What made him take the leap from being a financial planner to coaching them?
“My first introduction to coaching was working for an international wealth management business in South Africa. It had a coaching culture and I saw the effect and positive impact on what coaching did for us in the business and in how we showed up with our clients. I had the opportunity to join a boutique asset management business that was doing some incredible things and serving independent financial planners in ways that very few other businesses were. They were bringing in financial planners and wealth managers with a successful history and teaching them to be coaches. So they taught me to be coach and I fell in love with coaching. I started success coaching on the side and then made the jump to running my own coaching business.”
And it would seem the two worlds aren’t all that different.
“There's a big alignment between financial planning and coaching. They go into the depth of what people want and search for this North Star. They have conversations so powerful with their clients that they can bring them to tears. Good financial planners follow a coaching approach with their clients. They’ll say: this is where you are, this is where you want to be and ask what is possible? Financial planners and financial planning business owners also need to take a moment to step out and move back into their business and ask what's possible, because that's where the growth will happen.”
So what potential does he see in the financial services industry?
“I am inspired by so many of my clients. A lot of financial planners and financial planning businesses have done amazing things and are moving at a pace. There’s been a lot of change over the years and I’ve seen the effects it’s had on the profession and its people. It’s sped thing up, it’s slowed things down but at the same time, I think the industry is trying to professionalise itself - it’s hanging on to what it has and trying to make it better.”