Engine Room Podcast #25 – Angie Menendez – Transcript

Andrew Rocks
Hi, I’m Andrew Rocks and welcome to another edition of the engine room. Today, we’re going to chat with a lovely woman who has had a great career and an interesting backstory in relation to how she’s got into financial planning and indeed now runs a successful business in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. Without any further ado, I’d like to welcome Angie Menendez to the engineering welcome.

Angie Menendez
Hi, Rocks. Thanks for having me.

Andrew Rocks
And look when we were chatting earlier of camera, off camera, but no cameras. Well, we should get cameras Kieran the sound guy. So when we’re chatting earlier, you did a bit of homework and I was super impressed. So Ron, who’s been on this podcast, please be noted that Angie has actually got an eye for detail. And I’m sure that’s going to come out in this podcast. But the part of the detail that was probably the least prepared was your own personal backstory. So what I’d love to sort of telling our listeners is how you’ve come to being the general manager of CBD advisory in Sydney and why you’re going to stay.

Angie Menendez
So this is a special year for us actually rock so it marks 30 years since incorporation of CBD advisory. So the business commenced in 1993 by our principal Terry manageress, he had been working in financial services and then embarked in his own business in 1993. Where I come into that equation, so Terry is also my father. And I would say that sort of having a financial services or investment and building a protecting growth mindset was pretty much ingrained in my psyche from quite young. So he

Andrew Rocks
must have been almost a primary school or even earlier, when your dad what was he doing before that,

Angie Menendez
Well, he

Andrew Rocks
Was in motion before that?

Angie Menendez
I think he’s what as far as my memory can go in, in my, my years, he’s always been in financial services. So he worked in different banks, I mean, both managerial roles as well as financial advice. And then when he did embark on his own financial advice, journey, that’s when he moved into his own practice.

Andrew Rocks
And so you’re getting us around the dinner table.

Angie Menendez
That whole understanding and the importance of investing. And, and obviously, also protecting your asset base and learning the importance of financial independence and understanding financial concepts. So it almost felt like a natural transition to me to go and stay further in university and come out, you know, with entering the financial services industry. So I entered into the corporate world and dabbled in a few different banks. And then I felt that it was natural at the time to sort of move into the family business. And so would have been,

Andrew Rocks
that wouldn’t have been. So that can be sort of a double edged sword. Yeah, so so. So you’ve worked for a couple of the banks, which gave you a bit of a broad view of what’s good, and what’s what’s what you’d want to do and what you don’t want to do. So which which Christmas gathering was the was the decision made?

Angie Menendez
Well, it came to a point where running at that time, a sole practitioner practice, so to speak, so Terry had a CSO, he wanted someone that was able to do a bit more of the heavy lifting in terms of research and power planning support. And as the industry is obviously, as everyone would know, is continuously evolving, was coming to that point where, you know, you’ve had some experience would you like to come in now and, and invest in in where we’re going and our future trajectory. Now, obviously, being quite still early into the industry and myself, I sort of started the ground route still, because I was a paraplanner more of it in a support role in my previous positions. So came in more doing the power planning and research of our business. But I noticed a few years in that I always had my ear to the ground with what was happening, sort of understanding where the industry was moving. So when it came to, you know, changing a fee structure, for example, or moving away from the commission structure in the earlier half of the 2000s, sort of being that catalyst of change in a soul protection of business was something that I really had a passion to do. And, you know, so Terry was always loved to work in the business. And I found that just naturally I leaned more to working on the business, and trying to learn quite quickly about the changes that were evolving. So it almost felt quite naturally that I thought no, this is what I’m passionate about. And I really want to come in, get the paraplanning understanding work my way up with understanding the research and how you put you know, a statement of advice together for example, is it called a statement of advice always back then, yeah, the statement of

Andrew Rocks
what you was what year was it that you made the decision to? to come in and amplify this business in retrospect, you can say I can

Angie Menendez
say the retrospect at the time, it was obviously really Trying to understand and take it all in. But I entered the business in 2007.

Andrew Rocks
Right? Okay. So like quite a few people have come on this podcast, I’ve got to ask. So you’ve coming in 2007. And pretty well, yourself and Terry could throw a dart at wall in 2007 and get an equity return. And then the GFC happened. So did that accelerate you growing up in relation to the clients? Or how did that impact your business?

Angie Menendez
I think it definitely made me a better advisor, having gone through that part of the journey, understanding myself seeing in my own investments in the impact that that had, and really understanding how to decipher risk, and the concepts of that, and like you said, yourself, you know, throw a dart at the wall, and it was able to have that performance. And I’m saying that that wasn’t always the case. And when you’re young, and you’re in the industry, that’s something as a very, very hard concept of at first sort of be hit with and go, Okay, this is something that I have to personally work through, as well as deal with my own experience entering as a financial advisor. So I entered as an advisor in 2009. Prior to that, I was doing a lot of the research to support what the advisors were doing. But still having that experience, and even on my own investments did shape the way that I advice. So the GFC did have that impact on me.

Andrew Rocks
And I think people who had had very much in the early 2000s, they defined their success as being a financial planner in relation to the returns that they got. And this was a great sort of come to Jesus moment as far as it really reset, people. And I think that even though we talk about, you know, faux fur coming in in 2012, being a catalyst, I genuinely believe that people will restructuring the value proposition towards advice and strategy. You know, post GFC, almost admittedly,

Angie Menendez
most certainly, definitely changed the way. I guess, when I embarked on 2009, having having had that experience, you value based goals based advice was most certainly something that we looked at more as a core focus of how we deliver the advice to clients.

