#324 Nikki Booth – Transcript

Jess Brady
Hello, welcome Nikki.

Nikki Booth
Hi Jess. How you going?

Jess Brady
Good. I’m so excited to have you on today as our guest. Now, we’ve got lots to cover off in terms of you and your journey and the progression and what that’s been like. But perhaps before I start, no, I wouldn’t say grilling, grilling sounds a bit intense. But before we do dive into that, I think it would be really great for everyone to get a bit more insight in terms of who you are and a bit more about your story and background.

Nikki Booth
Yeah, okay. Okay, half, how far back do you want me to go?

Jess Brady
You can do whatever you like my DSP can tell us what you want.

Nikki Booth
So I guess I’m originally from Toowoomba, which is a little bit outside of Brisbane. So grew up born bred tumor girl, so two older brothers, Mum, Dad, primary school high school all the way through, I moved to Brisbane as soon as I could. So after graduating high school, I had a gap year, which was effectively just so I can save up a bit of cash, move myself to Brisbane and go through uni. thought when I went to uni, I was going to work in accounting, actually. So that was the discipline that I chose. But in in the product process, I did a finance course. And it was one of those lecturers who who actually sort of switched my mindset there. And then I sort of majored in finance. So outside of that, so in the in the last year of my university degree, one of my tutors approached me and actually said, you know, you’re looking for a job inside the industry. And that’s when I got put on to my wealth solutions. So I started working there in my last year of university and have been there since. So

Jess Brady
interesting. And hey, when you went into accounting, did you go into it because you liked numbers, and you really didn’t know much else about the finance world. And that just seems like the natural fit for you, or you’re always convinced accounting was for you. And that’s why you went to study it.

Nikki Booth
My brother’s an accountant. So that was sort of like part of it. But I also did accounting at school, and I was pretty good at it. Numbers have always been my thing I do not really like grandma poetry, that arts, it’s not the way that my brain is set to to be. So it was always going to be something I really liked data analysis as well through through university, but finance for me just sort of stuck in this respect that there’s numbers, but people sort of progression and outcomes, which I liked.

Jess Brady
And had you heard of what financial planners were before you studied that, that class or that subject that got you into it?

Nikki Booth
No, not at all. I’ve never really had any exposure to the industry might might have, you know, family wise was never a high wealth intermediate, where we always had, you know, dad, and mum put us through every extracurricular activity that we wanted to do, there was always that, you know, food on the table. But outside of that, in terms of their financial planning, it was always self directed. We never had that assistance, and I never had that exposure.

Jess Brady
Yeah. Which is interesting for us as a profession, when we think through how our young people, particularly young women, going to learn about this wonderful profession that we have, if they don’t know it exists, so that you found that class and found your way into our world. One of the things that I wanted to talk about with you is around being a paraplanner. So you’re a power planner, obviously, for a little while, before you stepped into the advice sphere. I want to talk about for you when you were a power planner, what it what it looks like you had to be to be a successful advisor, did you have an idea of okay, if I really want to make the transition for paraplanning, to advice, I need to have X, Y and Zed as a personality style. Was there any sort of assumptions that you’d made around sort of that leap for you?

Nikki Booth
Yeah, I think it was it is the thought of that next step was incredibly daunting. For me, and I think you’re I can see with even our team coming through there’s there’s a couple of the more introverted people who are a little bit more reserved in in the way that they hold themselves and whether or not they feel as confident taking that next step. I don’t certainly for myself, it was it was not something that I thought I was capable of in those early years of the industry. So even like You know, I remember back in the day going to the professional development days and being one of three women in the crowd, it wasn’t it wasn’t necessarily that you’re we were the predominant gender nor nor were we the ones that were advisors even within that group. So it never really felt like the natural step. For me to go from power planning to advising, I was pretty proficient, I like to think in that power planning space, because I do have that attention to detail. And I am really, really effectively structure, everything that I do, it has to be correct. Otherwise, I will not send it out. It’s just the way that I’m built. Whereas the persona for for the advisors was always these big personalities that I didn’t have.

