#357 Felicity Cooper – Transcript

Jess Brady
Hi, Felicity.

Felicity Cooper
Hi, Jess, how are you?

Jess Brady
I’m good. I’m excited for today’s conversation. I have lots and lots of things that I want to ask you. And I’m going to try to do it in a logical sequential way so that people who are playing along at home can follow with me because I like to go on crazy tangents because I want to basically know all of the cool things that you’re doing. Because the industry is we’re going to learn a little bit more about you, but you have winning so many awards and upfront and massive congratulations to you, advisor of the year,

Felicity Cooper
thank you very much. I was a bit tough because that one, I didn’t really expect that.

Jess Brady
So exciting. So obviously, I want to use the time that we have together to learn so much more about you so much more about what you’ve built, the business itself and the client experience. But yeah, we’re going to talk about the awards piece as well. Because just from looking at your website, you are obviously doing something amazing, because this is not the first award that you’ve won. And perhaps it won’t be the last but before we get into all of that, for those people that do not know you. Can we talk a little bit more about who you are and your story.

Felicity Cooper
Sure. So I think I was never going to be a financial planner. I mean, I was going to be an accountant and then I ended up being a stockbroker. And so I worked with a couple of the big firms so JB where Goldman Sachs, Macquarie Morgan’s, somewhere along the line there I went, why am I doing stock broking? It’s one tiny piece of the puzzle, and morphed into financial planning. And then eventually, six months, six years ago, I went, actually I’m just gonna go and set up my own firm. And so self license six years ago, and loving. I was gonna say every single second of it, but probably 90% of it.

Jess Brady
Thank you for being honest and authentic. So just a quick one. Did you jump out of stock broking straight into your own business or when you say you moved into financial advice? Did you go and work in another business first?

Felicity Cooper
Well, really I did my first I think back then it was the DSP 22 years ago, it was always there. And I was always half giving the advice around the stock broking component. But it’s not really until six years ago that I said, You know what, I am not a stockbroker. I am a financial planner. And so from that,

Jess Brady
took yourself out of a broking world and straight into your own business. Yep. You are just as crazy as me. I’m so glad you’re here. Welcome. Wonderful. Okay. So six years ago, you started the business? What does the business look like now?

Felicity Cooper
So we now have nine staff. So three advisors to paraplanners to CSO and administration? is how it looks. That is a that is a busy world. You’re on the Gold Coast, correct? Yeah, based on the Gold Coast, but we’ve got clients all around the country now. Yeah. Okay.

Jess Brady
And did you take the broken clients follow you? Or did you start from scratch?

Felicity Cooper
Pretty much started from scratch. So I’ve got a few of those broken clients. But really, particularly when I left Macquarie, they had some pretty good anti compete clauses in their contracts, which kind of meant I had to start from scratch anyway.

Jess Brady
Yeah. Right. And where is the business at now? Have you reached the level, of course that you were hoping for? And you’re just hoping to enjoy those beautiful Gold Coast sunshine days? Or is this still in growth phase.

Felicity Cooper
So we’re definitely still in growth phase, but probably not at the rate that we’ve done in the past. So, you know, kind of did the first few years by just brute force. And now it’s trying to get a little bit more balance between growing business but also having a life, I’ve got a full 15 year old daughter. So, you know, quite conscious now the fact that, you know, she gets a driver’s license in nine months. And, you know, I’ve got limited time now to enjoy that. And we always tell our clients, you know, why you’re doing all of this? And I think sometimes as advisors, we have to stop and ask ourselves the same question. I don’t think we do that enough. No, I don’t think so either.

Jess Brady
Okay, so much of your time at the moment is spent running the business versus seeing clients.

Felicity Cooper
So we were a little different, I think, to most planning practices. So we don’t do reviews through the whole year. We have a concept called Search, which means that we see all clients twice a year in big chunks, which means that then outside that, I can do all the cool things and build the business and work on the business and answer client concerns or questions as they come up. But we’re quite proactive. So we see clients, February and March and then again in August, September, we do it all in six weeks, seven client appointments a day, and then it’s done.

