hard, it's going to be achievable. And that's something I really like. That's the environment I've put myself in actively.

Ellie:

And in Hoxton, you know, there's people who are super young doing super amazing things. They're not, you know, they're not kind of defined by anything. They're not thinking, you know, I've had a hard life, I'm not going to be able to succeed, or they just kind of push past their challenges, which is really, you know, I would say a lot of them are, you know, those A players, and if you're surrounded by A players, you're probably going to be one yourself, um. So yeah, I think you know it's creating your own environment. Dubai's great. You know there's a lot of brunches, there's a lot of um things to do when you're young, but it's, you know, trying to not get too influenced by that and trying to stay focused on the longer goals You've got to have some fun as well, though, haven't you?

Ellie:

Yeah.

Sam:

My wife's coming out. Women are going to be listening to this and thinking maybe I should come out to Dubai and come and work for Hoxton. Yeah, come and work for Hoxton, yeah. What advice would you give women about Dubai and what would you suggest that they do within the first couple of months to bed themselves in, and what should they expect? Give some advice.

Ellie:

Yeah, I think there's a lot of preconceptions about Dubai. I think a lot of people think women come over here they don't work. They certainly y'all every day drinking wine. Sadly, it's not the truth, sorry. The women out here. Obviously they're very ambitious. You've got women who are ready to work really hard.

Ellie:

The people that I've surrounded myself with are very like-minded people, very career-driven, very independent. I'm 22,. I live on my own. I've got my own car. I do everything that I would do in my life back in the UK.

Ellie:

It's not that different on that front. Obviously there's challenges. You've got to build new friendships, but I think I've made some great friends at work and people are always there to help. I've made some great friends at work and people are always there to help. There's a massive kind of wellness side to Dubai that people maybe don't see. Join a book club, join a networking event, join a running club there's so many ways to make friends in terms of more of a professional side, I think joining Hoxton or joining another company out here in the finance kind of world.

Ellie:

It's not much different from the UK. You've got to learn different products. You've got to learn how different jurisdictions work, but if you want it to work. You're going to work hard and it's going to be fine. Um, you know, I've done it really young and I think I've done okay. So you know, someone who's got more experience than me probably going to find it a bit easier, um, so, yeah, I definitely think it's. You know, it's a land of opportunity, as they say do women have to cover up over here?

Sam:

Is there this perception that it's not a great place for women?

Ellie:

No, it's a great place to be. As a woman, I feel really safe. Not too sure how the UK is just now. There's been a lot of things in the news. People leave their doors unlocked. People leave their cars open. Obviously, right now I'm covered up, but I don't have to be. You know I can. You can pull my shock pull my blazer up if I want to.

Ellie:

Yeah, um, yeah, it's, it's totally, it's totally normal here. It's basically. I honestly don't think it's much different from living in the UK. I would say it's more safe and you have the exact same freedoms. If you want to go and get drunk at brunch and wear a bikini, nobody's, nobody's gonna pat an eyelid, nobody cares no, I've, I was, you know, going down the beach.

Sam:

It's like going to a beach in ibiza or something. You know it's ridiculous. Some of these beaches, though, they're like, these influencer types, you know. You look around and there's a lot of well pruned people, men and women like, and I'm like sitting there going like oh my god, where's my? Do you want to go to the?

Ellie:

gym.

Sam:

Yeah, it makes you want to go to the gym yeah, makes you want to go to the gym, exactly that. Well, listen, absolutely love talking to you, so thanks for giving us an insight into your life here at hoxton, what you've been doing in your journey so far, um, let's just end on something which I always like to do with people that are ambitious like you. Okay, what is the next if you to visualize yourself? You talked about 10, 100 million under management by 30.

Sam:

You're 22 yeah so what does the next three years look like for you when you visualize it?

Ellie:

yeah. So for me, um, I think I would like to step up by that point, probably be around 10 to 20 million in terms of what I have under management, potentially like to be in new york as well. I think for me, dubai is great, but for me it's a stepping stone. I don't want to spend my whole life here. I do want to go over to the US and right now I manage a lot of US clients, so for me it's something of interest, um, so, hopefully, you know, having clients of my own working in New York potentially, um, and also, you know, hopefully having a team under me that can support me and inspiring others to hopefully join suit.

Ellie:

In terms of Hoxton and the female kind of industry, I think for me I really want to focus my business around. You know there's going to be more women CEOs in 10 years than men, so for me, I really do want to focus on that kind of advice gap as such, because, as a woman, I would personally prefer to speak to a woman. So I think there will be quite a lot of kind of entrepreneurs and successful people who who think so I think you definitely need to build your community on an international basis.

Sam:

Probably looking at dubai, new york, um, and calling it something like independent international women because I think independent. You touched on something here. You like this perception that women just come over drink wine on yachts. I think that's pretty much what my wife's perception yeah, are you joking, um, but creating like a community or an event, a network, independent international women yeah, maybe something similar to what you've got.

Ellie:

You know the financial planner yeah bringing you know women who are really successful on and just speaking some about how their, how their careers careers kind of progressed and well, how do they manage their money? Do they invest it, do they buy lawn? And just speaking to them about how their careers kind of progressed and how do they manage their money, do they invest it, do they buy property and just bring in more exposure. Because I think there was an article recently that you know, women don't tend to invest. They're more risk kind of adverse than men. So why is that? Is it because we don't talk about enough of your friends? Because I certainly don't talk about it with my friends enough, probably, and I I work in the industry, so it's about raising that awareness. Well, it's not that scary to kind of take the first jump and invest.

Sam:

Wealthy, independent women, women of international women's wealth. I love your idea and I think women would love to hear that and love to hear the journeys of these successful women that are over in Dubai. There's a lady who came in yesterday, bobby Sahota, who has made a connection with a woman who was the chief editor, I think, for Hello Magazine, and that chief editor is best mates with Joe Malone. Wow, and Joe Malone lives in Dubai.

Ellie:

I didn't know that, so we're not that far away, mate.

Sam:

Should we go and grab her, see if we can get her up. Yeah, get some candles as well, maybe we like you know, we've got a chance to go through Bobby, go through this other woman and get this Jo Malone on a podcast why don't we try and make that work?

Ellie:

yeah, 100% brilliant.

Sam:

This is what it's all about. It's why I've joined. Yeah right, fantastic. So much for your time today. Absolute pleasure talking to you. I love your energy, love your enthusiasm, love your ambition. I'm super pleased that we're working together yeah, me too.

Ellie:

Thank you for having me cheers it's been great.

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