Why Senior Executives Are Turning to Portfolio Careers for Freedom and Fulfilment

Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00.086)
I am yet to speak to an executive who has left their full-time corporate role and started a second career who has regretted it. Once people do it, they always say, I wish I'd done it sooner. I remember very vividly standing in my office thinking, all I have done here is create myself a golden cage. At that point, I really stepped back to re-evaluate what am I doing, what is life about, what's important, and that was the shifting point for me.

Speaker 1 (00:25.538)
Welcome to this week's episode of Wealth Talk. name is Christian Rodwell, the membership director for Wealth Builders, joined today by our founder, Mr. Kevin Whelan. Hi, Kevin.

Hi, Grahams. Good to be with you again and good to hear from another wealth builder.

Today's guest is Adrian Knight and Adrian is going to be sharing with us what a non-executive director actually does and why it's such an attractive path for experienced executives. Yeah, he's got lots of experience himself and yeah, always good to have our members sharing how they are building their

A real knight in shining armor.

Yeah. And a quick reminder, just before we dive in, that we've still got our budget guide available. And if you'd like to download a copy of that, head to wealthbuilders.co.uk forward slash budget 2025. All right, onwards. So yeah, this idea of portfolio careers will come into the conversation today, Kevin, and it kind of aligns with what we always talk about. It's multiple streams of income. So never being reliant on one source. And of course, for executives, many of them

Speaker 1 (01:32.45)
will have spent many decades just focused on work, work, work and one income stream from the salary.

quite right. of course, we know that that's risky, especially in uncertain times. Obviously, we saw number of executives suffering COVID. We've seen the threat of will artificial intelligence create and put people into redundancy. There's all sorts of different threats that will come at any time to any career. And any one of anything or one of anything is very risky. One big customer, one big

supplier, one big source of business, and one big source of income. Invariably, senior executives, that's pretty much who Adrian serves, are generally very highly paid. While they do have a high income, they're paying super high taxes and often paying the price of a loss of that family time, bearing in mind the pound of flesh they often have to give to keep that career going. So one hopes

that there's a point at which that balance can shift. I think Adrian does a great job of helping people to identify that, step into almost a new career or portfolio career, which as you say, dovetails very nicely into a portfolio of wealth creation. Hence the seven pillars. That's really a portfolio, isn't it? Multiple streams of recurring income in diverse ways. So whatever happened in the budget, whatever happens in life.

You're never really truly devastated by anything. You can be inconvenienced and you could be disappointed, but that's about it.

Speaker 1 (03:14.612)
Adrian's going to share with us how to turn decades of corporate experience into multiple income streams and why time freedom is often the missing ingredient for wealth creation. So no further ado, let's head on to our conversation today with Adrian Knight. Adrian, welcome to Wealth Talk today. How are you? I'm very well, thank you, Christian. How are you? I'm fantastic, thank you. And it's really lovely always to have our

members on the podcast to share what they're doing, how they're helping others and how obviously you're growing your own business and your own wealth. So we're excited to hear your journey and your story today. Yeah, thank you very much. I really appreciate you having me on the show. It's great show and I'm a really big fan. Thank you. Wonderful. Okay, let's get straight into it then, Adrian. Tell us.

What is it that you do now? What is your business? So I help senior executives step into like a second stage of their career. So typically I help senior executives to build out a non-executive directorship portfolio. You have to take on non-exec appointments to secure fractional consulting and advisory work, typically with smaller businesses, small to medium sized businesses. Okay, fantastic. So there's a few terms there that I wish you don't have.

So, non-executive directors, sometimes you see that as an NED. What exactly does that mean? A non-executive director is a director that doesn't formally act as a director for a company. They are essentially advisors to a business, to business owners, and they help to ensure that

First of all, the business is being run in the correct way, but a good non-executive director will do more than that and they will help to grow and to advance a business, either through bringing some of their own skills and experience to the table, and also quite often opening up their of book of contacts and their network and helping to bring new opportunities to a business. And what would be the typical profile of someone who might take that role?