Jess Brady
So Young, you’re female, you’re quieter, introverted. You look around you at these professional development days, and you see people that frankly, don’t look feel or sound like you stylistically. And did that sort of in your mind, then make you think, okay, I’m good at paraplanning. I like the numbers. I’m very technically proficient. This is where I stay? Or was there something in the back of your mind? That was like, No, even though I don’t look, feel and sound a lot like these people, I’m going to push to the next level, how did that transition or thought process happen for you?

Nikki Booth
Yeah, so I guess in the back of my mind, I always had the goal of being the financial advisor, that was always the target, but then my own sort of self. Yeah, I put sort of ceiling limits on what I thought I was capable of, in those early years. So it took me a longer time, I would say, to, to get to that advice base compared to someone with a more outward personality, I had a major sort of incident in in my life that caused me to sort of wake up wake up a little bit and just sort of question, the fact of, you know, I’m thinking that I want to do these things, I’ve started to do these things. I’ve been working in this space, but I’m not biting the bullet and just having a crack at it. So it shifted my mindset completely to just jump in and have a go. And fortunately, for from the moment I did that, it was basically, you know, all bets are off, I was I was ready. And I was in a position to execute the work and onboard clients as as I went through. So it took something drastic for me to sort of switch my mindset. And I think even over time, like naturally, now when I go to these professional development days, it’s a completely different dynamic, it’s a different makeup to what it was in the past. So I feel like we have progressed a little bit but I still feel like then there is this natural persona and this predominant sort of person who maybe is the typical image of an overnight advisor,

Jess Brady
if you hadn’t had that drastic situation unfold that, that helped push you to be an advisor, do you think you would have got there but it would have taken a lot longer? Or do you think that ceiling would have stayed for you?

Nikki Booth
Look, it’s hard to know, I think that I think that the ceiling possibly could have stuck. I don’t necessarily been in the industry today, if that was the case, because you know, that sort of power planning space. So if you have this vision of something else, it can be quite repetitive. So I’m not sure I would have stayed in that that role. And I possibly could have switched disciplines.

Jess Brady
Interesting. Did the advisors that you worked with, at the time know that your aspirations was to become an advisor? Or was that something that you kept quite private?

Nikki Booth
Neither knew Yeah, they definitely knew. And, you know, they, they were pushing me to take that next step. And effectively, you know, try my hand at it, instead of just saying that I wanted to, but but not putting those wheels in motion.

Jess Brady
Hmm. There’s some beautiful, sad research that shows that through a gendered lens. Obviously, I’m being very generic here. But often, men will look at sort of what skills it takes to do a roll. And they might have quite a few of them, but not all of them and think, yeah, cool. I can do most of that. I’ve, I’ve got this and I’ll I’ll fire it off and figure out the rest of the stuff that I don’t know later. But, but often women want to have all of the skills and all of the requirements that’s on a roll before they feel competent or confident enough to say Yeah, cool. I can do every one of those. Does that resonate with you in terms of that situation from paraplanner to advisor?

Nikki Booth
Yeah, absolutely. I think it nails it on the head.

Jess Brady
And so for people who run businesses, it’s something to think about because sometimes we put must know or must have. And so we’re actually locking out a lot of the workforce where people that are applying for it anyway, possibly don’t have all of those skills. And so it’s an interesting thought provoking point around when you are looking for talent, how you word, your application, so that you’re appealing to the widest most diverse pool to get the best candidates. Otherwise, there’s a natural filter filtration system that’s happening anyway, you’re losing quality candidates before they’ve even gotten to you. And they probably happen to be women by the sounds of it.

Nikki Booth
Or even identifying that talent and that sort of personality trait and sort of developing that the processes around that person to encourage them to take those those next steps. So identifying what it is that they need in terms of their confidence level to actually get them to where you know, that they are capable of being.