Jess Brady
Hey, We do that. I’ve never known another builders. Yeah, we do it more than you. Because we’re crazy. I’ve never met another business that does this. And I don’t think we’ve done it 100 I don’t think we do it as good as we could. So you are going to explain in much more detail how you do this, because I think the efficiency gain from doing this is enormous. But let’s break it down. So you’ve got how many clients do you think you would have now as a business?

Felicity Cooper
So let’s say advisors can have up to 150 clients. So that way, we can see all clients over six weeks,

Jess Brady
and pre surge. Is that a thing? Is that what you call it? Yep. So prep. That work? How do you prepare so that surges are successful?

Felicity Cooper
So firstly, clients know that that’s how we do it. So I think that’s kind of step one is make sure that they’re aware of the process. So they get sent a calendar invite electronically six weeks before we start search. And they booked themselves in for their meeting, the moment that they booked themselves in, we go to a fact find check. So we ask them to check their fact find, tell them what our agenda is, and ask them if there’s anything that they want covered on the agenda. So from there, then we do all the file prep any ROA is SOA is that we think that we’ll need to do given that they’ve also told us what’s on their mind. Meetings are 75 minutes long, straight. After that. We’ve got the file notes. Like it’s all very regimented, I guess,

Jess Brady
is it just an advisor in the meeting?

Felicity Cooper
Yep, just advisor in the meeting. And we’ve built word with it. So it just asks us for prompts to put in the right areas into our file notes. copy of that goes to the clients copy of it goes to the CSO, they pick it up and start putting in all the tasks,

Jess Brady
the client gets your file notes, as you would write

Felicity Cooper
them pretty much. So we have a file note that goes to the clients, we email that reopen it, and then just edit anything in there that needs to go to the CSO, or that needs to be added from a more compliance aspect, emails it off, goes directly to x plan CSO puts in client tasks, our tasks. And you know, they’re getting a follow up within 24 hours. And we’re done.

Jess Brady
Amazing. How do you do the SOA is ahead of time.

Felicity Cooper
So only what we can do ahead of time. So because we’re asking a client, so firstly, we’re seeing them every six months, and then we’ll have client service points in between that. So we really know in advance for most clients what it is that we’re going to be looking at in six months time. So every surge will have what’s our future consideration, is there something that we’ll have to have a look at for next time. So we might know that you need more cash, or your mom and dad are going into aged care or, you know, we know that you’re finding this nomination is going to expire in that time or your driver’s license, or you’re going to hit pension age, whatever it is. So because it’s just that constant rotation, we know 90% of it, and then we’re asking them what their agenda is. So, I mean, you imagine if somebody comes in to you, and you haven’t asked them, what’s on your mind at the moment, you have your own agenda, and they can come in and go. But that’s, that’s not what is important to me right now, what I’m really having to deal with is the fact that, you know, I’ve got a child that’s gone off the rails, or we’re gonna get a divorce, whatever it is. Whereas Imagine how different that is if they come in to the meeting. And you know, I know we had an agenda that you said this was going on. And here’s some preliminary thoughts I already have around that. And I’ve done the work already. And then we can just make a quick little ROI out of it afterwards.

Jess Brady
I love that you do this. I haven’t heard of another business that does this. Did you get this? Like, how did you come up with this this concept? And how is it evolved to be what it is today for you?

Felicity Cooper
Well, I think the first time I heard about it was actually on a podcast, one of the Michael Kitces podcast, okay. And I have a coach over in the US, who also saw over there quite a lot of advisors use it. It’s just not something that is wide, like widely used here. So did quite a lot of research on it. Tried it broke it, redid it.

Jess Brady
What do you mean? Let’s talk about what you’ve learned throughout the process of doing it like what have you tried that you were like, no. For us, this wasn’t the right thing. So we moved to this style or this way? Well, I think