Speaker 1 (05:13.742)
So the majority of people that I certainly work with, have typically spent sort of 25, 30 plus years working in corporate environments. They've been sitting at the C-suite. So they are CEOs, chief operating officers. They could be directors, managing directors, sales directors. So they're typically senior leaders in businesses that normally are quite large. they've come through, but through their career, they've had a lot of...

professional training, they've had a lot of experience, they are professional business managers, business leaders. so, yeah, they typically come from that background. And they're looking for, for ways to help to share that experience with typically like the sort of younger businesses and the next generation of leaders. That was going to be my next question, actually. Why, why would they want to do this? And you know, is it

why would

Speaker 1 (06:06.77)
that they just still want to be involved or obviously an income related aspect to it. So what the typical reasons? Yeah, it's a combination. So many people again, that I work with, they are far too young to retire. And even if they are sort of thinking about retirement, they don't just want to go from like a big corporate job for a big corporate employer to nothing. It's a bit too much of a jump. So they are looking to sort of like

take their skills and experience and all the value that they've built up over the course of a career and to help share it with, again, that next generation of leaders, so people who are stepping into those roles, coming up and just helping to make a difference. For some of those people, it is about the financial side. So they still want to generate a good financial income. And it can be a very nice way of generating an income because if you have three, four, every five.

non-exec appointments that can quite often build to a very lucrative sort of six-figure income if they are the right type of appointments. But they have lots of diversity, they're not stuck in corporate politics, and most of all, they are maintaining intellectual stimulation. So they're still being engaged intellectually and part of a team, part of a group, but without all the responsibility.

Okay, so sounds like a lot of flexibility there. They have a lot of choice and control over their time and who they work with. that sounds great. In terms of wealth building, what are the benefits for someone who might move into an NED role when it comes to their own personal wealth building? Yeah, I mean, it can be very lucrative if you go for the right type of role. So I don't just work with senior executives who may be four or five years away from, as I say,

Retirement in inverted commas. I also work with executives that may be in their late 40s or early 50s that still have a long way to go before they even think about that. But they see a financial opportunity where they can build up two or three, maybe four, and generate an income that far exceeded what they were even getting in their corporate roles. So they've got the best of both worlds in those cases. They've got a higher degree of income.

Speaker 1 (08:19.454)
income is less risky. So there's a lot of changes happening with big businesses sort of downsizing and particularly with AI. It's been happening for years, but with AI now coming into the frame as well, there's a lot of jobs that are being lost and not replaced. And so they just see it as a way to really regain control over their life, their financial livelihood and their career as a whole. And I imagine time as well is a really key aspect there because we know that the number one reason pretty much

that holds people back from building wealth and actually becoming financially independent. You could say an excuse or a reason either way is lack of time. We hear that all the time. hear that. this gives them that time, I guess, to not just work on the business with the company, but then to work on their own wealth building activities, whether that's property or other IP that they may have. That's exactly it. And I see a lot of the clients that I work with do just that.

And they are sort of driving this is not by any suggestions of myself, but they are sort of rebuilding how they get where they get their primary income from. And because they have time, they have capacity, they have bandwidth, they can actually look at things like their home, like any investment portfolios, and they can start to think like, right, does that still work for me? Is this pension working for me in the way I want it to and start to think more, I say more freely, but they just have more time to think about.

What do I want that to look like and what steps do I need to be taken now to put that into place, whether it's like property or whatever they choose. is this where this term portfolio career comes in? Yeah, yes. A portfolio is like you essentially have more than one employer. You have a portfolio of roles and I say employer likely because typically these executives, they're set up as self-employed or they run their...

portfolio for a limited company that they own, which again, it gives them more control over, you know, sort of tax and how they are deriving their income, where they're building their wealth. So by portfolio, it's essentially more than one, you've got multiple foot like lines of income, essentially. let's look at what led you to this point in agent. So what's your experience with with this area? Yeah, so I've, so I've been in executive transitions for just over a decade now.

Speaker 1 (10:37.678)
So I started in, it was August 2015 actually. I at the time was working with a very large global technology company on their talent acquisition teams. And I was heading up there, a part of their business across Europe, Middle East and Africa. And then I was just turning 30 at the time. I decided if I was going to do this entrepreneurial thing. There was quite an entrepreneurial heart.

that that was the time to take it. So I left that role and I started a very niche business that helped senior executives step out of full-time employment into really into business ownership. And I built that over a period of five to six years. I had several people working for me. And then it was around 2019, I had an opportunity to acquire one of my corporate clients. And so that was my first sort of taste of

acquisitions and just what was possible from like an &A perspective. And as a result of that, I went on a slightly different journey where over the next three and a half years, I acquired a dozen businesses in total. They weren't all successes. I had some real train wrecks in there, but I also had some successes as well. over a period of just under three years, I built up a multimillion revenue group purely through acquisition.