Andrew Rocks
So this was 2012, you moved off Commission’s, as a predominant source of income, and on to ongoing fee arrangements. Is that right? Yes. And what was your role in in so you structured up the pricing, for instance, as well as the the ongoing,

Angie Menendez
it was more about transitioning the clients away from being on a commission structure to a percentage based fee under an ongoing fee arrangement?

Andrew Rocks
And throughout this, I mean, I’ve known you for a couple of years. And it sounds, you know, if you fast forward to 2023, you know, it sounds like you’ve done that you’ve taken on a bunch of API’s, you’ve got a successful business. But you did take a little bit of time to build yourself a little bit of a portfolio of children at the same time. So how has it been? How has it been? And from every time I’ve met, you’ve always been completely and utterly focused and whatnot. But how have you managed to juggle that?

Angie Menendez
Yeah, good question. From my own story, being an advisor, up until 2021, it was all things for the client very much focused on my primary role as trying to be the best financial adviser I could be. And then having upon embarking on becoming a mother, and I’ve got three children under the age of six. So it’s gonna be challenging at times, I noticed that naturally, my role did lean away from being all things. So I was managing the business as well as advising staff, and you realize that I wanted work life balance as well. And I couldn’t be all things. So the, it almost led me to the point where, okay, I need to manage and have other people come into this business as financial planners, which really was that that catalyst for letting go of control, letting go of that, and allowing your new talent to come into the business, and then learning how to sort of cultivate the environment that would allow them to thrive. So really going into that management role. So I’m able to do that now as my core focus, and have been, you know, as very supportive and active mum, as well as overseeing the business.

Andrew Rocks
And it’s, it’s a real paradox that in order to, you know, as as a new parent, and I raised three children with my lovely wife, whilst I was doing financial planning business as well, but you almost had to get a bigger, more complex business in order to be able to buy yourself time. That’s right. Yeah. It’s if you say that quickly, it sounds mad. And I see that a fair bit and the question that I’ve started asking guests on the podcast, who have young children and maybe so you’re also six, is that right? Yes. Okay. If I was to ask your child, what you did for living what mom does for a living, what would they say?

Angie Menendez
Mommy, mommy goes to work and is like to be a boss something that mommy, mommy goes and and takes care of people at work takes care of who takes care of people at work.

Andrew Rocks
Now, it’s just something that I’ve just introduced. And I do like doing it. And I thought, well, and has there been. So you’ve been you throughout your career, you’ve worked in some banks, and then you’ve worked here, and you’ve had different licensing, as you’ve been anyone in particular, who’s stood out in your career that’s assisted you, or any organization or even if they’ve been suppliers to your business?

Angie Menendez
Yeah, I’ve been fortunate in my career thus far to have some great support. I would say that three, Theo Christopoulos, who is with as VW financial services, which is our licensee, he has been almost like a mentor through my journey a lot. You know, I’m able to just openly discuss with him wherever I think that our businesses is going in its direction. And he’s always been a wealth of knowledge, we do have a great licensee, which have been very supportive almost feel like we’re business partners in many ways. So that’s great. And I also lean on a lot of external coaches to assist in in my own business. So I use our real business matters. And they’ve been a great support. And I’m part of the leadership think tank, which is a great roundtable, where you openly discuss with like minded individuals about different business issues, and they just give you that open and broader perspective on things.

Andrew Rocks
And look, Karen, I think we’ve got a few more links down there, we’ll include those links, just for people, because it’s, you know, the whole ethos of ensemble is the positive evolution of advice. And, and, you know, if you look at it through one lens, it’s sharing, sharing stories and sharing kind of assets and experiences that makes our industry just better. So thank you very much for that. And I suppose why why I’m sort of chatting about your business, let’s get right into it. Let’s roll the collective sleeves up. And let’s try and paint the picture for the way in which the business is now in 2023 and beyond. And so yeah, maybe give me a bit of a feel for the scalar business. How many advisors do you have, for instance, how many client service managers or whatever the terminology is, give us a feel of the org chart, and potentially, whether you which way you’ve arranged them, you know, that’s always quite topical.

Angie Menendez
So we have a team of 10, we have four advisors, and it’s life stage advice, so to speak. So we’ve got a Principal Advisor, a high net wealth advisor, and mass affluent advisors, we have a pod system. So we’ve got client service officers that sit in assist each pod, and we have an office manager.

Andrew Rocks
And when when you say a pod system, given that the genesis of the business was was was Terry than yourself, have you? Have you allocated the clients that you’ve taken on? Or is there? Is there a real drive for your new advisors to build their own networks? What’s what’s kind of? Are they farmers? Are they hunters are a combination?

Angie Menendez
Yeah, they’re a combination of both. So we really do embrace that autonomy with advisors and try to empower them to run their own sub businesses within the greater business. So they do have that autonomy to not only service a wonderful group of clients that have that, that room for growth.

Andrew Rocks
Well, I can’t wait to get into the business within a business because, you know, I’m passionate about that. But maybe just taking a step back. What are the type of clients that I mean, you’re in head offices in Bondi Junction, the eastern suburbs, fundamentally, one of the more wealthier places in this country? What’s the type of clients that you currently have? And what’s your aspirational direction for the type of clients?

