AdviceTech Podcast #53 – Finito – Transcript

Peita Diamantidis
Hello and welcome to the ensemble advice tech Podcast. I’m Peita Diamantidis and between them the guests joining me here today to deep dive into finito have been on Channel sevens, the project worked in a German beverage company appeared on talkback radio and our Monash Business School mentor under achievers, the two of them. Thank you so much for joining me on the show Thabojan Rasiah and Matt Boyd.

Matt Boyd
We sound more impressive than we actually are, I think,

Peita Diamantidis
Well, that’s what we’ve got to do. Right? It’s all about the public perception. Absolutely. Fantastic. Now, I feel like I just want to spend a whole lot of time chatting about all those other things. But we’ve got to do a dive into this tech week. Before we do. Let’s just get to know the two of you better through your use of technology. Now. Let’s start with Matt up you up first. You’re on the left on my screen. What’s your most used emoji? Do you even use emojis?

Matt Boyd
I do. Yeah. Thankfully, my most used emoji is the smiley face with the hearts around it nice. Because I’ve got a three year old daughter that just melts my heart of databases. So I use that a lot.

Peita Diamantidis
Lovely, probably in response to photos and all sorts of things when when shared. And look, she’s doing this. Can you believe it? Sort of photos? Right?

Matt Boyd
Yeah, that’s right. Yeah, she’s like you. Yeah,

Peita Diamantidis
my I get all of those for my niece as well. And they’re just sometimes it’s too hard to describe the response. And so I’m with you. I use it emoji a lot, too. How about you to vote? And what’s your most used emoji?

Thabojan Rasiah
The one that I ended up using the most is that fist bump.

Peita Diamantidis
Nice. First time on the show, I think I don’t think that’s come up before keeping individual fantastic. And staying with you then if you had to wipe everything off your smartphone, and you know, don’t go into apoplectic shock at that thought. But if you did, which three apps would you keep? If you could only keep three?

Thabojan Rasiah
This is gonna be sound really boring. I need my phone to call people. So I’d keep it. Nice. I will keep my calendar because I need to know where I’m going. And maybe this is a reflection of being in Melbourne, but I need to know the weather.

Peita Diamantidis
Oh, good. Cool. Cool, cool. That’s an appropriately Genex response. I say as someone firmly in that category, too. So we absolutely Haven’t you met what would be the three UK.

Matt Boyd
So I’ve got two boring ones. And one slightly more fun one. So it’d be the the Gmail app, the Chrome app, just because that’s my preferred web browser, but Spotify as well. So consider listening to podcasts, music, and so on. So yes, Wi Fi is gonna be

Peita Diamantidis
nice. I’m the same. In fact, my all of the things that connect to my phone now automatically just stopped Spotify when I wander through them, including my car, which can be a rude shock, depending on the last thing you’ve listened to on your phone. Exactly, exactly. All right. So let’s dive into finito, shall we? So, look, normally I start with Hey, what category of advice tech? Do you guys fall under? That doesn’t quite apply here. Because for starters, this isn’t tech for advisors, as much as it’s tech to lead into conversations about financial advice, or at least finance topics. So why don’t you? Why don’t instead we start with, you know, what’s the primary problem for nietos trying to solve? You know, where did this all start?

Thabojan Rasiah
That’s a great question. So we all know, and we’ve got a lot of smart advisors in here. So we all know that one of the biggest challenges we have as an industry, we’re in this to help people. And one of the biggest challenges is getting financial help to more people is not enough of us were produced in numbers become more expensive and more complicated to give advice. And so there’s this, you know, this conversation that’s been happening for years now around the accessibility and the affordability of advice. That there’s lots of solutions that are out there for that. Where finito started was when we were looking at these solutions. They’re all product focused. Whether it’s Robo advice, whether it’s superfans, whether it’s lending, that there’s so many fantastic craft solutions out there. However, when we talk to advisors, and you do more of this than any of us is we’re in is to help people and a lot of the conversations we have with our clients and with people that are not financial product related. And so to cut to the chase for nito has been built. It’s taken three and a half years, but being built to help advisors to help consumers have conversations about money with people that may not even that that don’t involve any financial product. Yeah, a lot of the coaching type conversations, and that’s ultimately what we’re trying to solve, and bring to the 80% of Australians that just don’t get access to someone to help them with money issues.

Peita Diamantidis
And it’s an interesting concept, isn’t it? Because I think what we probably haven’t really acknowledged as an industry is, you know, for years, we’ve been in the game of training marathon runners, rather than helping somebody touch their toes, do you mean, like, I think we’ve sort of been at this end, where they’ve already almost got to be a bit in shape, and they’ve got to have a bit of mud, like, like, there’s, there’s all these requirements to qualify, to either be able to afford or to the type of advice, financial advice has been, whereas we weren’t necessarily designing things that would help somebody just get up off the couch didn’t mean that, and you know, as somebody who’s super unfit, then it’s a, it’s a stark difference, the way you engage with things, right. And, you know, when I look at some of the stuff on Instagram that’s targeted at that extreme sports stuff. I mean, I run screaming, right? So, you know, probably the consumer is much the same is they look at this complex advice stuff, and just go whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, that feels like it’s a bit intense. You know, I need help. I need guidance. I need, you know, assistance, coaching. I don’t know that I need to run a marathon just yet. Thanks very much.