Felicity Cooper
and again, it’s something that our firm is really good at is breaking things purposefully. So if I have a look at the way that we did search, for example, so we set up boards as well and the office could bet dates and breakdowns. So everything that doesn’t work. We keep a record of it so that at the end of it we can say what worked, what didn’t how are we going to fix that, fix it, put it away until the next time it comes around. So it’s always an evolution of how do we do it better. But for example, the first time we did it, the online scheduling system didn’t work properly. The emails didn’t go out to clients, we actually had an email go to a deceased client, that wasn’t very much fun. You know, then we had two people wanting to join zoom meetings, we’ve never had multiple zoom meetings or a way that they could send an invite to another person. So now we have that process. And we were just writing file notes after meetings. And then we said, that’s just taking forever. And we’ve got 15 minutes between meetings, how do we make sure that it happens in that time? Preparation time, and then there’s also we left no room for prospect meetings. So you know, you get to the end of six weeks and go well, with the new client flow. I kind of forgot about that bit. And I wonder there’s no new clients, we haven’t seen anybody new for six weeks, we’ve just worked. So how do you? So now we only see clients Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. So Mondays are prep, and new clients Fridays, a get through anything that didn’t get done a new client. So we now actually Top Top and Tail the process.

Jess Brady
And if you found that that’s works quite successfully in terms of balancing the new business and the existing client surge requirements,

Felicity Cooper
yep. But it’s also balanced mental health a little bit more to, you can imagine if you try and do that five days in a row for six weeks, by the end of six weeks, everyone’s a little frazzled, myself included, I’m smiling and

Jess Brady
nodding because that’s what we do. And it’s so exhausting, and actually, to the point where the team can get a bit overwhelmed in anticipation for the work that’s coming, because they know that this is this huge lump of work. And look, we’re not here to talk about what I do. But we’ve made some efficiency changes as well. But from a business perspective, if you can get it right, as you say, it then frees up so much other time that you would be spending on reviews throughout the year. So what’s that, what is that surge period enabled you to do when you’re not doing those searches, tell me how you have balanced your life or found the secret to work life balance and profitability and all the things that business owners want to see and hear people achieve.

Felicity Cooper
I think when you think about it, it gives you 40 weeks of the year that you’re not doing review meetings in. So we then I’m a big believer that consistency compounds. So then we use that time for different clients service schedules that are more proactive. So for example, we’re reviewing everybody’s wills and estate planning at the moment, we might do everybody’s tax preparation, where we will do everybody’s tax preparation in May and June. That means that we can focus on those things, and also then be very tightly in responses when clients need us outside that normal planning cycle. So you know, we’re financial planners, we’re not firefighters, that lets us put the right thing in the right boxes. But it also then means that we can take that same process and apply it to the other things in the business. So whether it’s kind of a mini marketing search, where now we’re going to make all of our video content in two weeks, because we don’t need to be doing all the client reviews. So it just actually means that we can plan out pretty much a whole year in advance. And then in school holidays, I pretty much work half time, because we don’t surge during school holidays ever. Amazing.

Jess Brady
So you get to have quite a lot of time off or time with your child or time to do you things that are important to you. There would be a lot of people that don’t do this, that would be scared to move to it, because maybe their clients are used to having their reviews in a certain months. And they’ve had this reviews in a certain month, you know, always or, you know, sometimes we’ve complicated ideas in our mind around, you know, we have to do it this way. What would you say to those people who are not doing searches?

Felicity Cooper
That’s a mindset thing. It’s not actually a practice thing. It’s just a mindset thing. We thought the same thing. But in actual fact, when you send out an email that says, there’s so much going on in the world at the moment, we’d like to have a catch up, and then that just resets everybody, and you go, Okay, well, you know, we don’t need to really see you again in the next three months. So we’ll work something in for August, September. And and then it’s done. I think part of the problem is we look at so many things and think clients will judge us or won’t like it and we don’t try it whereas we had 95% of clients booking by themselves. clients that have never booked online before they just do it. And next time they do it quicker because they want their date and they realized that it all got booked out

Jess Brady
amazing, really excited. Oh, congratulations. That’s fantastic. And no doubt, because you’ve built in extra time to have that level of proactivity. On other elements of the advice. So as you say, clients come with their agenda. But of course, we have other things that we want to also make sure that they do properly and having the time throughout the year to get an element of proactivity. In on that is no doubt hugely valuable. I’m trying to say, I think I can see why you’re winning awards, lots of awards. Congratulations. I’d love to understand how the awards journey has been for you. Because there’s been some big awards, where you’ve been on road shows. And, you know, it’s been a lot of time out of the business as well. So I’m keen to understand how did the awards come about? I know that a lot of people self nominate, that’s awesome. Other people get nominated? And what’s the impact been for you? Good, bad and indifferent along the journey?