Angie Menendez
Yeah, so given that we somewhat have life stage advisors, so we’ve got our principal who’s really passionate and addresses a lot of the pre and post retiree client base. And that’s also given that the 30 years in business sort of naturally lean towards that, that preference or that strength based, we’ve also got the wealth accumulator phase. And a lot of that’s got to do with our relations with centers of influence and us telling the type of client that we like to work with or that we feel that we can really gain traction and benefit with and they tend to be, you know, either professionals or families within either the broader area that tend to want to build their own asset base, and are seeking and value the benefits of quality advice. Or you’re also having, having had advisors that have gone through the provisional year journey, are also there to sort of access that more mass affluent base, or the wealth accumulator base where it coming in, maybe perhaps, off the back of a mortgage broker or an accountant recognizing a need that that client has asked us for some financial planning advice. And then we’ve also got that the advisor there to be able to take them through that journey.

Andrew Rocks
So it is very much mirroring. If I look at your, your your about us on your website, you’ve got the span from people in their early 20s to their early 60s. So your clients are mirroring that that evolution. But this is an engine room podcast and and what what’s happened is that it’s been very difficult difficult for for businesses to service wealth accumulators because of the cost of goods, maybe take us through sort of what what your CSR is in the balance of your team do because we really need to make sure it’s fine and margin with the with the wealth accumulator. So effectively, if I’m an advisor, I need to be doing more volume in your business. And I just be interested in the bits that you get the other team members to do.

Angie Menendez
Yeah, that the large chunk of our business is actually sitting more in the the high net wealth to retirement days client base, there’s there’s a small portion that are sitting in that more wealth accumulator phase, it’s not really a core component of what we do. So we’ve now got provisional year advisors sort of working more towards the mids section of our of our client base. But in terms of our pods, the high net wealth and principal advisors have their own CSO and paraplanner. Right, and the mass affluent advisors more so able to do a lot of it on their own with a dedicated paraplanner support staff that assist them. So in terms of being able to to sort of reduce the cogs there, it’s not having that additional support on a permanent basis for the most affluent advisor, and was the

Andrew Rocks
decision to move into pods and to make some accountability and look, my definition of accountability as the lead advisor is responsible for, you know, a cohort of revenue growth in that revenue growth and the headcount. I mean, there’s probably a bunch of metrics, which I’d love to tease out of you. But was that is that a new thing? Or is that? Did your coach tell you to get into that kind of model? What was your budget rationale between having an accountability line? Yeah, it

Angie Menendez
did tie in to me moving into management and knowing that we now need to understand how everybody can be accountable for each of their of their roles. So that accountability came with creating those as effectively paddocks, and saying, Okay, this allows you to then run your own sub business within the greater the greater business and aligning your goals and aspirations with the business’s aspirations. And it was all part of that relinquishing control for me as well, because you can’t be all things. So allowing the advisors to feel that they are responsible. And this is this is my key. This is my paddock, and I’m gonna run it according to the broader values and ideas of the business. However, I know that I’ve got that autonomy within this this paddock to run it a certain way, and attract those those ideal clients that work and complement this business structure.

Andrew Rocks
Sounds awesome. And we probably don’t know I am actually from the country. So agricultural metaphors is something that I’ve been waiting for a long time. Look, we’re gonna go Patrick to play. We’re not probably going to talk about abbatoirs in ag version, but but I do I do, like the visual aware. And that paddock can grow. You can have good fences, you can have efficient use, you can have good crop rotation. So you I’d really do like that that metaphor and I’m utterly gutted that there’s more business coaches that are using that one there. Just as long as you don’t use the drought, that’ll probably be we call that the KFC. So, so maybe give us so you’re getting a feel for for that. How do you measure success operationally? So what what’s what’s, what’s a reasonable way in which you as the GM? Because I take it as you’re not actively seeing any of those clients anymore? You’re not anymore. Okay. So first question is how do you measure and then I want you to rewind and tell me how you win to the clients off you to the new people. So two questions.

Angie Menendez
So in terms of measuring success, I lean on two different approaches. So we’ve got a general balanced scorecard approach for performance with our advisors. But that’s looking more long term, so a 12 month trajectory. But given that I’ve sort of fallen into to management Roxy, I dare say that, in some ways, it was to an advantage that I was able to sort of really read and understand, Okay, well, what would work with us without having the biases of what had come before? So a lot of what I do apply is okay, we’ve got a balanced scorecard for 12 months. So we still need a short term approach to what success looks like. And I lean a lot on the sort of Ken Blanchard approach, which he’s got a book called The One Minute Manager, and it’s all about understanding and having what he calls key result areas. And this is something that we work on on a short term basis with everybody, not only the advisors, but also the CSOs anyone. On the inter CBD advisory, they want to know and have a clear path to what success looks like. So for us being able to have key result areas, and we call it a goal map, and effectively, it’s something that I go through and a quarterly basis with the team. And what we say is, it’s it’s applying the Pareto principle to what you want to achieve. So it’s okay, if your key result areas, let’s say that they are the 20% that you do that’s going to deliver the 80% of your results. So the advisors know, okay, these are my K RAs,

Andrew Rocks
and what will be the what you’re not seeing listeners, because we haven’t got video is is the hands. It’s the excitement

Angie Menendez
to get started. So

Andrew Rocks
we’re joined at the moment, but what would be give me an example give me an so give me an example of, of one of those proto things would be at the coalface on a daily basis.