Thabojan Rasiah
Yeah, you’re absolutely right. I like where as advisors, and then all the advisors, listening, great advices technical gurus and really good at helping people achieve the things that are important to them. So, but, but we’re dealing with the coaches. And what what is not available to most people is just the person who says, hey, just remember, you need to sleep a bit more, eat better. A little bit of exercise is what I’m on the block and they some tips. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that’s right.

Peita Diamantidis
And I guess, you know, it’s a bit like people, some people have managed to find that on say, Instagram, they’ll find a follower, sometimes sorry, somebody, you know, an influencer, that they can follow on on Instagram, but what they’re not getting is necessarily a, you know, getting any sense of where that person sits in terms of experience or training or anything like that, in terms of the background of those people, but also, you know, collecting them together. You know, I think it’s interesting to have for NATO, and you use this word before, before we hit record was, you know, a marketplace, where somebody could find the right human that talks the way they need them to talk about money. That’s really interesting, leaving them do that sort of try them out a bit, you know, and check out their content and like all in one place, that’s an interesting sort of concept. That’s quite different, I think, to the way people would have sourced, you know, those insights previously.

Matt Boyd
Yeah, for sure. I think I think people just what we’re talking about here is people just getting on the journey and guiding people we’ve, we’ve launched our first release, our MVP of the tech probably are already, we’ve already got a list of new tech features and functionality as long as our arm. And part of that is evolving the user journey and helping people regardless of their position in life, whether they’re a couple in their sort of 30s, early 40s, with a young family, approaching retirement, wherever they might be. We’re helping to guide them through that journey, and combat the big problems. And the reasons why people don’t go into the industry, which is they’re confused by it. They’re overwhelmed. They think it’s going to be too expensive. They don’t necessarily trust in industry. So we’re, we’re working to combat those issues and help people on the journey and to the end of the day, get more people improving their financial literacy, making better decisions and ultimately being able to build their savings, live the sort of life that they want to have more and more comfortable life.

Peita Diamantidis
And it is an interesting point. I think that that has probably completely passed. Really any of the major institutions in our space is that no matter how much they have, like the much gorgeous brand and they have some fantastic ads and they’re funny or they’re engaging. They nobody follows that nobody connects with that nobody runs up to a person from a big bank. Hi, a couple of you, I love your podcasts. Like, he’s not that human connection. And I think that’s why it’s always been hard for financial services to connect with the public, I think this is an opportunity for the public to realize that advice, or this sort of space is human to human, you know, and it’s getting help from other human beings who, who truly understand where they’re at. And it’s just about finding the one that vibes for you like that you really get what they’re doing. And it works, you know, and there’s an eclectic, you know, range of, of advisors and sort of experts that you guys have in the marketplace. And that’s really important, right? I mean, the lovely James and I, who are both hosts on the ensemble podcast are two very different advisors and very different coaches and content creators. But you know, we’re both on this space, and it’s a way for somebody to go, oh, yeah, Peter, she’s weird. I don’t know what all that adventure rubbish is about. But I like that I like that serious young insect thing that James was got going on, you know, he’s really into the detail and like they can find that person that resonates for them. Absolutely.

Matt Boyd
And it is it is about the people is that humans are you more so than most others, Peter would continue to talk about AI and it’s it comes up in everyday conversation, the technology that we’ve built, it will allow us to reach a large audience and we’re already engaging 1000s of people 1000s of everyday AWS is through this platform and will continue to grow and grow day by day, week by week, the technology allows us to do that. It allows us to streamline processes. But at the end of the day, it’s about community. And it’s about that human connection, and that that one on one appointment with somebody chooses just one appointment, and they get those burning questions answered, or there are appointments that are more ongoing than a more frequent it’s up to them, they have the power to decide that but it is about that that connection that somebody else through the platform that that sort of builds that trust for the individual that that’s integral to finito, you know, we always want to do the right thing, trust is absolutely paramount. And so they will continue to come to our platform and book appointments and consume the the 1000s of articles, podcasts, videos, and so on that we have within our hub.

Thabojan Rasiah
Yeah, that’s I mean, that word trust is so important, right? And then touching, as you said that we don’t trust them generally. Yeah, that’s just as a society. And but the other thing you mentioned is Instagram, and again, to the advisors who are listening. We worry constantly about what our clients and what our communities watch and say. And there’s some fantastic content out there, but there is absolute rubbish. And there is stuff that gets sold, you know, to people that just takes advantage of people sell stuff. And so one of the matches we’ve got Infineon knows that it has got to be trust based. And you know, it’s a trusted place where people can come from experts like you and James as a couple of our creators who can share information, or the audience that we track from people that we trust, and will not allow anyone who’s going to be flogging something that is not actually good for consumer. And that’s what the consumers need, especially those that don’t have a relationship with a trusted advisor. And then again, that’s 80% of consumers just simply can’t get that for whatever reason, either there’s not enough of this or they can’t afford or the way they’re not bad advice relationship works means that it is as a cost associated with it. So we’re trying to bring bring the things that we provide at a higher level and more detailed, more personalized level two, in an easier access way.