Felicity Cooper
I think for us, well, for me, anyway, the first awards, were there just to help me get over my own imposter syndrome. Am I? Yeah, am I actually doing this, particularly when you have your own business, you don’t have the peers to bounce off for the external people, you’re probably not seeing as many other plans that you can then judge yourself against. So I think the first time was just always to go through that peer review process of, I think we’re doing okay, but I’m going to put it out there. And if I’m not, well, I’m going to find out really quickly. And if we’re doing it really well, then I’ll find out really quickly. So and I just think the process of awards is so fantastic. So I was actually talking to an advisor on the weekend. And they said, You know, I’ve gone to fill in all of the award submissions before, and I get halfway through, and it’s just so hard. And so I don’t do it. And I said to them, I think maybe just change the perspective on it a little bit that you’re not actually doing it so that you win an award, you do it because it gives you time to self reflect. So if you get a question that says, you know, what’s your process for new clients? And you can’t answer that for this submission, then you’ve now got an opportunity to go, Oh, I couldn’t really answer that. I might go away question that myself redefine that and make sure that next time I do something like this, I have a really good answer. So I think it’s that process that it gives you of being able to self score along the way.

Jess Brady
And when you had impostor syndrome, and you were putting yourself forward, you still have it, still have it. So listen to your advisor of the year.

Felicity Cooper
Yep, still have it still have that moment where I tell myself, it’s only six people in a room. And maybe I just had a good day, we need

Jess Brady
to pause on this. Thank you for being honest. Thank you for validating probably how 99.999% of us think a lot. Did the recent award change the imposter syndrome for you? Fascinating. Human beings are fascinating, aren’t we fascinating. So I think this is an enormously important message. It’s scary. And you have to be brave and do something, despite the fear. Because clearly, no matter how successful you are, no matter how many awards you’re winning, we still have this teeny tiny voice that lives within us that’s like, yes, you’re I’m not sure I’m not sure if you’re good enough or ready enough or worthy enough, or whatever it is. And that clearly doesn’t go away with all of the definitions that we put on success. Well, not

Felicity Cooper
only that, though, you know, it is success isn’t an award. Success is for me anyway about having work life balance and a sustainable business and clients that I like to work with and hanging out with my family. So it’s not this single facet, thing that makes you successful or not successful. But again, it’s that mindset thing. You know, we have talks about how much do people charge for their advice. One of the things that I get feedback on is you just don’t charge enough. And I look at it. So you know, we’re not big C charges. But again, that’s, that’s just a mindset thing. I’m sure we could charge more if we asked for it.

Jess Brady
It’s, firstly, I completely agree with you. society puts emphasis on these success, parts of our lives. They live these life milestones that a meant to indicate whether we’re a successful human or not. And they often are driven by status and by, you know, titles and income that we then derive our worth from, which is so silly because actually what is happiness and success to one person is completely different to the other. But clearly, what I’ve learned is that from you today, we can have all of the hallmarks of success in a corporate business ownership perspective, and still have something inside of us that needs to be over Welcome. And a good reminder that success is not wedded to that you might do an award process and move no further forward in the journey. And that’s okay.

Felicity Cooper
That’s fine.

Jess Brady
How has your coach helped you? Can you talk a little bit more about coaching and mentoring and this cumulative or compounding? Benefit? It’s, it sounds to me like you’re quite a dedicated diligent person, and I’m keen to learn more. Yeah, so

Felicity Cooper
I think it’s funny, I am dedicated and diligent, but I also look for places and opportunities to improve all the time. So you know, I have my own notebook of all the cool ideas of cool things that we could do, that would make processes better. So things that would make life better for clients, for business or for me, and the notebook gets very, very full. But it’s funny that one of my friends said, Ah, you just did such and such, I remember you spoke about that three years ago. And I thought, Oh, that’s a good idea, Felicity, and you’ll never do it. But it’s just tucked away. And when I have time that will come to life. So it’s about being patient through the process, but not giving up or giving up. So I think that’s that consistency compounds piece is that you’re not going to get it all done all at once. You just change one thing at a time. And know that next time you do it a little bit better and a little bit more. But you would know it in your business. There’s lots of things that you try, and they just don’t work, whether it’s marketing, new coding, and an SOA way that you’re going to present to clients. But the idea is, is you try it, you take the bit that works. And then you build on that again.