Angie Menendez
Okay, so for an advisor, we run a fixed term service agreements. So we have 12 month contracts with all of our advisor, ongoing clients. So they would know that it’s about the retention. So we’re looking at that on a regular basis. So key result area there is, have you been able to retain and foster that relationship with your client for another 12 months? And they know exactly what what does success look like in that area. So it’s measurable, it’s specific, and they know how how to achieve that outcome will usually give them three months timeframe to say, Okay, you need to have met the client by x date, and been able to deliver the services required. So that would have been example for an advisor.

Andrew Rocks
Perfect, perfect. And, and the second part of the question was, when you transitioned from your own retained clients, to handing them over, because, you know, when we spoke off air, a lot of the CEOs of these businesses were advisors and, and we don’t get that many general managers who were advisors. So I’m very curious as to, you know, how you managed to get those clients and you’ve you’ve, you’ve introduced them to someone else, and how that felt for you, and how it ended up.

Angie Menendez
I think it happened naturally only because I would go on maternity leave. So I was forced into having somebody have to take care of the client, right. So the introduction had already commenced, just due to the fact that while I’m going on maternity leave for X amount of months, this person is more than capable. Coming back, it was also I would take on some of those clients for a short term until you really got to actually management. But they’d already been familiar with other people in the business. So it’s really introducing the other advisors and endorsing them, like being their advocate and saying, okay, at least would be fantastic at this, Nick would be great at this, or max wouldn’t be able to assist you with this. So the clients were then already under having had the experience with those with those advisors. They’re like, Yep, I’ve already spoken to that that visor, not a problem.

Andrew Rocks
And was it child one, two, or three, that you realize that everyone else does a pretty good job in financial planning, and you now are liberated?

Angie Menendez
I think it was quite early in the piece, I was able to say quite quite, quite soon after having my first child and coming back in that management was very important, particularly in a family business where sometimes it can be undervalue the importance of really being able to invest in your people and invest in the advisors performance.

Andrew Rocks
Perfect, perfect. Now, I mean, you did a shout out to your licensee earlier in the podcast, but maybe give us a feel for, you know, your license with and why and what you see sort of as your relationship with them.

Angie Menendez
Yeah, so we’re licensed with as VW financial services, their headquarters are based out in Melbourne, Victoria. And I find that it is a partnership in many ways. Like we were quite interested in broadening our tech stack. We are heavily invested in x plan and our visions compass. So you know, wanting and being quite passionate about being able to enhance that client experience working with a licensee then understand that and say, Okay, well, we’re on this together, we’re trying to work out ways to facilitate that or broaden that. But within the confines of what we obviously have to work with, is quite empowering. I find because they understand, like when I call up and say, Look, this is what I’m looking at doing. What are your thoughts, I met with that reciprocated enthusiasm to say, okay, look, we’ll see how we can make this work with you or for you,

Andrew Rocks
rather than Your call is important to us. So your

Angie Menendez
colleagues will get back to you. That’s right, for us

Andrew Rocks
too. So well, that’s a collaborative approach. And that that sort of segues into my next question, which is sort of how you arrange your your tech stack, you’ve intimated you’ve got the compass version of x plan and but what’s the rest of the tech stack?

Angie Menendez
So as I said heavy reliance on our processes, we’ve got quite a bit in threads and tasks in x plan, which is really the the main core of our business. You know, read the He made many years ago and just went crazy on threads and tasks. So the whole business is process based, you can just literally pick it up. And that’s why the paddocks worked well, because it’s just copy, paste, copy, paste, so to speak in terms of processes, everyone knows their role, they can assign their tasks. So we are quite heavy as as compass will expand as our CRM, we also use the likes of for our communications, Microsoft suite. So teams is our way of

Andrew Rocks
I mean, I’m color my businesses are on Microsoft. And I just think that, you know, sorry to cut you off. But I just think that the MS teams and all the rest of it are starting to take them out. And to be honest,

Angie Menendez
well, we’re at the point that I was just questioning the other day, keeping all of our zoom accounts civil, we’re doing everything on teams a lot of the time now with client calls as well. So it’s interesting to seeing this transition towards more of a leaning towards our Microsoft suite. So a lot of our communication is via teams, particularly if we have people working from home that works quite well for us. We do do surveys and the likes through type form. We do internal surveys, as well as external for clients, so we can use that we’ll get to that

Andrew Rocks
later. So internals like invoice employee value stuff, yes. Okay, cool. Can’t wait to talk about people and culture, and the external ones, net promoter and things like that.

Angie Menendez
Great. We also use the Monday app just in terms of being able to track internal success as well for the business. What we are looking for more is about as a client engagement tool. So we are sort of currently researching we have had some in the past

Andrew Rocks
who’s on your shortlist, they’re probably listening.

Angie Menendez
We are looking at a few the likes of astute will dash LUMION are probably our top contenders at the moment. The frustrations that we do have and I don’t know if the sort of resonates with anyone else out there is just that integration with x plan, which I think is something that a lot of people fill out on different practices.

Andrew Rocks
RS and the other three, just spend more money. You know, as long as the advisors date on that, then jump on that. But you’re right. It’s it’s, it’s, it’s the the old adage of that integration and you know, at some stage one or many of them will get it right. And you say when you say customer engagement, is that intimate that you guys, you’re managing existing clients, but you’re actively looking for new business as well what percentage growth you are hoping for, for on a client number?

Angie Menendez
Yeah, look, I mean, a 20% growth would be fantastic. That would be amazing. So we do have inbuilt part of those key result areas, particular number of client acquisition per advisor. And really facilitating and cultivating those centers of influence that they have. Part of that is also giving our advisors that autonomy and a budget to say, Okay, you want to do a lunch and learn, you want to bet over invest in your own centers of influence. Here’s sort of the budget spent to do so and really encouraging them to take part in that.