Jess Brady
Absolutely. And that’s easier when they’re in the business. Because you’ve already, you’ve proven yourself and you’ve you’ve proven your competency and your trustworthiness and your value alignment to the business. And so if you find a good power plan, you hold on to them for dear life and hope that they never, never leave. But also acknowledge that a lot of them do have aspirations. But the point that you made before is a really interesting one around that you perhaps wouldn’t have stayed in the industry or the profession if that next opportunity for you hadn’t become available that’s very thought provoking. So how did it happen? How did the transition from when to the life changing event happened? You had the aha moment that said, Nikki, I gotta do you got to do this job. You’re qualified? You’re competent?

Nikki Booth
You got this?

Jess Brady
Let’s go. Tell me and the advisors obviously, around you supported you? How did you then transition? Did you take over a book of existing people? What happened from there?

Nikki Booth
Yeah, I started from from scratch. So my wealth solutions, as a whole has got a marketing division within it to end we have a fairly strong internet lead presence. So we get quite a number of leads from SEO, Google, etc, etc. So everything that I have built has been from an organic process, we haven’t purchased a book of business, and or taken over any of the existing advisors, clients.

Jess Brady
And as someone who considers themselves more reserved, and more introverted, tell me about what it was like in those first few sort of interactions, how they would go, and what knowledge can you impart to people that are perhaps going to be on this journey in the future?

Nikki Booth
Yes. So I don’t like to, to fail out. I don’t think anyone necessarily does, but I do think people, some people are more in tune with it, and probably more accepting of that sort of outcome. But for me, it is a pretty big deterrent to, to, to not achieve what I set out to achieve. So it’s was a matter of preparation. So I had, so the existing advisors, Ben guy had given me their framework, they’re very, you know, the frameworks and scripts that they used to develop way, way back in the day. So I sort of extended beyond them, I created my own, a much more elaborate outline of what I want that meeting to follow that the, you know, the gist of what how their pattern will happen. And then the conversations around certain sort of moments that could pop up, you know, if this situation arises, these are my go to sort of conversation pieces that I could rely upon on the tools that I can use to help encourage that client conversation or understanding. So I was very prepared. And I know sometimes that that can be a disadvantage, you could be thrown off trail and not know how to get back on to the conversation. So that was a fairly real risk. But I was fortunate enough to the people I was in front of were quite casual, and adaptable for me. And basically, let me control the meeting, which was what I needed in those first conversations. From there, everything sort of developed out where I don’t have to follow a set format. If I’m sitting in front of someone who is very direct, and has to control the meeting, I can sort of move with that person as opposed to having to be the lead. So that that has took time and practice. And so

Jess Brady
these scripts helped you build sort of a framework and some psychological safety so that you felt that no matter what was thrown at you. You come prepared you thought about what to do no doubt situations would have arisen. then that had gone outside of that sort of script and skill set. But as you said, you sort of built your confidence because the first few, thankfully, sound like they were easy ones, or people that were quite happy to sort of follow the bubble or the the ball, I should say. And so do you think it worked? When you look back at those scripts? And how it went? You know, if you’re, if you weren’t going to do it again, would you follow a smell or methodology?

Nikki Booth
Yes, yeah, I would. I mean, even in my meetings today, I have like a set sort of agenda that is just my now mental check list that I follow in meetings, and it very much is reflective of those, those first sort of pieces that we put together, the other thing that we would do is I’d sit down with either guy or Ben, with the snapshot. So the client sort of bird’s eye view of scenario and what their sort of general goals were. And we would basically workshop the meeting before I went in to that meeting. So it would give me a little bit of an outline of, you know, they might throw a few little sticky questions at me and see how I react in that. That was that was extremely helpful.

Jess Brady
And so you had that real time feedback loop? Because someone was there sort of helping you understand what tricky things in curly questions might come up and how you’re going to approach them? And so how long have you been giving advice for now? Ah, that’s

Nikki Booth
so it would be five years. Industry you since 2013, but formally, in front of clients, five years.