Peita Diamantidis
And so, coming at it from you know, there’s an advisor out there, like Oh, I love producing content, I like the idea of of reaching more people and having more of an impact well before advice, then, you know, what’s one of the important you know, things I’ve got to get their head around on one of the things you know, I’ve thought through is the line between coaching and legislated advice, you know, and really thinking through what is the difference and and what can you guide people on or provide guidance in that type of call you’re talking about versus you know, personal advice, what are the some of the things that You, you would recommend people either think through or prepare if they’re considering, you know, reaching out and taking part in something like for Nida.

Thabojan Rasiah
Yeah, so we’ve spent a lot of time and money with lawyers compliance experts that know their way around the legislative framework. And that’s really helped us because I think being in the industry, again, as an advisor, we have a certain perception of compliance, and it’s all risk driven. And the licensing regime has proven that and we are fearful of doing the wrong thing. What we’ve been able to do is clarify and having people not from the industry in the business like Matt, and others advisory board of finito has really helped to remove that advisor hat that I wear, because I can’t compliance scared, who I’ve got to be careful

Peita Diamantidis
expensive.

Thabojan Rasiah
To actually get clear on what we what we can and can’t say which there are those things. But ultimately, it came down to a very simple way to think about it is the conversation conversations that if you wouldn’t say that a barbecue to a friend, then you know, you probably shouldn’t be talking to anyone about it, unless you do. Wear that to make that more technically oriented for advisors. If you’re talking about product, or telling someone what to do with a product or a class of product, then you’re crossing the line. We can use examples, we can use case studies, we can educate people, we can teach people what a non concessional contribution is, yeah, we can do all of those things. And it’s not personal advice. And it’s definitely not general advice and information. And so we spend a lot of time creating material and providing that framework so that advisors or coaches who are on the platform, know what that where that line is. And consumers are also very clearly told, you are not going to get product advice. If you want that you should really go to an advisor. But if you just want a little bit of learning a bit of literacy, that guidance bit of coaching a bit of just a chat about something like how often do we ever chat to someone and they’re like, Oh, hey, that was amazing conversation, you just helped me clear out what’s in my head, that coach, then that’s, that’s where there’s a lot of power in what Fernando can do. And because it’s being done outside of advice firm, again, it makes it much clearer for the consumer that.

Peita Diamantidis
Yeah, and there is an interesting, you know, there’s, there’s so much to be said, for either clarity. So helpings I look, we were at this point, and, and I feel like we’re behind and we’re really only you know, and that really you’re like You’re like a mirror to them, you’re just giving clarity on what so I’m hearing what you say said was and and okay, hold on. Have you thought of make sure you consider like there’s all sorts of things that are coached. Does that mean a good coach never gives you the answer? Man, it’s just I mean, that’s the coaching one on one, you never give them the answer. You guide them to discovering the answer themselves. And so, you know, I think that clarity is important, but I think also, we can’t underrate inspiration and confidence, I think, you know, it actually takes a fair bit of confidence to go and see a technical expert in anything, you know, and it doesn’t really matter what it is, it could be an architect, it could be a lawyer, like anybody who’s a deep technical expert, it takes a bit of confidence to get it, you want to feel like you, you’re well armed. And I think this is the type of you know, collective, and, you know, community and platform that can help give people that confidence. It’s like, oh, okay, I sort of get where I’m at. I’ve chatted to somebody, they give me a bit of guidance. Now, I know, I’m gonna go over here and get that expert help

Thabojan Rasiah
you no matter how hard it is for our clients to come talk to us. Yeah,

Peita Diamantidis
absolutely. It’s, I mean, you’ve really got to build up the nerve. I mean, it’s like walking into the gym for the first time for a long time, right? All these things are very exposing, and really do knock you around. And so I think a place that can make you feel like everybody else is there looking and, and is learning just like me, you know, there’s power in that real power. And so I’m curious then so clearly, you know, the marketplace is made up of two clear sides, then there’s the the coaches, the content creators who are on there, then there’s of course the consumer. So where are they coming from? How are you building out the consumers that sort of take part in the marketplace?

Matt Boyd
Yeah, we’ve got a combination of channels at the moment. So my my background is marketing as was studied in England and practice for the best part of 10 years like, did everything in marketing from running moms. to million dollar above the line campaigns to run on to the MCG, pre games run an activation in front of the 20,000 people that are already in their seats, which was absolutely terrifying. A great steep learning experience in public speaking, I tell you, but I sort of fell out of love with marketing, and I don’t practice it specifically anymore. I’ve been in the startup space since 2016. And we’re the sort of operations hat within Philly Tober have that experience. And we work with some great agencies, calm contractors at the moment. And we were still in our infancy, to be quite honest with with our marketing, our outreach. But regardless, we were very pleased with our early adopters, as I said, 1000s of seekers of financial guidance, part of our community. A great response from financial professionals, I mean, we’ve we’ve had a few 100 that have signed up and also pre registered for finito Connect, which which is going live. Now. We’ve launched the content, hopefully to Heartland live a few months ago for the CheckMate is now going live, which is very exciting. But it’s a combination, really, it’s our own channels, across all the usual social media platforms. But as well as their advertising, digital advertising in various forms, we spend a bit of time with SEO. SEO is interesting, because the keywords that we would typically be wanting people to discover for the site with when they’re when they’re on Google, are very expensive, very competitive, because the big banks are competing for that as well. So we didn’t need to get a bit creative there. But still, we’re pretty strong from an SEO perspective. And and now we’re just we’re just broadening out into new online advertising campaigns. As well as partnerships are looking to be a really strong opportunity for us. We’re starting to partner with a range of organizations, supporting organizations, large businesses within the financial services sector. And, yeah, just just growing, week, by week, month, by month around the different marketing channels that we can sort of go out and reach more people. It’s, it’s interesting, we have a huge total addressable market 80 to 90%, of authors that need more support with their financial futures. But at the same time, we’ve gotten very clear on our personas, and different campaigns will engage different people in different ways. And so that mom or dad with a young family, they engage in a completely different way to somebody in their 20s, who just thinks sexy words like cryptocurrency investment portfolios is all they need to be thinking about. Yeah, we’re clear on who we believe our core target audience is, I think it’s very important as a business. And one of the worst things you can say to certain stakeholders within a business, just when they ask you to toggle it all the way for everyone. That’s just terrible, and very naive. But we’re very clear on our primary, secondary, or even tertiary target audiences. And yeah, we’ve got a we’ve got very ambitious targets, we want to hit a significant segment of the Australian market and support a lot of people on their financial journeys.