Andrew Rocks
Well, that’s that accountability. So you run them as quasi p&l As you make them business people. That’s fine. And, you know, I was gonna say spoon fed. But, you know, we could do feedlot. I’m not sure we’re doing the agricultural ones. It’s, that would be, that’d be my thoughts. Now. Earlier on in the podcast, you mentioned that you’re in a panel, but but in relation to your business, do you have a Do you have any outside influence? Do you have an input client advisory board, you have anything like that, that where you’ve you’re seeking outside sort of influence on your business at this stage?

Angie Menendez
Yeah, we’re only discussing this recently. To date, we don’t we have key people that we do discuss, but we don’t, the board at the moment consists of more senior management. And the key stakeholders and boards are

Andrew Rocks
funny word. Right. So, you know, board members per se, you know, they’re all about risk and governance, you know, if you do the pure play, but I suppose the the evolution of an advisory board really isn’t the board’s advisory people. Yeah, yeah. No, that that would be something that I’m seeing a fair bit. And it’s okay to learn off other practices, because we’re not really in competition is my thoughts.

Angie Menendez
My certainly, and, you know, being able to speak to some of the key practices out there and loan, you know, the whole adage of two ears, one mouth, use them accordingly. I like to listen as much as I can and obtain new information from other businesses and other success stories.

Andrew Rocks
Absolutely. And when you’re talking about obtaining information from from other people, let’s jump on to the people side of it. And the question I like to raise with my guests or, you know, CBD advisory, why do people join you? Why do they stay and how do you grow with them? So maybe give me a bit of a feel for you know, what you’re looking for in people to join you as a start off, and we’ll kick into an employee value proposition and all these things that I know that you offer. I just want to articulate better.

Angie Menendez
Okay, well, if the hands were moving before I’ll move a lot now, because this is probably the most passionate part of, of what I do day to day, it just clicked why people join, I think I learned through my own experience that being in a boutique financial planning firm, you need to be very clear on the culture that you’d like to embrace, when you’ve got a team of 10. Working closely with people is really important. And knowing that you can all get along professional in a professional environment is key. So setting that expectations with our team, as well as any future potential members, is really, really important. I do notice a lot of times in my own experience that the corporate adult side and the boutique side are very different. And I like to be quite transparent with people upfront on how we run. So having a clear culture and vision of what that looks like, I think is imperative, particularly I find in in the boutique space.

Andrew Rocks
So you’re definitely so when you when you reference the corporate versus the boutique, you did that to make an inference that you’re more boutique and you’re more family, you’re more. So you mentioned that you’re working closely together. Are you all on one side?

Angie Menendez
Yeah, we are all on one side, we as in the team, onshore, we’re all on site, in, in what a junction. And then we do have a team that that’s external as well that we outsource, but the team that’s on site, yeah, we all work closely in the one headquarters. And the culture that we do facilitate is one that everybody understands what what it is that we’re about. So recently did a employee feedback form and the one thing we asked was, how would you summarize the culture and the vibe, so speak at CBT, advisory cool, and almost nine out of 10, or, in fact, probably all 10 in their own variants at the same sort of thing, which was, you know, casual, yet professional family vibe, and really honing in on that, that, you know, we’ve got our EVP being like, join us as family, but you know, develop and prosper on your own as well through that autonomy. So it’s being able to join as a collective family collective, having that mutual respect and understanding, but then really cultivate have that autonomy to build your own career. And we kind of build that on a three, three core values that we have at our business, which are communication, collaboration, and empowerment. And I mean, I can sort of expand on those three, because I see them as the three pillars of what really reflects our culture.

Andrew Rocks
The first one is communication. So

Angie Menendez
So communication, it’s sort of applying the Clean Air Ken Blanchard approach that I mentioned before. So it’s having clear goals, which is those key result areas that I mentioned. So short term succinct goals that aren’t wishy washy, and then having the overall balanced scorecard approach, I think that’s the best

Andrew Rocks
term I’ve heard aren’t wishy washy. I think that, you know, there’s criticism around, you know, junior people coming into organizations and not jumping straight onto learning exactly what you want. But if you hold a mirror up, if you don’t give them clear, sort of objectives and goals, then and how do we expect them to get there? They can’t read our minds? Well, yeah,

Angie Menendez
they don’t know what success looks like. So having that roadmap, that pathway to success is critical. And that’s that communication piece. Having timely praise is very important, you know, really praising great,

Andrew Rocks
great point. There’s my time we praise for

Angie Menendez
having timely praise, and properly addressing conflicts and resolving is I found very important, I don’t hear the the old adage of don’t go to bed on an argument, so to speak, but really applying that in business, like what’s going on here, how to resolve that. So that sort of the communication piece of which is one of those three pillars for us, in terms of collaboration, like to apply the a win win mindset. You know, it’s they say that think Stephen R Covey, if anyone’s read seven strategies of Highly Effective People, it’s, it’s that notion of belief in that third alternative, you know, it’s not my way, it’s not your way, but it’s the better way. And really applying that with our team. Any business in general, I find has worked really well for us. And it does sort of give our empowers our staff to know that while I’m respected it almost it cultivates that mutual respect while they’re gonna listen to me and it’s not I don’t feel like I’m, I’m you know, beat somehow being outdone here or not, not not getting good in the short end of the stick.