Jess Brady
And as a coach helped you throughout all of this, like when did you get a business coach?

Felicity Cooper
Only six months ago. So I’ve never had one before that so only six months ago. And for me, it’s been a game changer. So she works just with financial planners. And that has been a game changer in that. She just calls me on my bullshit. So when I say I can’t do that clients will never do that little bit like surge clients are never going to do that. They’re busy. They don’t want to fit in with our timetable and our schedule. They want it done on their schedule. That’s just the story. You tell yourself, give it a go. If 30% of people don’t book, then yes, you’ve got a problem, see how it goes. Okay. See how it goes.

Jess Brady
And so it’s it’s so fascinating to me that this business coach concept for you is so new, given how much success I know you’ve had for such a long period. So congrats on doing that by yourself. That’s a That’s amazing. Was there a reason why you decided, okay, now is the time I want a business coach? Or did someone offer you someone’s information. And that’s how you sort of got onto it. What led you to get a business coach,

Felicity Cooper
it was just life was hectic. You know, you can get so busy. In planning, especially I think you take so much on of what clients are doing and wanting to be all things to all people. So I was juggling the business, being a planner, being a mum not having any time off. And I actually got to a point where I said, I’m not having fun anymore. This isn’t I don’t even know if I want to do this. I don’t sleep, you know, we’ve got 30 ROA is in the pipeline that we haven’t got done. But there just has to be a better way for me to do this. And so that’s why I then look for people that could show me others that have done it differently and better or differently. I think we’ve all got different ways of doing it. And there’s no such thing as a right way. But I look at it and go, why not learn from somebody else’s mistakes, sometimes and not have to make all of them myself.

Jess Brady
I can make my fair share, to contribute to the community. But I don’t need to make all of them. I liked her a lot. And so was it intentional to get a coach from the US? Or how did that come about?

Felicity Cooper
It wasn’t intentional, I didn’t really know anyone here. And I do like the idea of whether it’s taking ideas from other industries, taking ideas from other markets. So they might not have the same regulations as us or the same compliance or the same processes or requirements. But they do have the same challenges. So if you look at your client service, for example, you can learn a lot from things like the Hilton group or hotels or, you know, different areas altogether. If you look at the way that your website works, you can look at the different user interface that happens in other industries that we’re not using in financial planning. So I think it’s just again looking for a coach that does something different that is in a completely different market that then also has none of their own biases of this is the way that you do it is just challenging me to think very differently.

Jess Brady
Did you have to date a few coaches to find the right one? Or were you lucky and you found one. And I was really

Felicity Cooper
lucky. The only thing I’m not lucky about is it means that every Tuesday morning, I’m up at three o’clock in the morning to hop on a call.

Jess Brady
Oh my gosh, that’s such dedication, you must really love your coach.

Felicity Cooper
To go, my partner and I have to sleep separately on Monday night so that I can get up and not wake the whole family up.

Jess Brady
Yeah, you don’t go to work after that? Do you go back to bed? No, no,

Felicity Cooper
I’m going to work. That gives me that finishes at around 430. So then gives me an hour to an hour and a half where I can take notes from that and make changes. So actually implement some of the things that I’m thinking about before then the family gets up at six. And then off I go,

Jess Brady
that’s actually a very cool, I mean, it’s crazy that you get up literally in the middle of the night to have the call. But just thinking through the idea that you strike after the meeting, have beautiful, precious, uninterrupted time, no one call Felicity at 430 on a Tuesday morning, now that you know that she’s awake, do not do that. That’s very mean. But you’re actually making change instantly, as much as you can after that call.