Peita Diamantidis
It’s an interesting thought, actually, I mean, historically, you know, for advisors to connect with groups, saying the groups of people generally it was via employer super like that was something that historically was a match an advisor would be attached to the employer super offering, and it was all of the, you know, employees that were within that. And what’s when you step back from that, like, it always just seems so net, like, this is perfect, you know, and they’ve all got super, and they’re contributing to it. And then we can come out and we can educate and, but what’s interesting about it is, generally, for most people super is the last thing they’re like in their financial world, super, is the last thing they’re interested in. And so here we are, as advisors attaching ourselves to the least interesting thing in their financial world, or even the least worrying thing. And so I think, to shift from that, and yes, it might be, you know, groups via an employer, like you say, sporting club or whatever it might be, but it’s just like this is about your financial well being, you know, wherever you are in that journey. This isn’t about this, like we said before product, and it’s, it’s coming off that I think it’s a really important lens and a shift that’s necessary because the minute it’s attached to product, it’s about us and you know what we really need it to be is about them. That’s so important.

Matt Boyd
Absolutely. And we were talking about that just before this podcast in a session we were having, it’s not about what what we want next for the business, it really is about what the market wants. And so we are constantly user testing, through the journey, and looking to deliver for Aussies, what their needs on this journey, what what’s most important to them. So, yeah, it’s so integral to us as an organization. And I think I think you’re completely right, Peter is about what they need, you know, understand what they do currently have, and and where they want to get to, and what’s what’s needed along that journey. And we’re looking to provide that with a combination of our tech and our community that’s quickly growing on fee. So

Peita Diamantidis
and it’s an interesting what I love about this sort of approach or lens, when you’re forced to go through this is, is, you know, you ask better questions, and you can add value really quickly. So there might be a whole cohort of people who need help, you know, negotiating rent, or, or how do you compete? Well, when you’re going for a new rental property? Or how do you like, now, is that financial advice? No, but doesn’t have to do with their money? Well, yeah. And for some people a significant chunk of their money right now. So, you know, finding learning a way to find the challenges they’re facing, look at what’s immediately in front of them, instead of, you know, harping on about these other big picture things, let’s just solve the problem right in front of them. Now, let’s just help them out with that, you know, and once you’ve given them that guidance, you know, it can lead to other things for sure.

Matt Boyd
Yeah, and we’re we’re you know, we’re working on a lot of exciting new updates a financial concierge, that starting point, already just sort of months into our journey, we we’ve got a lot of there’s a lot of different avenues. Through our platform, there’s a lot of different things that people can do numerous spaces and topics that they can consume within finito hub. And so yeah, we’re just very mindful of that, and helping people along and mapping out those user journeys based on whatever walk of life somebody is coming from is, is

Thabojan Rasiah
something we’re spending a lot of time on. We’re learning from, you know, from the consumer, but also from our advisors and coaches, you know, things like conversation, how to have a conversation with my partner about money issues, or my kids how to talk to my kids about money. These are things that parents are thinking about, these are things that, you know, people are thinking about in terms of, how do I talk about money, so it doesn’t have to need an investment portfolio or a superannuation account, or an insurance policy, to add value. We all know that as advisors, but we somehow ended up in that direction. And maybe it’s because of the traditional model.

Peita Diamantidis
Well, then I think there’s, you know, we’ve all spent a lot of time and energy on the education to get to the point where we can do all those things, and do the investing or, you know, all the all the complexity and all the analysis. But, you know, in terms of changing lives, most of us whatever impact we’ve had of somebody that’s really made a massive impact on lives will be like, you know, you’ve been in hospital, and there’s that magical nurse that just gets you sees what you need, helps you out, support it, like, it’s, it’s this connection, that’s at a much more personal level. And that’s about immediate need, you know, it’s guidance, it’s care, it’s all those things. And I think, you know, the you compare that actually the medical situation, a great example, you know, surgeons, they technically want, I mean, hugely proficient, you know, high skill, but they don’t connect with the public. You know, and so, you know, which, which do we what do we need more of right now, in our industry, and I think, you know, we probably need a few less surgeons and a few more, really good general practitioners and nurses to connect and to just help people in the day to day, you know, manage the pain they’re dealing with. So, talk to me about then for the for the content creators, then, you know, embedding a bit like, say, Netflix, where Netflix, you know, sources other content, but also has its own produced shows and movies, your content creators, and most of them bring in content they’ve had elsewhere, or they’re doing new stuff for the platform. Is it a mix of both?