Jess Brady
And so what do you say to an advisor, who’s got an amazing power planner, with the Power Plan is a little bit reserved, not as sort of outspoken as they are, but very competent, very technical, and has ambitions to become an advisor. What would you say to that advisor, who, or the practice owner, who thinks that perhaps you need to have more of an extroverted outgoing personality style to be successful in an advice landscape,

Nikki Booth
I would say I disagree with that, that sort of thought process, I think you should harness you know, that your cradle that person and their skill set to get them to where they want to go, because I would be pretty confident that if they were demonstrating those skills in the back office, the admin the power planning space, that would certainly carry through, and they would be able to nurture those client relationships quite well, both in new business or retaining existing business.

Jess Brady
I mean, obviously, our beta, I knew you were gonna say that, but I think that there is a, there’s method to my madness Dickie, because you and I spoke about this a little while ago, and there really is sort of a, an archetype of what an advisor is. And I think it turns a lot of people who aren’t naturally like that, you neither does two things. To me, it either makes them look at that and think, Well, that’s not me, therefore, I can’t do this, that’s not the thing for me. Or they have to then put on that persona, which is not them. And it’s not authentic. And it never works from a long term sustainability perspective, because you’re not being authentically you. And so I say full disclosure, I’m quite a loud, extroverted, confident person. And so I’m, I’m probably on the other end of the spectrum, but I want to hold space for saying that there shouldn’t just be one way and one type of way. And I’m a very passionate ambassador for diversity. And I don’t think we’ve talked about this sort of diversity enough.

Nikki Booth
Yeah, I think there’s the initial challenge of getting these type of people into these roles within the industry. But from a client’s point of view, if, if you’ve, you know, tracked the financial services industry over the last decade plus and you feel like they have an image of what the advisor is, and if you walk into that meeting, and you’re completely different to this boisterous individual that they’ve gotten there back in their mind, and you’re genuine to who you are, and you can legitimately help their financial situation, they’re going to be comfortable with that and they would see through any sort of false your advertisement of yourself shred.

Jess Brady
Totally, totally, totally. And just thinking about it. Like I think what we’ve done in the past is said okay, the people that are not as extroverted, possibly a better at technical components of advice and not as good at the face to face ongoing relationship components of advice. And so we’ve sort of pigeon holed people if they do become advisors to be more of the technical, almost non client face Seeing, which again, I would imagine you sort of disagree. Yeah, that is capability.

Nikki Booth
People can like really understand exactly what not, not only is the compliance probably going to be good, which is, you know, happy days, that’s part of the process. But they will be able to understand that client and then carry them through not the SOA implementation, or, you know, those those questions along time or, or the review process that they will understand and, like, execute exactly what the client needs. So I think that feedback loop between advisor and client would be actually, you know, each given their personality, it would be quite effective. Their issue, or my issue tends to be getting bogged down and in control of that process, sometimes, you know, wanting to be on every part of that time management wise, it’s just not possible, I need to have that team around me that I can rely on and be confident in their execution process. That’s probably one of the major drawbacks of of having that personality is, you know, you want to be on top of everything.

Jess Brady
Hmm, let’s talk about that for a minute. So you are highly successful paraplanner, you transition to a brave new world, which is advice? How did you then work with your power planner? Because that would have been a really hard process to let go?

Nikki Booth
Yeah. Yeah, it was super hard. And I’m pretty anal about certain things like I just, I just am, it’s just who I am. So fortunately, don’t get me wrong, I have butted heads a couple of times with different power planners with me wanting things done a particular way. Whereas, you know, the other advisors who are happy for the technical people do the technical work, and then they take the work and communicate it, that they they can let that go, I’m less inclined to be able to let that go. But fortunately, if we get too technical minds together, you know, generally, we can make a little bit of a plan of attack about how we’re going to handle that.

Jess Brady
And so do you have a power planner that works exclusively with you to your power planning in house? What does that look like for you right now?