Felicity Cooper
Yep, that’s right. Otherwise, you can just get it’s bit like conferences, they’re awesome. But you come away with 500 million things that you could do. And then how many of them do you actually do? Whereas if you could just take the one thing again, just one thing at a time, consistently,

Jess Brady
six months? It’s not? It’s not a long stretch of time. But how has it changed you? How has it changed the business? And that idea of like, I’m not enjoying this? Is this for me? How am I gonna keep doing this? What’s changed in that short space of time,

Felicity Cooper
I think it’s changed a lot. So processes were a lot more process and systemized now, which just helps me a lot, I don’t feel quite as manic, I think I’m starting to get actually a bit manic with the whole thing. So now, it’s just what’s the most important thing to do? What can wait, what’s important and urgent, what’s important, but not urgent, what’s not important and not urgent? Yeah, and what is really just not important and not urgent at all that you really just don’t have to worry about at the moment. Before that I had actually worked with a coach a couple of years ago, that was more on change management. So she was a psychologist that dealt with corporate change management. So she would run experiments with me of if I said, I just don’t think I could do that. She’d say, Well, you know, what would happen? If you actually thought that you could do that? What would you do differently? If you looked at yourself in the mirror and went, actually, if I want to act like a successful financial planner, what would that person do? And then emulate that, rather than it’s a, what am I going to do? So, which is big, you know, like The Power of Habit, that’s one of the things that they say, in habit forming is, if you want to be healthy, don’t worry about what foods you would eat so much worry about, well, what would a healthy person do? And and just try it. So it’s a lifestyle thing. And it’s an identity thing, rather than an action driven thing.

Jess Brady
I’m quietly smiling over here, because I feel like you must have been listening to a conversation that I was having with a very, very different two Saturdays ago, where we had exactly this conversation, and that was about wrapping habits and behaviors around an identity of, you know, who do I want to be? And how would someone who is like that show up? How would someone like that behave? And I know, it’s from a very famous book, it completely stopped me in my tracks. And over the last few weeks, I’ve made some really significant habit changes, because I keep thinking about this idea of identity. And if I want to be this person, a person who is like that does this. So I’ve just got to do this, because that’s how I get there. Are we on the same page? Absolutely.

Felicity Cooper
So it’s not Yeah, it’s not the actual little action. It’s the, what does that identity do? If I’m going to be that person, then I have to own the identity of that person?

Jess Brady
Why don’t we learn this stuff? Honestly, the things that we learned in school, no financial literacy, nothing about this, both of wildly helpful in real life, wildly, wildly helpful. So it sounds like you had some work years ago on managing that part. And then now you’ve got the coach who sounds like it’s more business process improvement, helping take words out of your head onto paper so that it’s replicable and consistent and not having to be worried about from you from a manic perspective. Do you see that this business coach will be some one that you use for a short period of time? Indefinitely?

Felicity Cooper
Think I’ll keep doing it until I feel that I don’t get anything out of it, which means I’ll probably be there for life because there’s always more to learn. So I think if I change it would be because I want another perspective. Not not anything to do. With a coach, but just a, is there another perspective that I could add to this, and I’m not gonna get up at three o’clock in the morning, two times a week. So I can only have one.

Jess Brady
We have limits people, I like it. I like it a lot. So when your six year journey, obviously, you’ve learned a lot coming from a broking background, I can’t imagine the change that that would mean, you know, building yourself and also the business? What are your biggest learnings for someone who might feel like it’s their time to step into their own thing? And do it the way that they want to do it?

Felicity Cooper
Give it a shot? And seriously, what’s the worst thing that can happen? Yeah, you decide that you don’t like it? That and that’s not a failure thing. Either. You give it a go, you don’t like it? Okay. You learn something from it, and work for somebody else again?

Jess Brady
Yeah, I think we’re sometimes very, we ask a lot for our clients to be courageous, we ask them to make decisions that might be out of their comfort zone, or we try to teach them about risk. And I often feel that we’re not overly good at doing it ourselves when we need to be brave and do that. On your journey, have you done anything that if you had, I mean, obviously, you all had things that you would do, again, differently, any really big learnings that you would like to sort of share with the community?

Felicity Cooper
I think it didn’t have to be as hard as it was. So I think, you know, if I had got a coach earlier, or if I had asked for advice, or other people’s learnings I’ve learned now people will actually share when you ask for it. So I didn’t have to go and rediscover everything myself. So I probably would have asked for some more help along the way.

Jess Brady
Because we are a collaborative bunch, which is unusual. I believe other professions are not like this.