Now, where it all sort of changed for me personally was as part of that process of building that group, I had spoken to just over 700 small business owners from a perspective of potentially acquiring their business. And that gave me real insight into the realities of the SME marketplace. And these businesses range from anywhere from a few hundred thousand in annual revenue all the way up to the multi, multi millions. And what I started to realize was that there was a real distinct gap.

between these businesses that were looking to grow, but they didn't have the expertise and the capability. And then from my executive transitions business, seeing all of these senior leaders that were wanting to step into portfolio careers, they wanted to step out of full-time employment. But what they really wanted more than anything was to be able to help shape smaller businesses, to mentor, to guide, to help them grow to the next level. And that ultimately is what

Speaker 1 (12:50.734)
led me to refocusing back on the executive transitions and connecting the dots really, being the bridge between the two worlds. Obviously, that time was the whole COVID time. So did that help accelerate those decisions in people suddenly looking at what they've been doing for last 20, 30 years and saying, oh, maybe now is time for a shift? Absolutely. mean, COVID really obviously is very impactful for everyone, but it really changed everything because all of a sudden the hybrid working

became into the mainstream for the first real time. So a lot of these executives were thinking, actually, I don't want to be doing the excessive amount of travel that many of them were doing, 70, 80, 90 hour plus weeks. They wanted more balance. I think with the lockdowns, it gave a lot of people a taste of there's more to life than just work. And that really sparked a whole, why am I doing this sort of curiosity? Equally from the SME side of things, like many of these businesses, as soon as the first.

particularly the first lockdown hit, many of these businesses just completely fell apart. It became apparent just how many were running on fumes, like financially. They didn't have proper resources in place. They weren't operating as proper businesses. And so the whole thing really sort of its face, During that time, I had started acquiring. So I've done a lot of work in the franchise sector.

So helped executives transition into franchise business ownership and had an opportunity to acquire some franchise networks. yeah, it was just that whole experience together really sharpened a perspective for me personally about there is, there was a massive gap here on both sides, the executive side and the SME side. entrepreneur spirit, you sniffed out a real opportunity there and you took it. But I know for you personally, there was a real high and then there was a low, right? So you,

When we first started working together, know your of wealth plan is, you know, build big business and sell that and kind of live happily ever after. know, you had a shift, didn't you, along the way? I had a massive shift, which in hindsight, it's been probably the best thing that's ever happened to me, but at the time it was, it was horrific. So I've always been very entrepreneurial, know, it's a typical, you know, early teens, start your first business. And I've always had a track history of that. And my aspiration was to build up a very large

Speaker 1 (15:14.894)
business through acquisitions, essentially. And I'd gone a good way down that path. it was in, when was it? was late 2022, early 2023 when everything started to shift. So I had two very close family members, like immediate family members pass away very unexpectedly, but it just completely came out of the blue. A couple of weeks later, my younger sister called me up to say that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer.

which was a real, know, stop shooting your tracks because in my mind at the time, it's that, you know, it doesn't happen. Younger sister doesn't happen, but obviously it does. A couple of weeks after that, I had two very close friends also let me know they had been diagnosed with cancer as well. And then on top of that, one of my, it actually my last acquisition that went incredibly wrong. It was quite a big business. It was a turnaround. tried to

I tried to save it, but I wasn't successful. And that business was kind of like a boulder, like at the top of the hill that started to go down. And it really dragged me through it. And I had, I remember very vividly standing in my office. So it's my dream office. had a two-story barn conversion, absolutely stunning building. It's a head office for different companies standing there thinking, all I've done here is create myself a golden cage. All I had done that I so desperately want it to be.

with my family, you know, sort of be there for my personal side of things, but I just physically couldn't because of everything that was happening. And that kind of, unfortunately it didn't stop there. That kind of led on to the acquisition in a period of six months. The one that fails, I nearly lost everything. So I was on the brink of bankruptcy. I lost a very large amount of money personally. Shortly after that, my wife and I...

separated and shortly after that I had a cancer scare myself and that was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back I guess and at that point I really stepped back to re-evaluate like what am I doing but what is life about what's important and that yeah that was the sort of the shifting point for me. thanks for sharing Agen that's quite a lot to have to navigate through isn't it and you know obviously I do hope that your sister and