Andrew Rocks
It’s a long way from command and control management.

Angie Menendez
That’s right by British management. Yep. And I guess in that is also being true to the word you know, I had a senior advisor and we were just having one of our midpoint check ins recently. He said, You know, you’ve been true to your word since day one. And that was really important for me the fact that you’ve been true to your word, and I take that quite quite seriously and really appreciate it that comment. So collaboration would be our second pillar. And then lastly is empowerment, which kind of went back to the paddock system that we do have. So I’ve got this saying, which is empowerment breeds excellence through autonomy and responsibility. And basically, what that really means to us is that when you have empowered staff, or empowered colleagues, then they feel that they have that autonomy to go ahead and do things on their own accord. And it really makes them feel that they have purpose. So we’ve got a client service officer, and Amy, Sonya, and she’s been with us for seven plus years. And she shouldn’t be at the point where she’s collating some information for a client, we’ve got an elderly client who doesn’t like email, you know, Auntie enter the digital age. And we thought, with all due respect, you can understand that that’s a bit complicated and overbearing for him. And you know, it come back, she’s like, Yep, I just dropped that off, she leaves it around the corner from where this gentleman lives. Before you know it, she may be having a tea with him hearing something about his life story. And she comes to work feeling so fulfilled, because she’s like, yep, not a problem. I’ve helped him, helped him with his TV, and gave him the forms that he needed, you know, that otherwise would have been sent in the mail, and handled in a way.

Andrew Rocks
So that’s that autonomy and responsibility. That’s right. So so I needed that informed you afterwards, I imagine.

Angie Menendez
Yeah, it’s on her own accord. You know, she knows that well, but it’s all breeding that excellence because what a great customer outcome, being able to provide that client with that experience, where she has come out of her way, dropped it off to me, helped me with my TV, which was just a nice little help there. But it was that ability to have that really friendly and personalized service.

Andrew Rocks
So we can add links it’s Sonya provides great IT service for their clients, as well. And, and maybe a bit more empowerment, potentially, sort of, that’s all about how you’re mentioning that you’re enabling them to be empowered. But as an emerging an actual leader in the business, how do you empower yourself and and what leadership kind of provisions do you give to yourself?

Angie Menendez
Yeah, so it’s really being being aware of what goals I set for myself, which, which is pretty much the broader business. And that’s where I do have external people to hold me accountable, and be able to show me what that path is going to look like. Because I do invest a lot of my time focusing on the team, others Yep, others, and sometimes without those external partners, that would probably be an area that falls to the, to the wayside if I’m not having somebody holding me accountable.

Andrew Rocks
So just as basic advice for other practicing general managers, so you’ve got, is it a coach or a friend or a mentor? Or? And what’s the regularity of that, that check in for you?

Angie Menendez
Yeah, so I have worked with a coach. And that’s usually on a monthly basis, where we’re able to just sit down and reflect on what our, our 12 month, up to five year trajectory looks like, but then work on our short term goals.

Andrew Rocks
And what’s that sort of tenure of your business? You know, you sound like a very much a family business there. And if I’m a if I’m a person who is coming in to work for you, effectively, and I’m in my 20s, or 30s, it must be quite refreshing and rewarding to see that you can have a family and work in this business, there is no sort of inbuilt bias. In fact, it’s probably embraced. So do you get a lot of longer term tenured people in your business?

Angie Menendez
Yeah, we have today that we’ve got people that have been with us for almost 10 years at the moment. So yeah, we do have I think a lot of our our team do do stick when they feel that they do feel comfortable with the culture, and the vision of the business.

Andrew Rocks
And we spoke earlier about you mentioned about the your global team. And obviously I I’m aware of that we caught up recently with some of your team members for a pretty fun time in the Philippines. In watch the communication, collaboration and empowerment. Do you have any different ways in which you deal with your global back office team or is it the same I’m really interested because as a person who has a bit of oversight, you tend to do pretty well with them even compared to other arts.

Angie Menendez
So we embarked on the journey of outsourcing our power planning about three years ago and since doing So we’ve still got pretty much the same team that we started with, expanded that slightly more with adding an additional power planner on board. So we do utilize our virtual business partners as our outsourcing partner for power planning service. Now, I found that that that relationship has worked really well with our paraplanners. But

Andrew Rocks
it takes two to tango. That’s right, because because even VBP that I know, well has a 15% attrition rate or 10 to 15, whatever it is. So I just really interested in the things that you’re cooking in Bondi Junction in Sydney? How are you making sure that they feel part of it? Because there’s a bit of magic in that, and yeah,

Angie Menendez
so I look, I replicate as much as I can, those same three pillars applied to the paraplanners. So communication, we have daily huddles, usually our office manager will do those. We’ve got a an SOA pipeline, which were mapping on how things are working for them, they work, they generally tend to work for one advisor, which caught that creates that clear vision of responsibility and line of communication, that we found that that model has worked best for us. So then we’re able to see where they’re at with each case that they’re working on. And they do have X plans, so they’re able to see what part of the threat or task they’re at. So we do one on ones with them each day. And then we also have quarterly reviews with them. So using that key result area approach. They also have key result areas. So they really have an idea of what success looks like. And that sort of complements their benchmark approach that they have with virtual business partners as well. And then we have a bonus structure that we apply with them on a regular basis. So it’s keeping them the count that’s tethered to an outcome tethered to an outcome based on those key result areas. So

Andrew Rocks
it’s not wishy washy. It’s

Angie Menendez
not wishy washy.