Felicity Cooper
Yep. But not all, plan is a collaborative either. So I think that’s probably the biggest thing that I would do, I would, again, start with the end in mind, which is what I’ve always done, I’ve always had a vision of what I want the firm and life to look like, I wouldn’t really change that. And I think, with the benefit of hindsight, you know, when you’re first starting out, it’s easy to think you need every client, you’ve got bills to pay, every client is a good client. And as you go through the journey, you realize not every client is a good client. But not only that, there is actually enough to go around. So I also don’t have to protect my own IP, or the way that we do things or my client base as if Oh my god, you know, I’m gonna lose them all overnight. You just do the right thing for the right people. And there’s plenty to go around. Totally, totally, totally.

Jess Brady
Is there something that you’re working on at the moment within the business that you’re really excited about?

Felicity Cooper
We just built an in house Video Studio, which I am super excited about, say more. So we’ve always done some videos, we had a little studio, but we’ve now just built her. I don’t know, I think it’s a six by eight meter in house Video Studio. So fully equipped, lighting, mics, cameras, multiple cameras, so that we can take that marketing message to the next level.

Jess Brady
That’s so exciting. How are you feel? Like, how you using videos at the moment? Or how will you be using videos do you think with this new setup.

Felicity Cooper
So we will start doing interviews with the people behind product and ideas that kind of drive our advice to clients and the way that we do things. So the interview series, but we also do other things. So the studio has a whole heap of different colored backdrops. So if we’re doing a market update, we’ll use one backdrop if we’re doing a Tech Update, we’ll do something different. If we’re doing a video cast, which is an interview style, then we’ll use a different backdrop.

Jess Brady
So video is gonna form much more of a presence in your business than it has in the past.

Felicity Cooper
Yep, definitely. And that in itself is a learning curve. And the first time that I did anything, video was a disaster. So it can only get better.

Jess Brady
Bless us, we’ve got to start somewhere.

Felicity Cooper
Absolutely. Preferably turn your sound on though. That’s my first tip. If you’re gonna go and do a live for 45 minutes. Turn on your sound.

Jess Brady
I don’t know much about tech. But yes, I would very much agree. Although I’m gonna say when I did my foot one of my first x my podcasts, the editor, Karen. Hi, Karen was very panicked after the podcast. He called me because I didn’t use the right mic. I used a mic that was way away from where we were recording. So I too have made some silly You sound mistakes.

Felicity Cooper
But you’re I can fix most of it. Yeah. And I

Jess Brady
was like, they don’t want to listen to me. Anyway, I’m interviewing the guest. It’s the guest that needs to be heard. Um, but in all seriousness, now that you, I mean, you’ve won lots of awards, you do a lot of public speaking, you’re about to do more videos, no doubt over the next four months being advisor of the year that’s going to come with a lot more opportunity to be profiled and showcased, which is awesome. Did you do any media training? Or have you done any PR training that you feel like has been necessary or helpful?

Felicity Cooper
I think I grew up as a debater. So for me, I was always ready to talk and on my feet, but I do know, when I won the AFA Excellence in Education Award, they did PR training as part of that. That was also very helpful in terms of how do you put an idea into a sentence that isn’t gonna be used against you as part of the training of just there are places to say some things and other places, just not to say some things. So that was also helpful. But again, I think it’s just something you learn over time, and do it over and over and over and over again.

Jess Brady
Yeah. And you don’t have to be without fear to do it. No, otherwise,

Felicity Cooper
I wouldn’t do anything.

Jess Brady
It’s so reassuring to know that this is normal. Because sometimes you wonder, clearly there’s something wrong with me. No, actually, it’s just no one else is talking about it. We all feel very similar. Yep. Interesting. Um, huge. Congrats, seriously, huge congrats on the award, not just for the award sec, to your point, whether you win the award or not, you know, obviously people go into it, they’d like to win. But actually having been quite close to the awards process. Myself, I went out and did all of the site visits and interviews several years ago, there is so much rigor that exists within that award framework. And so I’m excited that you won the award, because it means that you’ve got an outstanding business, it means that your compliance is excellent, it means that your clients love you. And I’m very happy to say how amazing you are. And your team, you know, I know that this is not something that happens just for one person, it’s often a big, you know, collaboration with lots of people. But to come from a completely different world, and to get an advisor of the year in just six years is truly amazing. huge congrats to you. And it’s gonna be so exciting to see what you do over the next 12 months. It’s nice to have a female as and is it a redheaded female,

Felicity Cooper
I think we can run with that.