Matt Boyd
Yes, it’s a mix of both. And we were realistic from the start, like We naturally want to grow native content. We want people to spend lots of time on the platform. We’re very pleased with these early stages that are our early adopter seekers of financial guidance. The the session times along the bounce rates are low. So those metrics are really positive. As our creative starts to come on board, it was there was a bit of a backlog there. Some have been producing content for many years. So we wanted to get as much of our content up as possible. But very quickly, we started to see as your content being posted, and we were working with them to develop ideas. Sometimes a quick 30 minute brainstorming session can give life to a new weekly series like, yeah, we’ve got lexan, Gemma running, frankly, finance every Friday morning. And they’re just doing a fantastic job. And that consistency, we’re, we’re, we’re so appreciative of because we are new in market and they really took the bull by the horns, and committed and continue to commit on a weekly basis. And they’re their audiences growing and we love that we’ve run a session with up to which was absolutely fantastic. We’ve had some had some great people on board so far, and we want more of that. So to financial professionals out there, whether you are an existing content creator, or it’s something that you’ve been thinking about for a while, we are absolutely platform for that, we create a dedicated space for our creators, where they can feed their content in they can host their weekly shows within our events, how we’ll work with people very closely, and it’s all very high touch. So we’ve got a community manager, Kimberly, who supports us there to continue to bring new shows to life. And beyond the content hub, beyond the live shows, we’ve got some really exciting features that are going to be going live over the coming months, we’re going to be creating the ability for master classes to be hosted on finito, hub, workshops, live discussion groups, and this can very much involve financial professionals. But we want that sort of peer to peer support as well. We want people to jump in and, and just post questions. And there may be answered by a fellow seeker of guidance. Oh, I have that problem last year. And I found that this was really useful. So again, it comes back to that community. So yes, there’s there’s lots happening already. But there’s there’s lots more to come with, with the hub.

Peita Diamantidis
Yeah, and I think it’s a it’s an interesting lesson, too, I think if for those of you listening, that, that maybe aren’t as far down the content creation journey. And when I say that can be anything, right? There could be, you could be doing a LinkedIn newsletter, you could be writing a blog, you could be doing a newsletter for your clients, it can all be in the written form, there is something quite different about sort of committing to some live content, or close to life. I mean, this podcast is sort of an example of that, where it’s like anything can happen, you know, I mean, these two troublemakers, he could just cover any topic, and then we don’t know where it’s gonna go. It’s not quite exactly, but it’s, um, you know, it, it, it it isn’t truly live as we don’t stream it live. But it’s something that’s quite fluid in that sense. And I think it’s what the public are looking for. They really love to engage with that stuff they’ve done with it.

Matt Boyd
Right. It’s one of the big themes I don’t use tick tock like, largely off social media on a on a personal level, and they definitely miss the boat with tick tock, but one of the reasons that tick tock has risen to such fame and success is because it is more real people criticize Instagram, because it was too polished. And there were just there was some horrible negative effects of Instagram, you know, everyone’s having the best day ever at the perfect moment. And that that’s a misrepresentation and very dangerous to young people. Technology and young people. As I mentioned earlier, my daughter’s three and God the world that she’ll be in when she’s 16, we can only imagine what it’d be like 13 years. I am and suppose a nice Share, Like authenticity is is so important. It’s the number one thing I look for in any personal relationship at any work that I do. And that’s the same with with online people want real you know, where there’s no problem whatsoever. If in a video or a live session, one of our creators messes up get something wrong. So what with you? That is, that is just what people want, Peter, I think I think you’re spot on. We don’t want Polish anymore. And that’s why anybody can be a creator. You don’t need us. You don’t need a production setup. Or a fancy microphone. Just need the supercomputer that’s in your pocket that does everything.

Peita Diamantidis
Yeah, absolutely. And if you are talking to clients, you’re already doing this. That’s content. Like every every client meeting is content

Matt Boyd
is just confidence. Yeah, at the end of the day, and it’s having a crack giving it a go. And as I say we yeah, we’ve we’ve worked with a few already and those that have never done it before but have been interested in with was sort of nurtured and through. So I think we want more of that those that don’t typically speak up and they’re fantastic at what they do. They haven’t necessarily shed their voice so loudly so far. They’re the people that the public should be hearing from all right. And

Peita Diamantidis
I think, you know, our industry has a huge diversity challenge. And I mean, that in all the ways that diversity applies in every one of those categories, we have a massive problem, you only need to look at conference photos. Industry like, yeah, okay, that’s not something where, and I think, and the challenge with that is that the public needs to see themselves in us, you know, to, that doesn’t mean that they’re only going to connect with like, I’m only going to get, you know, redheads in their 40s or 50s, right. That’s not how it works. But by giving them more choice, there’s more opportunity that there’ll be be that person that advisor, they’re like, ah, fantastic, you speak my language, you know, it’s awesome. And that connection is really, really important.