Nikki Booth
Yeah, yeah. So we have, it’s changed over the years at the current state of it is that we have associated advisors who run our power planning, and we also have outsource power planning, who work hand in hand with those guys. And so the

Jess Brady
checking process for you or the feedback loop for you, how have you embedded that in your framework or your process now? Yep,

Nikki Booth
so everything from an advice, direction comes out immediately after the meeting, and then it’s picked up by the associate drafted for the external power plan is and then it comes back, it goes through the associate advisor before it lands with myself, and then it’s vetted from, from my point of view before it goes to presentation. So there’s quite a few points across the process.

Jess Brady
Yeah. And presumably, that trust level needed to be built over time, so that you could feel really confident handing things to the associate, because they seem to be the linchpin to make sure that the external power planner gets it done in the way that you’re looking for to ensure that there’s no rework or confusion with what exactly you’re wanting.

Nikki Booth
Yeah, yeah. It takes some time, onboarding new people getting them in, in your process, it naturally does take some time. And sometimes you will, you will inevitably have a little bit of a delay in some of the advice production. It’s just part and parcel with the process. But there are growing pains, if we’re going to want to expand, we’re going to need that support, in order to keep the business tracking the way that we want it to track.

Jess Brady
Hmm. Interesting. I can imagine for someone that really does value that that level of control, not in a bad way, in a good way. I feel like we’ve got negative connotations to the word control. It would be really hard, it would be really hard to let go and understand that commercially. This isn’t the right way for you to spend your time and energy, but still have the focus and the rigor that you need to have good quality advice documents. It’s a fascinating, complicated battle.

Nikki Booth
Yeah. Do you have to, I think, work as part of a team which means you know, if if I see an email that goes out that’s not perfectly positioned in the way that I would have done it if it still gets what I need to client. That’s what we need to happen.

Jess Brady
Well done you for letting go on what you need to process So I want to talk about you making partner, partner, which is really exciting. So first huge congrats,

Nikki Booth
right? Yeah, it was pretty big step.

Jess Brady
It’s a massive step. Can we talk about the journey to partner? And, you know, what were the milestones that you were working towards? Or the get like, did you have a really methodical plan with the other partners? How did the sort of partner process work for you? And, and obviously, tell me to go away if this is to, sort of, I like to, I like, I’m nosy. So I ask all the things, and you just push back on the things that you want to talk about. But um, you know, I’m fascinated to understand partnership processes in every business. And I want to know whether there was a really clear roadmap for you to make partner, was it something that you had to push a lot to become partner? Or is it something that was presented to you in terms of this is where we think you could go, and this is how you can get there?

Nikki Booth
Okay, well, so the partner process that we’ve gone through is probably, well, you can correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think it’s probably the traditional sort of setup. So essentially, what’s happened is, I had a portion of our like, very, very small portion of ownership inside of my wealth solutions, I think, yeah, it was paid as like a loyalty bonus scheme. But that company itself is is, you know, quite large at this point. So for me to buy into that, not only would there that, that sort of pool of partners become three, which wasn’t something that the primary directors Ben guy were too keen to do, but the percentage ownership would be quite small. So I wouldn’t have had too much control in the direction that I wanted to take. So instead, my clients have effectively been split out into my wealth solutions to and guide, and then own 25% each, and I own 50% of that entity. So that is how it’s positioned for the moment. That was an idea that was presented to me from Gaia and Ben. So it wasn’t necessarily always a part of my dream to have and run my own business. But it’s something that sort of developed as, as time has gone on, because naturally, as an employed financial advisor, that there’s a ceiling limit to what I could have offered my wealth solutions. And, you know, that sort of direction of what I wanted to do was was also, you know, not as tailored to my end outcome as I probably would have liked. So now with this shift, I can control one how I grow my own team, but to what I do personally, over time with my education pathways on the niche that I want to specialize in overtime.

Jess Brady
Interesting. Can we talk a little bit about the first business not number two, which is the one that you’ve got sort of the majority equity. And so you were given a teeny tiny portion of equity might not be teeny tiny, but just from what you’re saying, I think it might be of equity as an employee, as a loyalty reward. Did that happen when you were an advisor? Did that happen when you were a power planner? I think it’s always interesting around retention of staff and what people are offering to keep quality talent.