Andrew Rocks
Okay, good. That was I suppose I. And when you do achieve all these things, how do you celebrate it? What does What does fun and celebration look like in your business? Yeah,

Angie Menendez
I mean, I think it’s quite fun. But we we do have, we’ve got short term rewards. So we have a the month that was each month. And that’s an opportunity for us to present to each to the whole team, where we’re going, how things have been tracking for the month, we celebrate some wins, we celebrate, we discuss challenges. And then we also provide a quarterly reward system. And that’s based on looking at a few different metrics. And whichever pod sort of came out on top of that month, also competitive tension, well, collaboration, but

Andrew Rocks
but that’s fine as well. Yeah.

Angie Menendez
And we like to break bread a lot. So there’ll be a lunches, we’d go out and just celebrate a win for the specific pod that one, each time we do the monthly catch up, it’s over lunch or over a brunch. And it’s an opportunity to present everyone’s successes for the for the month. So we also have an above and beyond nominations. So that again, sort of ties in with the empowerment where everyone nominate somebody that they felt went above and beyond for the month, and then they will get like a half day, half day off, just as a thank you gesture to celebrate the fact that they did they were really a key player for that month. So that’s part of the winds, we also do a lot of team activities. So we’ll have a to client to staff activity days where we might do something to sort of have team bonding, as well as to social events. And then we also would do our midpoint check in. So again, going back to what success looks like. I tend to take each staff member out for lunch at the meet though we just finished it already. Just now for their midpoint check in water. Is that right? No. So this would be over the year. Okay. So we do the monthly lunch and lunches for you. There are lunches. Yeah. I hope it doesn’t go to waste, but neither are very few. But we also will do media check in the in house team.

Andrew Rocks
And so have you got Yup, the quarterly pod winners this win, like I’m going to come back and ask you sort of you’re given what you are interested in sort of the people who you’re looking to attract, because you’ve built a business with 10 people. It’s very scalable. Okay, so it’s very scalable. And it’d be wonderful maybe to get a feel for you know what your vision of your business is because you’ve got if you’ve got three pods you can have 10 If you’ve got this working, you know, you’ve got your your global team humming along. You’ve tethered that to actual productivity. If humanize that by a site visit, you’ve got Microsoft Teams humming. You have a platform to scale. What is your vision for the future of your business? Over the short, medium and long term?

Angie Menendez
Yeah, I think we’re at we’re at that unique point at the moment where the Business is ready to be able to grow. We’ve got our processes, like you said in place. So being able to attract new talent and replicate the paddocks would be something that we’re most certainly looking at over the next five years. And really building upon the system that we find is working really well and replicating that historically, have you have you recruited people, we have used recruiters in the past. So I’ve found great success for a profusion group have been great. And I do like the Stryver platform, which is headed up by Alistair bar. For graduates, I find that they give you great understanding of the cycle testing psychometric testing for each candidate, you are meeting some eager university students that really want to get an understanding of the financial services industry. So a lot of our associates had come through that path in the past. And also just our broader community. Just always sort of having that discussion.

Andrew Rocks
We’re open for business. Yeah, so I’ll put in a shameless plug for the ensemble platform here. And ensemble, if you’re a young person who’s jumped into a business in your professional year or your practice owner, there’s a whole sort of community based around py, I think, which has been graciously supported by CFS, that has a lot of resources. So it first of all, it helps the the individual but also it helps the smaller, medium sized business with a bit of a heavy lifting. So making sure you’re jumping in.

Angie Menendez
Yeah, actually was just I jumped on recently after the having seen Emily’s presentation, actually. And it was it was great to see that access. So that would most certainly be something when we are looking at acquiring that I’d look at again,

Andrew Rocks
awesome, awesome random. The you’re, I suppose the question is, you’re in Sydney, you do have a lot of face to face. But are you a hybrid work offering? If I was to, let’s say, for instance, I went, I like what you’re cooking. I want to work for you. What? What’s the proposition? As far as how do you engage people,

Angie Menendez
we do work off a hybrid model. So generally, it’s three days in the office to working from home with the option to work from home two days. We do like everyone in the office on Mondays and Fridays reason being is on on Mondays, we have our our pod meetings. So everybody has to be in or generally like to be in to be able to discuss where we’re going for the week. And then Fridays is effectively our reflection. Where have we gone? And where are we sort of planning to go? And what do we need ready for Monday’s meeting? So we do work on a hybrid model. And that seems to be working? Well. It’s giving that flexibility to our team,

Andrew Rocks
where you’ve got that collaboration point on the Mondays and Fridays, enables closer communication. You’ve got the daily huddle is but then you empower them from Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, they choose their own adventure. Yeah. And I imagine some choose to work in the office, some go and see clients, some will work from home if they’ve got a, you know, a deep work log as well. Sounds about right, doesn’t it? Yeah. In relation to the business ownership, you say it’s a family business? Does that mean it’s always going to be a family business? Or is there you know, is there kind of an incentive for people coming through to potentially get a piece of the action, so to speak in the future?

Angie Menendez
are most certainly we’re in discussions about that, at the moment, I’m looking at a structure for an employee share. Plan. So that’s most certainly something that we’d be doing.