Thabojan Rasiah
And we want to give it voice to all the great devices out there in a trusted plus, again, I can’t I can’t say it enough. There’s far too many people out there who have a voice who really shouldn’t, you know, impacting impacting the public in a negative way, taking advantage of selling them crap. And one of the visions for Phyllida was really to bring the awesome stuff that our industry does, and our profession does bring it into the household of everyday Aziz. You know, there’s so much value that we’ve got, there’s so much knowledge, there’s so much experience. Yeah, it’s such an opportunity, right? It just,

Peita Diamantidis
it really isn’t, and in fact, I think is going to become this diversity issue is going to become more and more important, because of the intergenerational wealth transfer. people’s backgrounds, and, and their family history is going to become a bigger issue for advisors and our understanding of what their needs are, because there can be some embedded sort of understanding or expectations that have to do with I mean, so you know, my husband is Greek, and there’s some, but and it’s not necessarily being Greek as much as his family and the way they are that and collect together on the cousins, you know, all that connection has its expectations that will change, how is it assets get transferred, we need more advisors from more backgrounds with more understanding of these issues, so that then we can better connect and don’t you know, look aghast at something that a client says just because we don’t come from that particular experience. So you enable and you’re right, we need the ones that aren’t loud mouths, like me, like, give me a microphone, and I’m happy, you know, we need more advisors out there to get get an opportunity to connect in their way, whatever that way is,

Matt Boyd
you’re you’re a good egg, though pizza. So glad you got a microphone.

Peita Diamantidis
Well, that’s a relief. That’s

Thabojan Rasiah
and I think as well, with where that cultural or whatever your background, you know, whether it’s ethnic or whether it’s, you know, socio economic or whatever, with, like, so many different different types of people. Where that shows up, particularly, is when we’re connecting with people on on product, non financial stuff, right. So we’re having real life coaching conversations that we’re having, anyway, the importance of that diversity and the importance of different, those different perspectives really shows through as well. So that’s the power of what we’re hoping to do is, number one, give a voice to advise the industry to, to be heard by more of these, but also give them an opportunity to connect in a way that’s not restricted by whether you’ve got a superannuation fund that needs an investment. Let’s bring it down to the real stuff that

Peita Diamantidis
we care about as correct. And I think, you know, I remember years back when life stages you know, this concept of life stages, even for Super came up, and when it came up, I have to admit, I struggled a bit. And even more so now because it’s just not valid to so many people in so many ways. There’s whole chunks of millennials and Gen Zed, who either won’t have or never want to have kids. Yet when you look at the diagram of the way somebody goes through life from a financial services perspective, you know, it’s save by house, get married, have kids like like, hold on. There’s a whole lot of things there that we’re making. We’re assuming people want to do or will do or can do. What if property He’s not on the on the radar for a lot of people anymore, right? We’ve got to adjust, and really be listening to what people are experiencing. As consumers. We can’t just serve this the small and contracting portion of society, it’s not good for us either. I don’t think, you know, that’s. So then I want to sort of just clarify there one element that I think we have covered, but just for the listener, so the hub is this place of content and conversation and, and, you know, some live some, you know, sort of more passive content. But the exciting development that’s sort of more recent is connect, and that’s where somebody can essentially buy a window of time with one of the experts. That’s correct, yes. So that then they can have that guiding conversation that is unique to their particular situation. But once again, sort of stayed well, in that coaching, coaching sort of tone. Is that is that have I captured that correctly?

Matt Boyd
Yeah, really? Well, yeah, funny to connect, launching now is the ability to book a one on one appointment with a financial professional. It is a conversation. As to Virgin spoke about previously, we’ve worked with our legal team for months to ensure the the risk, the liability is absolutely minimized. We guide our users by seekers of financial guidance and those providing it with the do’s and don’ts of the platform. That’s all to be honest, like, particularly financial professionals, they generally know it, but we reinforce that. And they’re just conversations that everyday Aussies can have about their financial situation, which are research and so much research out there has validated, it’s what a lot of people want, they just want to have a conversation, just to express their situation, their pain points. And just to have a conversation with someone that they know they can trust and trust has come up in this discussion with you a few times now is just the most important thing to us. We, we want people to trust for NATO, and know that anybody that’s on our platform, is going to do the right thing by them. And that’s why every single financial professional that does sign up to finito if they’re not hearing directly from torchon, and I bet we’re CCB. And you’re going to hear from Kimberly, or one of our future wonderful account managers, we have a conversation with you, and we help you to be on board and and we make sure through that process as well, that the right people are signing up to the platform and such as the way with with tech platforms like this 99%, probably 99.9% of the people that sign up are going to be great. And they’re going to have the right intentions. But there will be those occasionally that we do I need to filter out and that that’s what our system has in place. So yeah, that’s that’s connects.

Peita Diamantidis
So before we sort of wrap up, I’m a bit keen to hear about, you know, what’s on the radar going forward. So I’m assuming there’s some so connect sort of live and that’s, that’s, you know, launching, that’s exciting. What else is down, you know, down the path. And I’m also a bit curious about what weigh down a bit blue sky about cheese, wouldn’t it be great if for you in terms of what finito could be doing or the way it could be engaging?