Nikki Booth
Yeah, it happened. So I was originally hired at my old solutions as a power plant. So luckily, my first day Ben literally gave me one never seen an SOA in my life. Here’s a new client situation, this is the strategies, see what you can do. So that was my introduction to to advice. But it’s and then what happened is the original like the CSO had left so I got moved into that role. And the boys assumes that power planning back in their workloads. So from there that when when the business built out that’s when I moved back into power planning before going to associate before going to advise us so in the bonus itself, the retention bonus the equity portion was paid initially when I was a client service officer, I believe, if I’m correct, and then second installment from from there when I possibly wasn’t associate, but it was all time related performance related loyalty. ESP employees. Yes. I’m program

Jess Brady
and you can tell me go away. But did it make you feel more wedded to the company? Because you were part owner,

Nikki Booth
I think it probably could have. If it was more like if it was it had a bit more reach about it. Or possibly, you know, the bit more significance around the numbers or what it meant, it was pretty nice to know that they wanted me to be a part of the business. And that’s why that was on offer. That was certainly was very happy with that. But it would have been nice to seeing like a longer vision from what that meant. But it just, you know, that that pathway never crystallized. And they presented this other pathway, which was the ownership, but you know, separation as well.

Jess Brady
Yeah. Okay, cool. I just think it’s interesting to understand, you know, from the perspective of the receiver, what did you feel? How did you think about it? Did it mean that, you know, you were you were, everyone’s different, right, but were you therefore, you know, really invested long, long term in them as a company, and, you know, listening to you, it sounds like, if you aren’t going to do that for staff really understanding, you know, that they know what it means, and that they then feel really empowered to be on the journey of making sure the business is successful, but also them understanding Well, what does this actually mean for me over the long term? And what is that progression pathway? I think for a long time, we’ve locked equity out of people that aren’t revenue producers or advisors. And so that’s really interesting to hear that that was something that was presented to you much earlier than that in your journey. Yeah, yeah.

Nikki Booth
Yeah, no, it was, I was extremely grateful to get offered that in, in the role that I was in. And on the timeline that I was just, I think it was just that vision and that sort of clarity around what that vision was, that was the missing piece.

Jess Brady
And so now we have this sort of, to number two version, which you sort of have the majority control over what have been the learnings or the surprises for you. Now that effectively you are sort of the business owner, there are there things that you are like, Oh, my gosh, if I hadn’t known about X, Y, Zed, before this, I would have done XYZ,

Nikki Booth
if I had have known what I have known today, I would have pushed for this a lot earlier, knowing that this was an option, then I would have been keen to pursue it. As soon as I possibly could. One of the biggest surprises has been probably that HR element is not you’re hiring and hiring my own staff and then running the workflow and managing that alongside of them. That has been quite time consuming and probably wasn’t something I inbuilt into my expectation when I was thinking about going this path. So I’m still wanting to keep my full advisor load, because I’m still building my client base. But then this add on, which has just meant that the you know, the time committed to this processes, has been a lot higher than I expected. But I should have expected that I’ll just don’t know why I didn’t at the time. You know, often HR, those, that sort of part of the business is always going to take your concentration. And yeah, I probably didn’t heed that advice as much as I should have.

Jess Brady
But you never really know, my analogy for this is it’s like having a baby, I think because I haven’t got one. But I think it’s like, you know, you know that babies in the beginning, don’t sleep and that require a lot of attention. And you know, you know, that you don’t really know what it’s really, really gonna be like. And I think anyone that manages staff or anyone that has a business is probably sitting in their car or wherever they’re listening to this guy. Yes. How do you manage that? This is really tricky. And I’ve been there too. How many staff do you have? are you likely to bring on more staff in the next little while and whilst you’re building your business, being the face and managing quite a lot of the other things and trying to have some form of life? How does this work of someone and I’m selfishly asking this because I’m still trying to find the answer. As someone who is quite organized, perhaps you’ve cracked the code, how do you do this?