Andrew Rocks
Because it can be complicated, or it can’t be it’s, and it’s part of part of what attracts people, you know, quite often people want to they buy people, okay, they buy where you’re at in the market, they buy the tools that you’ve got, they buy other things. I you know, we chatted earlier, you do charitable stuff, you’ve got World Vision, you’ve done that. So, so you know, you you’re taking that limbic box of you are good people, you’ve got the family thing. And I just think that to retain people long term, that blue sky of you’re going to be part of something bigger is possibly, you know, a solution.

Angie Menendez
Yeah, most certainly. And the the feedback we get from our current advisors is I feel that my my word has weighed, and that’s really important that when they do have an ID and that’s all part of that collaboration piece, which is one of those pillars is yes, we do value what you say. And we want you to be part of the future direction of this business. And that does come with tenure, of course and knowing the people that you feel comfortable that you could work with. So I think our particularly our advisors and the broader team do feel empowered, that they are heard and that what they do say is going to be at least taken into consideration and potentially a lot of times implemented.

Andrew Rocks
Now, that’s that’s got a lot to of you. That’s got a lot to do with the way in which you position yourself the way in which you carry yourself. This business CBD advisory, you’re quite young, you know, I’m So it’s something that, that you’re looking to drive for the next 10 years plus, would that be right? Yes. Because if I’m, if I’m, if I’m a potential person listening to this, and I think, Well, that’s good, I need to get a feel for that. And also, you know, one day, you’re gonna have to replace yourself in this role as well. And, and, you know, figuring out what you’re good at what you’re not, which I imagine your coach will tell you will give you those insights will work. Now, have you ever acquired businesses? Or has it been all organic?

Angie Menendez
Yes, we have. It has been organic, and we acquired a business a few years ago, and that sort of brought on another advisor as well. And we would be looking to do so again, in the future, if the right sort of practice came up. And we did all of our due diligence, which I think is very prevalent to make sure that we’re aligned with the business that we would like to acquire. But we have acquired in the past, but most of the the growth has been organic growth.

Andrew Rocks
We’re hearing we’re live, what’s the right practice look like?

Angie Menendez
I think having similar systems to us, like obviously, having processes that are really well tuned is important.

Andrew Rocks
Most people lead with people and revenue and whatnot. But you’ve you’ve actually come up with a really sophisticated, so go on,

Angie Menendez
I find that when clients understand or really appreciate the fact like being on a fixed term service arrangements, they really know, like, every nine months, at a minimum, depending on what service level they’re at, they’re going to get that call and knowing that our people understand what those processes look like and understand the expectations that are involved in those that’s really important. Obviously, looking at the type of advice that’s been given. So just to reiterate, the reason that I find processes really important is that it also sets that expectation for any additional team members that may come across to understand that they understand the importance of that, whilst they’re going to be tweaked. Of course, it’s sort of embedded into our business. It is great when you know that there’s that level of understanding on this, this sort of business as usual, so to speak. So that would be somewhat important to us, as well as the people coming across, he’s obviously quite critical to see if we’ve got that culture, understanding or that same level of understanding with those potential key members that may come on board. And you’re definitely

Andrew Rocks
looking for businesses, not just just client books, per se.

Angie Menendez
I believe so yeah, I think that would be the way that we’d go down. And what

Andrew Rocks
you’re building and I hope this has come through, and I’m sure it has is that you’re building it really good platform. So there are a lot of other operators out here, we’ve tried to do both and come to the realization that you’d love to talk with clients. So you know, not Robinson Crusoe and saying that and, and you know, if you fall into that boat, you’ve got, you’ve got a couple of options, you can either get together with a bunch of other people like that, and then hire and build the thing that you’ve built the last 10 years, you can go to a really big organization, like Goldilocks, isn’t it, where you can get something just right, that sort of fulfills you and your life stage, which is, I imagine what you’re putting out there as far as you know, where we’re very interested in, you’re integrating into our business, we’ve got the systems we’ve got you and bring across your your great opportunities, but your immediate ones, and even your tough ones. And we’ll work with you to make it more efficient and smooth.

Angie Menendez
Yeah, that’s right. And the fact that we have that framework, department management perspective as well to in to empower each of those individuals, that would be coming into the business. I think that that’s that’s something that could be quite attractive to other businesses to be able to plug into. Yeah, look

Andrew Rocks
more Chuck something on the talent hub, I think they’re here and this young guy. So now, in relation to practice managers, in general managers in the industry, you’ve got a great position in the industry and you your business has been going 30 years. And in reality 20 years ago that this role didn’t exist, but what advice would you be giving to people looking either inside a financial planning practice, or outside wanting to get into running a planning business, and where do you see that role going in the future in financial planning?

Angie Menendez
The advice that I would give somebody looking to embark on more of a general management practice management role is really starting to understand the mechanics of how businesses work. I think that the role is really, at least from my perspective is moving into more broadly understanding, working on the business. So giving coaching, scaling, coaching is really important to that. Because you’ve got that to have that growth mindset. It’s one thing I think having management and understanding that you need to have a growth mindset to sort of propel forward is, I think, really key to being in this role, at least from my perspective and experience. And having coaches having mentors, right people around you that can really excel and propel you forward would be great that the advice that I would give somebody sounds like

Andrew Rocks
it might fall into the following three categories communication, collaboration and empowerment. Look, it’s been a real pleasure. I’ve watched your business from afar, you’re really warm at the what’s lost in a podcast is just the amount of hand movements and gestures that come from that. I know that people who know you really love working with you. And I’d like to thank you on behalf of the engine room and on behalf of the aspirational general managers and practice managers in Australia for your time today. Thanks very much.

Angie Menendez
Thanks, Rocks. It was a pleasure.