Speaker 1 (17:39.03)
Everyone is okay now. It's interesting, isn't it? Because many people who are ambitious have this dream, this vision, and often reach that moment. Even when it comes to financial independence, you work so hard to achieve the goal. Then when you get there, you actually realize, okay, perhaps this isn't quite what I expected and what's next. It's not making you happy actually. Then almost you have to strip back and get back to what the core

things are your core values and actually, you know, the things that just make you wake up happy every day. And obviously that was part of the process that you've gone through, but I must imagine you see that with a lot of the CEOs as well in terms of their own identity, when they have been like the CEO of this major company for so many years, and then suddenly they wake up and they're not that anymore. You know, how do you navigate that with them? That identity piece for executives is

It's massive. think it's hugely underestimated by executives who are in their corporate role and thinking of transitioning. And it's one of the first things that I address when working with people and we consistently maintain. And I think Daniel Priestley has a really great saying that summarizes it, which is, you can't see a mountain when you're standing on top of it. And it's the same for a lot of these executives. They have this whole mountain of value. They have all these years of experience, knowledge, and network, all of these are hard one.

you know, sort of like commercial and business experiences and life experiences, and yet they can't often see that. And so when they step away from the title, whether it's a CEO or, you know, sales director, whatever that title is, they start to question, well, who am I? And equally, when they step away from a big, you know, a big corporate name like Sony or Disney, whatever that is, it causes a real crisis of identity. And so a lot of what we do first of all, is just unpacking like

this is who you are, this is what you have, this is the experience that you have and helping people to recalibrate that identity piece. And unfortunately, it doesn't happen overnight. It's an ongoing process, but you can really work through that in three to six months if you're conscious of it. If there's anyone listening now, Adrian, and perhaps they're in this position where they like the idea of this and maybe they're thinking about this in the next couple of years or so.

Speaker 1 (20:05.09)
What would be some things that you could give them as advice now almost to sort of sit down and if they're to write a list of things that they should be thinking about, questions they should be asking themselves? Yeah, I mean, the first thing I say is I am yet to speak to an executive who has left their full-time corporate role and started a second career who has regretted it. Over the 10 years of doing this, I'm yet to speak to someone who's looked back and regretted it. So that's the first thing to say is that once people do it, they always say, I wish I'd done it sooner.

But really, would take stock and I'll sit down and I'll first of look at timing. So timing is a really important factor when it comes to transitions. Now, there's never a perfect timing, but there is never a perfect timing, but there are optimal times. So if you, for example, still have children that are in, private education, then financially, it may not be the best time because those fees still need to be paid. If you have children that have left.

education or a year or two away from leaving it, leaving and you can see, know, sort of like at the end of the tunnel there, then actually the timing might be good. Equally, when there are changes at work, so if there is a change of leadership, if there is restructuring, these can be changes outside of your immediate control that could serve as the perfect platform for which to start thinking about making a jump. Equally, there's like these are all inflection points and another common inflection point that

I see is if there are health concerns. So if someone in the family or close friend has health or there's something that's happening, it does make you take stocks. So I would be sitting down seeing, has there been any of these inflection points that happen or happening around me? And maybe now is the right time. And then alongside that, I would also take a strong look at the financials, which obviously ties in directly to why they probably listen to yourself, Christian, because

You do want to give yourself some runway. Quite often you don't need the length of runway that people think. So, you know, having a couple of years is, would be great, but you don't always need that length of runway. It's just really sitting down and being like, is now, like, can I give myself some breathing room to get this off the ground? Because it doesn't happen overnight. Like it does take, you know, it does take time. If you can give yourself six plus months, then you can really, really sort of think seriously about, okay, I could make this work. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:20.79)
No, that's good. I know when we've spoken before, you've said that there are some clients who've landed roles in as little as six weeks. Obviously, not everyone is that quick. What are some of the actions that perhaps you and they are taking during those initial couple of months to find the right roles? Yeah. over time, what's become clear to me and what I've... I say developed, but I don't that's right. I don't feel like it's ownership, but I've just sort of observed and shaped. Basically, there's a roadmap.

of being able to step out of corporate and to build a portfolio career and not having to wait years for that start to generate a return. And typically that roadmap has three phases. So the first one is your positioning, which in other words is how are you being perceived, which is a very high, important topic for a lot of senior executives that really care and quite rightly about how are they being perceived by peers, people external, et cetera. So quite often we have to recalibrate.