Nikki Booth
So we have three in my team, so three plus myself plus an external outsourcer. So five as a group, we are currently looking to hire a new CSO to come on board which will allow one of my existing team members To progress in her pathway. And then so to one of the guys who’s just passed his senior exam, he’s going through his professional year, and he will be able to see some clients in the following quarter. So that’s the plan. Now, in terms of, we have a calendar block or you know, every week where we have a set allocation for an hour meeting each staff member, and that is to go through their workflow, everything is tracked through through various pipelines so that we can bring up summary sheets, and we can go through exactly, you know, where’s this client’s implementation at? Where’s this client’s review at? Or where’s this SOA prepper. So that that is how we manage it. It’s set in stone in the calendar, no clients can book over it. And it’s a place for burning questions every month, it is intended for us to have a bit of a bigger conversation around you, what are the roadblocks that they’re encountering? What what is the next step for their progression plan? Is there any issues that they’re sort of facing that we can help with? Just to try and keep the communication open? And resolve any issues or no other heads up?

Jess Brady
And so it sounds like there’s sort of two parts to this. There’s the everyday operational running, where’s the workload out? What’s holding you back? What’s happening from an operational perspective? And then there is a different, quite distinct meeting that is progression for you as a person, where are you at? Where are you moving to? How do we make sure you’re supported along the way? Is that right?

Nikki Booth
Yeah, yes, that’s the goal. I will admit that you know, that we have our set in stone, six monthly career planning session, and then all formal reviews. So that that will happen. That sort of one on one extended time, is it sort of falls out naturally in our catch ups. But I mean, the goal would be to have a bit more of in depth conversation about how they’re feeling about the role of business in general, and make sure that they’re still still happy. Because that stuff process hiring and developing is one expensive and too time consuming.

Jess Brady
And so hard. Yeah, so hard. getting it wrong is so hard and heartbreaking. For everyone involved. No one enjoys any of that as well. I can imagine you feel the same.

Nikki Booth
Yeah, exactly.

Jess Brady
And so would it be fair to say it’s a bout one day a week that you would spend on the business between all of the staff meetings and perhaps some other business style stuff that you would do? And then maybe the other time is client facing? Or what does that sort of mix look like for you?

Nikki Booth
So I would say all the business stuff, in terms of the numbers the because we’ve we’ve had quite a big changeover process from the revenue being directed to my wealth, one to my wealth to which is still ongoing at the moment. But that all of that is really hitting after hours, weekend time. The week itself is for new business, existing business or just random ad hoc follow up emails, the typical sort of stuff, but half day allocation purely for internal HR.

Jess Brady
Cool. Are you having any work life? I would? Is it work life balance? Is it work life balance? Any tips for anyone that’s doing this because I burnt myself out, demonstrably trying to do this and fit everything in? Have you managed to find a system or a process or a way that works for you? Or are you just happy to acknowledge this is the tricky point, and I’m just going to keep soldiering on, which is what I did and take it from there.

Nikki Booth
By I’m a, I’m a worker, I’ve always been a worker, if I’ve got a random day off, that doesn’t seem to have anything happening. I will be just checking on emails and doing a few bits and bobs because that’s the way that I am built. It doesn’t really, I’m sure it stresses my husband out. But more for me, it’s I’m sort of built this way. I am an advocate for if you need a day take day like it’s it’s sometimes everyone will hit that cap and if you just tap out for that 24 hours. Pretty strong believer that you can sort of come back and be ready to go the next day. I haven’t cracked any sort of code. I just believe that This is the part where you put in to get established so that you can get a bit more of that lifestyle balance back. But inevitably, I would never see myself in a position where, you know, the majority of my time isn’t taken up by work, because it is what I love doing.

