Being a financial adviser is more than just completing transactions
Journey to Adviser – Dale’s Story
It’s such a great feeling when you know you’ve really supported someone to achieve their goal. In the Journey to Adviser series, we asked some of our delegates to share their success stories and what inspired them to pursue a career as a financial adviser.
In this episode, Dale shares his story. Having worked previously at an estate agency, Dale didn’t want to just sell to people and have that transactional relationship. He always enjoyed helping people, and it progressed from that realisation that he decided to pursue a career as a financial adviser
Tell us about your journey, what made you decide to pursue a career as a Financial Adviser?
It started with mortgage advice initially. And I got into that because I was in for my sins, estate agency and property before that. So, I didn’t want to just go to people and have that transactional relationship.
I wanted to give advice, I’ve always enjoyed helping people, and it kind of then progressed from that realisation. It was nice to match people to their dream houses, but then it fell a little bit too much like a conveyor belt, so I wanted to give advice. I went down financial advice and mortgages, and then this was even more conveyor belt. I want to help people get from A to B, so then financial advice was the next step.
So yeah, I joined the SJP academy which obviously partners with yourselves and it’s been quite a whirlwind year but there’s a lot to learn and a lot to go through, but it’s been brilliant and matches a lot more me and how I want to kind of move forward in a career. I’ve done all sorts. I mean my degree is in PE and sports coaching and being in hospitality, even like bar managers and things like that while I was at Uni. I started working when I was 13 in kitchens. So I’ve done quite a few things, but they’ve all kind of led me to this point and they’ve all been a client focused journey.
Tell us about your learning experience. How did you find the Redmill platform and materials? Did you find the weekly structure helpful.
I thought it was brilliant, the way that Redmill set everything out and condensed it, it was just a lot easier to understand and more relevant, I think. Some of the textbooks we receive from the main provider is very black and white, very dry, and you might have a whole chapter or 20 pages on something that’s only worth potentially one mark if it comes up in the exam.
Redmill looks at where the bulk of the marks are. I found it really helpful. The tables and the visuals and even the videos, were very good for me personally, because of how I learn. I need to learn to be doing and seeing. So just reading on paper just doesn’t do it for me. And I felt Redmill really helped because it didn’t bombard you straight away. It was slightly different. It also didn’t necessarily follow the order of CII textbook. So, if you were trying to kind of do the same and follow along, it didn’t quite work, which was good because I found for the final two or three R0 exams I didn’t even look at the CII stuff.
I just used Redmill and I managed to pass. So they obviously work. I think the weekly structure really worked and the summaries and the tests were quite good, to test your knowledge, and I liked the way the tests were broken down, I thought it was very useful.
What other support did you get from Redmill?
Again. Excellent. There were a couple of times I reached out to some of the trainers. Jon Dodson was one and Maurita was another. And early on, I think it was R01 that I missed by one mark when I took the exam. So, I contacted Jon, and we went through the materials, and it was pretty much a 1 to 1 session, and we just focused on the bits that I didn’t understand. And he could see the way my mind was working and to change the way we were looking at things, which was really helpful. And then when I researched it, absolutely fine, passed it, and typically some of the things we went through didn’t even come up on the exam, as is sods law. But the bulk of what we went through was there and it was definitely a couple of marks I picked up following that. There was a couple of times, I mean, even since passing, we had access for a short period of time to a lot of material.
I emailed Jack, I think it is who delt with the learner experience. And it was just to say that because the tax had been updated for R03 and to ask whether I could have the material for R03. He said yes, no worries. I was giving access literally within an hour. Which is brilliant and really helpful. Even since passing, they’ve been very, very helpful.
Would you recommend using Redmill? If so, why?
Yeah, definitely. I mean, I have already. So then obviously we get other people joining the academy and friends of mine ask how we did it and I said that Redmill was much better.
So yeah, I have recommended it. I think it’s brilliant. It made it a lot easier for me and considering how intense our learning Journey was and how much we had to learn in such a short period. I don’t think I would’ve been able to do it without Redmill.
What’s your plans for the future? What’s the next step?
Global domination, [laughs] no I think for me, taking it step by step, it will be to finish absolutely everything, R06 to do, just to get the final diploma.
But it will then be going for chartered. I think the industry will go that way eventually as well. I think the way regulation is done. I think for personal ambitions, if I ever look to do something on my own, I would. If you want to start your own company, you probably have to be chartered at some point in the future, even if you don’t it’s something to have. I think it benefits clients at the end of the day, increases my knowledge. But I don’t want to think about anymore exams at the moment [laughs]. And I think that the overarching thing of being Chartered I think is only a positive.
For the future it could be good to have something sort of multinational, whether that’s here, Dubai, America. That would be quite fun, especially with the weather we’re having. I’m thinking, a few months over there in the winter and then a few months over here, I think it would work quite nicely. But it’s baby steps. I don’t want to start thinking all of that straight away, for the minute I’m enjoying it, I’m seeing clients and helping them with a great practice and it’s just baby steps at the minute, to learn my trade and give clients good as an experience, that I can.
[End of Interview]
Starting your journey to becoming a financial adviser?
We are experts in preparing you for CII and CISI exams, and we support you through your learning journey every step of the way.
Learn more about our study support here: https://redmilladvance.com/courses/
Finding a rewarding career is one of the most important things you will ever do.
Join the Future Financial Adviser Community: https://www.futurefinancialadviser.co.uk/
Future Financial Adviser is a community where young people can access career advice and learn about opportunities within the financial advice profession. If you are already in the profession, we can help you find the right roles and progress your career.