excuse me, recalibrate the positioning. So helping them to see the mountain of value that they're standing on, that they don't quite see at that time. Once we've done that piece, we then look at existing networks. So one of my favorite books is Acres of Diamonds, and it's a really small, and it takes about an hour and half to read. It's really short book, but basically it sort of highlights that a lot of us are so busy looking ahead and looking out and looking away from ourselves to be able to go and

build our way forward, do the next thing, get the promotion, but very rarely do we stop and look where we are at and look back and be like, actually, there's already a lot of value here. So we look at existing networks and we look at what we can do with those to help generate the right type of opportunities at the right sort of compensation models and a fair value. Because a lot of people that I work with do not know how to price and value.

price their value, essentially. From that, we then look at, and the third stage is looking at developing new networks. So how can we start to develop new networks with people that are more aligned to your values, more aligned to what you're looking to achieve commercially from your portfolio? And then we just bring it all together. So yeah, it's sort of a very clear three-stage roadmap. Yeah, network, I can understand, is so important. And LinkedIn is a

Speaker 1 (24:44.078)
professional network that I'm sure many of these people will be using and be present on. are there any things that you see executives doing wrong on LinkedIn that perhaps you could point them in the right direction? Yeah, I think a lot of the executives that I've worked with, I would say 95 % plus, again, over a period of 10 plus years, a lot of them are incredibly modest, incredibly humble. A lot of them are introverted. And quite simply, they just don't put themselves out there enough. They don't.

put themselves out there enough and quite often they don't know how to do that. In a way that is being perceived in the right way, doesn't come across as like tacky or salesy. So I would just encourage if you are to listen to this and sort of feel that all that could be me, just to really look at what are you doing? How are you presenting yourself outside of your corporate employer and your corporate job role? Because that's normally the starting point. Yeah. And I guess many people are using it.

more as a sales, to look at it more as sales versus hiring or vice versa? Yes. mean, so again, a lot of these executives have been brought up in a world where LinkedIn is being used as a hiring platform, whether that's for finding their own roles or for hiring people for their team. It's been a hiring platform. But LinkedIn, from a sales perspective, you've got your decision makers within seconds away.

like there are seconds away from your former keyboards. So when viewed from that perspective, it can be the most phenomenal sales platform. And I say sales really lightly because a lot of people have a bad association with the word sales, but really it's about connecting. And so where I see a lot of people go wrong with LinkedIn is that they try to sell on LinkedIn, whereas we're more about identifying.

Who are the people, the companies that I can really add most value to and that resonate with my values and who I am and everything I sort of stand for and then connecting with them. We're not trying to sell to them. We're just connecting with them. And then from that place, once we can get a conversation going, we can start to understand, well, is there a further conversation here or is there not, or is there one down the line, et cetera?

Speaker 1 (26:59.246)
So what I'm picking up really is that this is a wonderful opportunity for someone who perhaps is really short of time. They've done their piece in the corporate world. They've climbed the ladder. Perhaps there isn't anywhere further for them to go or as you said, there may be a catalyst that's...

there's a reason for them to now think of change. And this is a really positive change that can give them much more time, much more control, still to generate an income, still to keep their brains ticking over and allow them to then focus on other wealth building interests, you know, outside of that as well. Would you say there's anything to add to that? No, I think he's absolutely right. It's exactly how it is. There's a lot of incredible opportunity out there.

particularly smaller businesses who don't have the budgets or that for a full-time executive role. So you can really shape and carve your own career, have that control aspect, but also give you the time and bandwidth to be focusing on building wealth outside of your primary income, which is something that I've personally learned the hard way and I'm a massive advocate for. And to have some purpose or regained purpose, right? Working for something that you really

Perhaps you've lost your passion in your role and that happens, right, when you've done something for a long time. yeah, this is an opportunity now to maybe realign with a different sector, but bring those skillsets and those connections that you've built up over the years. Absolutely. Yeah. You've hit the nail on the head question. So Adrian, if anyone's listening now and they'd like to connect with you, where's the best place for them to do that?

So I'm very active on LinkedIn. So it's Adrian Knight. I post content every day on LinkedIn, talking a lot about career transitions, executive transitions, small businesses and how they can grow. Alternatively, you can go to my website, is smenonexec.com. Fantastic. Make sure we link to those resources for you in today's show notes. Well, look, Adrian, thanks so much for sharing. Sounds really wonderful what you're doing and long may it continue. So thanks again.

Speaker 1 (29:03.982)
Thank you so much, Kristian. It's a real pleasure. Thank you again for having me.