Jess Brady
Yeah, awesome. Any other before we get into, I could ask you lots of work already have asked you lots of questions. Any other pieces of advice you would give? I want to talk specifically to the people that have aspirations to be advisors, but are scared about the journey or who have aspirations to go and present perhaps an equity model to business owners that, you know, that when they’re ready to step up to take that next level, like, do you have anything else that we haven’t covered today that you would say to them,

Nikki Booth
I would just say that you’re one of my probably biggest regrets is not stepping up sooner, and not sort of having those conversations with the directors in a constructive manner. It was always in, you know, something’s gone wrong, or I’m feeling unhappy. And then it was yard, those conversations weren’t constructive, because they were after the issues had sort of been around for a while. So I think approaching them to get a feel for what their vision is for the business. And then seeing how you work into that vision is pretty, pretty important. Because if they don’t have that professional development in mind, if they don’t want to grow the business, and you want to be an advisor, maybe it’s not the right fit. Whereas if you can align your two goals and objectives, then you know, that they’re going to be open to it. So if you put the numbers behind them, and you put the work to them, they should be open to those conversations. Yeah,

Jess Brady
absolutely. And it’s about not wasting your time and feeling to spirit along the way, right.

Nikki Booth
Yeah, yeah. Things things do take time. I think, you know, that’s the other side of things, you have to be a little bit patient, you have to be able to commit to the work and demonstrate that you’re capable of doing it. So it’s, it’s got to go both ways.

Jess Brady
Because equity is like marriage, like, you need to date first. I think. And I see this a little bit like we’ve had people come to us for advisor roles, and they’ve been really short on their timeframe around equity. And we’re like, whoa, we didn’t even know you yet. You didn’t even know us. Yeah, we got a date first, before we decide whether this is good for everyone. Otherwise, that can be really dangerous. Yeah,

Nikki Booth
yeah, I think it’s a big, you know, it’s a big decision to introduce someone into your, your business, it’s effectively like another baby. So you’re welcoming them into that family, and that all the legal financial stuff that’s going to come with it, you’ve got to be pretty comfortable together.

Jess Brady
Give it time. As millennials, we don’t like hearing that. But it is important. I’ve loved chatting to you today. Thank you so much for that I sort of bullied, bullied is a strong word with negative connotations, but possibly the right word, sort of bullied Nikki into being cast because I had heard amazing things about her. And I wanted to hold space for having this really important conversation. So before we get into rapid fire questions, I want to say a massive thank you, and how can people learn more about you and your business if they want to find you.

Nikki Booth
So you can find me on LinkedIn would probably be the easiest path to go. Otherwise, I mean, the mobile solutions office number is on the website along with the information around you know, the services that we do the team, if it’s in alignment with your vision, then just get in touch with the team. They’ll give you my email address, and then we can take it from there.

Jess Brady
Wonderful. Okay, let’s round out today’s chat with some rapid fire questions. Are you ready? Yes. What is one thing that you do to look after your

Nikki Booth
mental health? Go to the gym. So exercise, and is that often the goal is three to four times per week, but winter, three times? Three

Jess Brady
times? It’s good. We’ve already covered this a little bit, I think but I’m just gonna ask you just in case it’s a different answer to what we’ve talked about what is a piece of advice that you would give to younger Nikki?

Nikki Booth
I would say be a little bit more confident in yourself and your capability and approach conversations, meaning those meaningful conversations about where you want to go earlier and be a bit more constructive around how you’re approaching those subjects.

Jess Brady
Amazing. Do you have something that’s on your bucket? list that you haven’t ticked off yet.

Nikki Booth
I really want to spend at least a month in Italy and just go around my husband’s Italian. We love everything to do with Italian food wine, the culture. So that’s up there for sure.

Jess Brady
I think if you have an Italian husband, it’s compulsory that you do that. I agree. Ah, last question. Do you have a book for me to read as part of my fake book club? I have a couple.

Nikki Booth
The my probably favorite book is the brain that changes itself. It’s by Norman Doidge. But it’s about you know, what the human brain is capable of. So it’s something that the topic that I got pretty interested in is in the years ago, and the book itself was, yeah, I really enjoyed that book. Oh, my

Jess Brady
gosh, amazing. Thank you so much. Nikki, I’ve loved chatting with you today. Thank you so much for being the podcast guests for this week.

Nikki Booth
Thank you, Jess, thank you so much for having me.