Thabojan Rasiah
Yeah, so just to be clear, what is live right now is, you know, if you go to Fernando Combinator, you can see a marketing website. But more importantly, you can sign up as free to sign up, anyone can sign up, I know when I talk to prospects that give our business a call and have a conversation with them. already ready for advice or for whatever reason, we’re not a good fit. But if you want to get some initial help, go and check it out and either sign up and you can get some Get, get whatever you need. So that’s all already so people can sign up for free and they can access the content. Just launching now he’s going to be that connect where people can also book an appointment with a financial professional, have a conversation about the things that are on their mind to get not financial advice from a product perspective in our language, but to get help advise what consumers think of coming down the track is going to be enhancements to tools, calculators, resources that consumers can use to enable coaches to help people more so they can take a look. Let’s have a conversation. Go and check this out. Go check that out. And, you know, further down the track, you know, some of our big goals to take It pays to you know, outside of Australia and help more people. Ultimately, as well to you, as we know, as advisors, and it’s not just investments or finances, stuff that touches personal finances. But you know, lawyers have a part to play. accountants have a part to play in really helping people make smart decisions with the money now, it’s all connected with the stuff that we do, whether it’s with tax returns, or whether it’s understanding, planning or legal issues or things like that. So we think having a place where people can come to to get this help in personal finance, Rod says, is really critical.

Peita Diamantidis
Yeah, fantastic. I’m, is there anything else we’ve missed? I think, how should if somebody is in front advisor is listening, or maybe even a practice managers, like all one of my team, I think would be perfect for this. You know, what’s the way? What do they need to do? What’s the way for them to connect with you guys? What would you like them

Matt Boyd
to do? Yeah, they can send us an inquiry through the through the website. So as to avoid you mentioned finito.com delay, you can just send an inquiry there, you can contact us directly via Hello, that’s pretty clear.com delay you. And we’d love to hear from you. And explore whether you’d like to build platform part of our community.

Peita Diamantidis
Fantastic.

Thabojan Rasiah
Just to be clear data, the way that people advisors may think about getting involved, if you’ve already got content on the platform, you can do that. If you want to start creating content, you can do that. Secondly, if you want to start having conversations with people and get paid for your time, you can do that as well. So that’s the other way. So yet, please send us any questions, and I’ll be at the AAA conference. So short, a lot of our listeners will be as well. So let me know if you’re there. We’d love to catch you in Adelaide and feel free, I would love to talk more about it. Anytime.

Peita Diamantidis
Perfect. All right, advice explorers. Like the the gents said, if you’d like to find out more about Fernando, then we’re going to include all those details in the show notes, including both of their LinkedIn details so that you can stalk slash follow or connect with them as need be, and I’m sure they’ll then point you in the right direction depending on what your interest is. Thank you so much to both of you for joining us here today. And I’m really excited to see you know how finito can just help more Australians, right, let’s just make them feel better about their money and more confident about their future.

Thabojan Rasiah
Absolutely. Thanks for Thanks for doing what you do, and the ensemble crew. And supporting advisors, it’s such a great network that, you know, pay a part of and follow of theodosis vt so kept on your dog’s head testing? Will do Thank you. So

