CEO Update

Dear FPW Adviser Community,

As often is the case, when you take time out of your usual day-to-day environment and routines, you find yourself with time to think and reflect, recharge, refocus and re-energise. After a fantastic conference in Japan, I’ve done all of those things. I am also hoping that those of you who attended are feeling the same, as well as united in the Fitzpatricks community.

Conference gave us all 3 days to work on the businesses and not in the business. The notion of working on the business rather than in it was first coined by Michael Gerber in the E-Myth Revisited – an excellent read. He suggests that to make a business work, you have to shift your thinking; you have to start thinking differently.

You would have to start imagining your business as something wholly separate from you. You would have to think about your business strategy, not just the tactics of your business. You would have to envision how your business would work, not just do the work of your business. You would have to figure out how every business process could look and function to give your client the experience you’re dedicated to providing. You would have to think about the kind of people you would need and the culture you have to create to rally everyone around your vision. You would have to imagine every system your team would need to effectively create an exceptional client experience…

The point here being, that it’s better to imagine this system with you being a part of it, not it being dependent on you to survive. It strikes me that this is the theory of the National Firm.

The theory of the National Firm is that of a group of advice practices acting in collaboration, under one brand and business model will be able to compete better than acting alone. This theory assumes that with collaboration we will be able to create and increase value to the client consistently and continually, and that the advice firms can share some of the created value and grow their EBIT and thus value.

This is what we started to explore at conference, we explored what the National Firm is and what it could become. We explored what the community would look like, what the culture needs to be, what partnership would look like, who the ideal client is, what harmony and collaboration mean and what our rules of engagement are. We covered a lot of ground, but we made significant progress. We started to work together in partnership to understand the program of work ahead in building the vision and dream together.

As part of Scott Young’s session, we played with being “a highly aligned team, with a strong culture who are client obsessed, with a growth mindset and slick operations” – sounds pretty good doesn’t it! He introduced this concept of a winning formula and encouraged us to create ours – what will it take for us to win and create profitable growth for all stakeholders? There is lots to think about here, and lots of work to be done, but I feel that the paradigm shift has started. We are already starting to think and act as partners who are committed to building a business that relies on the community not the individual for our mutual success. So much so that by the end of the conference, all who attended signed up to the Charter, signalling their intent to be involved, to participate in co-designing the National Firm and to be curious learners.

Personally, it is very motivating to know that there is a committed community (which I am part of) building a business that enriches people’s lives.

Enriching lives has always been a core value of FPW. I am proud to say that as a community, once again we raised $34,000 through the Fitzpatricks Foundation for Oz Harvest.

It was a privilege to have Ronni Khan join us from Oz Harvest for the day and to hear her share her story and her life purpose. Her story and purpose is even more poignant with recent world events, and reminds us to be grateful for what we have. We will continue to raise funds as part of the Fitzpatricks Foundation and will bring you more information on what this will look like in the new year.

All the photos and content shared at conference, as well as the video recordings of Scott Young and John Jones are available on our Adviser Portal. I encourage you to take the time to go through the content – it is rich and thought provoking. As always, I am happy to chat and more than willing to discuss conference outcomes/themes.

Lastly, to all the advisers who were able to attend conference, it was great to get to spend quality time with you and your families and to get to know you better. I am proud and grateful to be part of this community. I look forward to catching up with you at the upcoming Adviser Days in November.

ADVISER COMMUNITY NEWS

This month we interviewed David Counsel, Senior Financial Adviser at Fitzpatricks Private Wealth WA Pty Ltd who has recently returned from a 4-day family trip to one of the most beautiful places in the world, Denmark, in the south coast of Western Australia.

Q: How long have you been at Fitzpatricks Private Wealth WA Pty Ltd?
A: My role initially started 10 years ago with Garry Symonds and the previous business owner as a Senior Financial Adviser, to then partnering with the Fitzpatricks group 4.5 years ago.

Q: Why did you enter the financial services industry and how long ago?
A: I liked numbers and was always curious about what people did with their financial affairs. I loved economics and finance at university, but there was no way accounting or economics was ever going to be my chosen pathway. It was a friend’s father that triggered my interest in financial services, he seemed to have an amazing life, with an abundance of spare time; he coached our footy team so super involved in the community and managed to do all the things he loved whilst being a Financial Adviser.
He was an old-school Adviser who offered his wisdom, guidance, and knowledge to a young 20+ year old, so I started my studies knowing this was my chosen path, even though I had no understanding of where I would land. The one thing that stuck with me was always do the right thing by your client, something he did extremely well.

Q: What has been your best life experience so far?
A: An easy question, meeting my wife (Elena) and the birth of our two beautiful girls (Indiana 6) and (Harper 4) by far exceeds any other experience.

Q: What do you want to do when you grow up?
A: I have no set goals to tick off when I grow up, only to follow life’s journey and be proud of what I can provide for my family. Personally, my two young girls being proud of me (non-financially) will be my greatest legacy. Professionally, knowing that I have had meaningful impact on my clients’ lives is also important.

Q: When have you felt you have enriched a client’s life?
A: My most recent enrichment was a client suffering terrible mental demons as he approached retirement. He was petrified that he and his wife would not be able to achieve their goal of living 6 months in Australia and 6 months in Scotland. I was able to work directly with this client on how we could balance what was possible and what was not. It was wonderful to recently hear that they purchased the property they dreamed of facing the North Sea in Ireland. Their dream was achieved.

A: Would you like to share a monumental change that you know was the right one?
Elena and I made the decision to prioritise lifestyle and education for our children, we subsequently started building a big new home which is close to the school we want our children educated at, this may take up to 3 years to complete, although it sometimes feels like 10 years, however, we both already know it is so worth it.