Jess Brady
There’s not many of us people. So I’m just very excited. It’s gonna be really exciting for you to showcase some platform, you know, the good work that you’re doing, but also females in advice as well, which is outstanding. So huge congrats. If people want to learn more about what you do, how can people learn for the city?

Felicity Cooper
For now just connect in LinkedIn or send me an email. I’m an open book. So if somebody wants to have a chat, reach out, but definitely connect on LinkedIn.

Jess Brady
Wonderful. Okay, before we wrap up today’s conversation, can I ask you a few rapid fire questions? Yes. Lovely. I asked the same ones every week. So the first one is, what is one thing that you do to look after your mental health I

Felicity Cooper
meditate every day, actually, I also go hiking. That’s, that’s my big one. So I meditate daily, 20 minutes a day, and then go hiking whenever I can.

Jess Brady
Do you meditate a particular time of day? Do you have someone guide you through that? Do you do it

Felicity Cooper
alone, end of the day, and I use the waking up app on my phone, so it’s a 20 minute guided meditation. And that for me, it helps me sleep. So it puts everything back in the right box and goes okay, work is done. Family has done time to actually get some

Jess Brady
rest. It’s amazing. And how often do you go hiking often as I can.

Felicity Cooper
So I’m actually off tomorrow for a two day hike. I like multi day hikes. So yes, as often as I can not as much as I’d like.

Jess Brady
You staying out there overnight. Yes. Good. That’s a piece of advice that you would give to younger Felicity

Felicity Cooper
just do it. So my favorite saying is get up, dress up, show up and never give up. Sometimes you’ve just got to put your game face on. And do it no matter what you’re feeling.

Jess Brady
Easier said than done, but I liked it. I liked it. I liked the advice. Do you have something that’s on your bucket list that you haven’t done yet?

Felicity Cooper
Bucket List definitely wants to see the Northern Lights. Preferably from a glass igloo.

Jess Brady
Getting quick before climate change.

Felicity Cooper
I know right?

Jess Brady
That would be so cool. So love that. Last question for you. I have a favorite book club. Do you have a book that you would recommend for said a fake book club? Oh,

Felicity Cooper
so I read a book a week? Yes.

Jess Brady
Oh my gosh, I feel like I have so many more questions for you. Such as, Oh my gosh, she’s got all these questions. She’s got all these books that she’s holding up. Oh, my gosh. So you read a book a week? Hold on, you read? Do you do the thing where you divide the number of pages into seven days? And do that a day? Or how do you do?

Felicity Cooper
I just read a book. So just make sure it’s done by the end of the weekend. Start the next one. I’m quite sure that it means that my office administrator hates it because it means every week there’s more books turn up from Amazon.

Jess Brady
Okay, so you read a lot of books. I thought I average about one a week and a half one a fortnight I thought I was doing well. Bucha to me one a week. I don’t read one at a time, though. I’m one of those really weird people that I’ve got. I’m reading four books at the moment, because I’m obviously mad. But given that you read so much, is this a hard question? Do you have like a standout book?

Felicity Cooper
So at the moment, two favorite is drive by Daniel Pink. Yeah. And On The One Thing by Gary Keller, are these business books or other kind of lifestyle books? So Dr. Is psychology, by Daniel Pink talks about the truth of what motivates us. And it’s not money. It’s actually different things for different people. But yeah, so it’s, it’s about what actually motivates us, and therefore helps with discussions with clients about what motivates them. Because you would know you can write the best plan in the world. But if you can’t actually get a client to do something, your plan is pretty much worthless. So I quite like those kinds of books. And then the one thing is really just that what is the one thing that pivots the most at the moment. So just focusing on one thing, not 100 different things, what is one thing,

Jess Brady
beautiful, it’s very obvious that you invest time in yourself, to make yourself the best version of you and making sure that you’re constantly learning and keeping up and that means that you’ve obviously got an amazing business off the back of that. So again, thank you so much for being part of today’s XY chat. Congratulations for having me. And I can’t wait to see you continue to flourish in the wonderful world that you’re in. Congrats, thanks Felicity.

Felicity Cooper
Thanks very much. Jess