by Rich Ellis
What a fantastic vocation we have as financial planners. We engage with people at a very deep level with such an emotive and taboo subject: money. We seek to unearth values, passion and purpose in those we have only just met and to light the torch for them to see the way to living their best life. I try to never take the trust we forge with clients and their families for granted.
To be our best professional selves, we have to take care of ourselves. There has rightly been a significant amount of coverage of mental health issues in financial services in the last couple of years. I am reminded of the guidance within the flight card as one prepares to take off for a flight: an image of person fixing their own mask over their face before they help a young child.
Using this analogy for our work as financial planners, I believe we have a duty to ourselves, our families and our clients to ensure we take our own medicine and take care of ourselves first before we can take care of others.
For me, this involves three very basic rules to ensure I am on top of my own well-being:
Financial planners strive to be focused and present during client meetings. To do this, we need a clear headspace. Heres how I get mine.
I’ve learned to respect our biological need for a decent night’s sleep. After reading Why We Sleep, l can say it's simple (not easy!) to cut out caffeine tech as the sun goes down! Have an early night and buy that luxury pillow!
Being out and about and enjoying nature really helps me relax. I achieve this through National Trust membership. The air tastes better when you're out getting lost in a country estate and I also get to revisit my love for history.
Finally, I find I am more calm when in water, be it going for a swim or just relaxing at a spa away from the distractions of the business, phone alerts or children!
As I said earlier, we need to take our own medicine. We should have a financial plan for ourselves and revisit this regularly to ensure it remains on track. We should be doing work that is purposeful, passionate and profitable.
I feel very strongly that a financial planner should enjoy their client work and if they do not, they should go and find something else to do outside of the profession. I fully advocate to my clients the benefits of having passion and purpose in the work that they do. This should apply to me as well. For me, this comes from the joy of being in such a privileged position to influence others lives for the better. If you are not enjoying it, how could you make it more enjoyable?
In addition to managing the needs of my clients, I also run aspects of our practice's business. Those of you also in this position will know only too well that in the early days of a startup it is natural to wear a lot of hats and get sucked into different tasks. This is a necessity – for a period of time.
But for your own wellbeing, focus on what you love doing: from work tasks to going for walks. Be true to yourself about where you’re actually spending the majority of your time. The more time you spend in your happy place, the more likely your good mood will become infectious to those around your including family, colleagues and clients.
Say ‘no' more frequently and to be comfortable with it. Build a great team around you – it is all too easy just to take ownership of everything. One thing I make sure to do is diarise a time where I check in with myself, preferably weekly. I set this time aside to work on nothing but myself. It might be a walk or a swim, but I use this time to refocus on how I am feeling, remind myself of what is going well and verify if I am spending time in the right areas.
We have a responsibility to ourselves and the people around us to ensure we are self-aware of any areas that we might need help with. We also have a responsibility to reach out for help.
We work in a great community and are surrounded by some great people who are happy to give their time to others. I would encourage anyone to reach out, if they feel they need help, even if it just means talking and sharing ideas with someone who is perhaps struggling with the same issues.
Rich Ellis is Director and co-founder at Ellis Davies Financial Planning. He has over 22 years in the financial services industry and has been a Financial Planner for 8 years. Richard is an active member of NextGen Planners community and is also a member of the IFW (Initiative for Financial Wellbeing).
He is a father to three children; Harrison, Olivia and Sophie. Outside of work Rich enjoys socialising with friends, reading a good book, enjoying good food and sampling whiskey from around the world.