Peita Diamantidis
I wonder if you listener are already an advisor, who’s one of the content creators on finito. Are you somebody who’s already taking part in that? I’d love to hear how you found it. You know, what made you consider joining what what interested you? You know, what elements of that conversation Do you agree or disagree with, please share your insights on the ensemble community platform, AI, as always, we’d love to hear your take. And even any tips for other advisors that might be thinking about it, you know, what, how they could look at their content management strategy, how they could start to look, because that’s one of the challenges with with all of this, I guess, and that’s something I’d like to cover in terms of my thoughts is, you know, I, along with, with most of us, I think probably haven’t had a strategic content management approach, right, we haven’t had a structure and a way to get this stuff out so that it’s relatively easy. And it was took a lot of self reflection for me to realize, for example, things like this, if I can do audio or video, little bit on the fly with a bit of structure, of course, and you will have recognized with the episodes I’ve done to date where there is a structure to it, there’s clearly some questions I generally ask, right. So it means but what it means is because I put that structure in place, I can let that conversation go, I can basically turn up with a little bit of historical detail on the guest and off we go. Right. So, you know, I had to reflect on that go, Well, why was it? Is it so relatively easy to do these episodes for ensemble? Well, it’s because of that structure is because there’s a deliverable deliverable every week, I’ve got to make sure I get that episode out. If I’m going away, I know I get a few ahead of time, you know, that sort of thing. So, you know, we probably, you know, taking part in something like this could be a good way to get yourself on that journey, just generally. Right, not just for furniture, but generally, you know, our content strategy. And as you go down that path, clearly, whether it’s for NATO or not, we need to get clear about the difference between coaching and financial advice. And when I say financial advice, I mean, you know, legislated law. just limited financial advice. You’re really understanding that difference, you know, and realizing that coaching can encompass so much they can add so much value, tips, frameworks, bouncy balls, step by step things to consider decision making trees, case studies, you know, stories and animal analogies, translating things to just translating what’s going on or what you’re hearing or this article, well, let’s translate that, because they’re using a whole lot of jargon, you know, this, so many things we can do to help people through what they’re facing that can be well before the very technical financial advice, and it can add immense value. And, you know, by participating in that, then we’re also sort of clearing the path for them, so that they find us a lot easier to you know, so I guess I just wanted to share that that’s sort of been my thinking on this ease. All right, well, am I clearing the path? Am I making it easy for them to get to me? Or is there all of this rubbish in the way that they’re going to have to deal with? And can I help with that? Is there some things that we can do? So, you know, we’ve taken a good hard look at who do we want to serve? And what are they dealing with right now? I don’t just mean financially, just generally, what are they dealing with? What can we bring to bear that can help? And therefore, how can I help clear that path? So that’s sort of, that’s our approach, I’d be curious about what your approach to something like this is and your interest in a platform like finito. But you know, the more of these sort of ways that the public can connect with their money, hate all of its good, right? I’m a big believer that it’s all great. If it’s making them ask questions, if it’s making them dig into what they’ve got, and better understand it. You know, this is a great, great thing. Now, as you know, it’s that time again, folks, it’s curious, because time, we’re going to build that one skill, we all need to become bionic advisors, avid curiosity. So to help you build that habit of the website I want you to take a look at this week is called fathom. Now, this is an app or an add on, you can find it at Fathom dot video, that’s if a t h o m dot video. And at first blush, when you look at it, it looks like it just sits in your video meeting tool and records and transcribes the whole meeting. And it’s like, whoa, most of them do that for themselves, too. Right? So why would I need another app to add on to it? The thing is Fathom does go sort of well beyond that. One of the features, for example, will auto request that recording consent for external attendees. So it’ll just ask them, Are you happy that this gets recorded, and we use recording for blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right. So we’ll just do that as a matter of course, one of the other interesting things that really caught my eye though, is, once Phantom is live through your meeting, that you’re holding your video meeting, then it’s live, it’s sort of transcribing things as it goes, and it’s recording and transcribing. But also, you can get it to attach highlights or tags effectively, to sections of the conversation. So maybe there’s a section where somebody is talking all about financial details all about. So it can be all sorts of things that they are it’s great feedback, or testimonial, all we love dealing with you because then you can click on the highlight button. And the tall tags actually not just tags that bit when you when you click it sort of looks back to the whole audio clip for when that person’s talking, and captures that little clip. And until you say you know and highlight and then it’s it grabs that as its own little clip. So not only is it then tagged in the transcription and in the video so that somebody can easily sort of see a summary down the right of the key highlights, but you could just share that highlight. So with somebody, you can share that highlight via a link in a file note, or you can share it to a member of the team and say, hey, they just said this, can you go away and deal with that, please. So these grabs are audio clips, you can share individually, or they can just make up your file notes. So instead of your notes, sort of needing the transcription, that’s everything, it could be the highlights that are the notes, and maybe there’s a transcription attached or something like that. So it’s an interesting thought to think about the way to be able to do this live so that your file notes of a conversation are done when you click and call, right. So really get to the point where that part of that administrative part is done. There may be there’s some action items. Well, it’s also got an action item tag there that if that comes up during the call. Fantastic. What we’ll do is we’re going to send you bah, bah, bah, bah, blah. Then as you say that you could click the Action Item button in Fathom and it’ll make sure it grabs that as an action item with a little box that you can tick off. So look at is a clever, really clever concept that I think could let us get far more effective with the way meetings work. Now, it’s always a given, we’ve got to check security on these things, they had to jump through some pretty significant security hoops for partners like Salesforce, zoom, and others. But check it out for yourselves, get your dealer group to check it out, all these things are important. But I think it’s well worth a look, particularly if you use video notes a fair bit, this could mean that your head goes down far less when you’re holding a video meeting, as you’re writing notes, you could be really just capturing those snippets. And having something really cohesive and imagine being able to send highlights to, you know, a paraplanner, even so that it draws attention to the key bits, and they don’t necessarily have to listen to the whole meeting, 90 minute meeting. So I just think, you know, with some application, clearly, some practice, this is going to require some, some practice to get it done. What I love though, is when you join, and you sort of, it actually gives you a test run, and it has the guy talking, and it’s showing you how you can click highlight how that works, what happens, what it summarizes. So you’re really going to see how the tool works pretty quickly, right? They’ve really tried to make it such that you can get from zero to hero pretty quickly. So I’d encourage you to check out Fathom dot video, I also want to call out the fact that this was brought to my attention by the wonderful, Michael back. So thank you, sir. Great, great suggestion. And I’d love to know what any of you think and how you found it? Well, that’s all we’ve got for this week, folks, be sure to subscribe to the podcast. So you’ll get your advice, tech fix automatically sent to you each Friday. And look, if you’re seeing the rundown to the end of the year, and you feel like you’re getting a bit bit stuck in a rut maybe on process or tech projects. And you feel like you need to just take a step back, you know, block out a day for some planning and readiness for 2024, then, you know, I would really love to facilitate a brainstorming session for your team. We could draw out the next best projects with a business. We could talk through what tech might assist with that, and even get them innovating within the practice. I’m already getting bookings for late October, November. And in fact, I’m already in various interstate locations during that time. So really, no matter where your location if you’re a bit curious about that, please reach out to me on LinkedIn. That’s Forward slash Peita MD PEITAMD and we can certainly have a chat about what you’re looking for. Otherwise, I will most certainly look forward to turning up in your earbuds next week. And remember advice explorers Stay curious.