Speaker 1 (29:09.518)
Okay, good hear from Adrian there. we talk about what's your why, don't we, Kevin? That's an early part of the process is to really identify what motivates you, what's driving you. And often that is then from a catalyst of some sort. And for Adrian, it was a pretty big one, right? Multiple events that compounded and resulted in near bankruptcy and obviously family members unwell and that.

was the turning point for Adrian when he realized he had to make a shift in his life.

Yeah, mean, catalysts are a reason to interrupt your current pattern. in many arguments, a catalyst is something that stimulates a chemical reaction that leads to something positive, I hope. And this is what a catalyst is in our language, is what is the circumstances in which lead you to conclude the current paradigm, your current way of thinking, your current way of doing is just not right and needs to change.

And the change leads to a very positive outcome for you, for your family, for your work-life balance, for your wealth, for your legacy. You can just see that the catalyst is the starting point, the very ignition of everything. And sadly, most people never get one. And it doesn't have to be a tragedy like it was for me or an almost tragedy, which it was for Adrian. It doesn't have to be something negative. It could be something very positive.

an inspiration, example, something that you heard from somebody else that inspires you or somebody's done something, you go, well, if they can do it, I can do it. So the catalyst has got to come from somewhere. But in a busy life, the tyranny of the routine, the fabric we build around us can sometimes, it's almost like a mesh of stuff happening and it takes all the influences away. It almost bounces them away so that you get stuck.

Speaker 2 (31:09.526)
in the very web that you're trying to escape from. you know, whatever analogy works for you, an object at rest stays at rest. It doesn't do anything. So it's great for Adrian. Actually, we don't hear many people talking to employees so often. It's very often, isn't it? We're talking to business owners, entrepreneurs, property business owners, and so on. So it's great to hear that Adrian's got a very firm, strong message to influence for the positive.

those people who've spent their lives dedicated in the corporate world. So hats off to him.

from our own experience with our members, Kevin, that time is a challenge. Who wouldn't want more control over their time and more choices? That really is what the NED role gives to people. That allows them then to start thinking about more diversification. That's really key, isn't it, in wealth creation.

It's key in wealth creation, but I think it's key at a certain point in life. If you think about the new chapter that's being opened in the lives of people who've served their employer well and then determine themselves to have lots of experience that they can then bring to bear for others on a fractional basis or on a full-time basis. I think that diversification of income streams is very good.

diversification of experiences, diversification of connections. And of course, the big one that if you're no longer giving of yourself 40, 60, 80 hours a week, and you can do some non-executive director roles paid for, I definitely appreciate the point, don't work for free, you're already adding enough value. You've created the right staff value. You're standing on that mountain of value as he refers to it.

Speaker 2 (33:02.47)
I think is entirely right. But I think it does give you more time because you can choose how much of your time to spend to dedicate towards that recurring income process as well. And we often see that with our members who become, they have a target financial independence, but they reach financial security, which allows them to work on their own terms, if you like, which allows them to negotiate their hours in a way.

that frees up more time for wealth building activities and more time for family, of course, which sometimes has been the price that's been paid along that corporate journey.

really be looked at as almost a step, couldn't it? From going from that full-time position, not wanting to give up completely, but just having that intermediate step that leads up to the later years, perhaps, when they do want to just cut back. So yeah, I think it fits well for a lot of people.

Yeah, I think there's also an identity issue. We often refer to them as C-suite executives, those people who are influences at the highest level in their companies and acknowledge as such. And so they would wear a badge of honor, sometimes literally wear a badge, but they're wearing something, both intellectually and emotionally, and that identity can easily be lost.

at end of a corporate life. Having a role that you can play for somebody else, even if you're playing it for multiple companies and multiple organizations and multiple relationships, it gives you a greater identification and allows you to keep that feeling of being important to others as well as important to yourself. I think it's a really great idea that he's got.

Speaker 2 (34:58.892)
I know he's experienced the franchise world as well, which we know is often a bridge for individuals who've been used to the corporate structure. And then they like the structure of a franchise because they're so used to structures being around them, as opposed to the on-the-hoof entrepreneur we often meet. We don't have any structures around them at all because they're just full of ideas and energy. And it's the lack of structure that causes them the problem.

and they look to other types of nets, CFOs and CMOs, marketing people and financial people, to help create the structure. I think this whole idea has got lots of merit, particularly in a world where we're demanding much more control of that portfolio lifestyle. So a good for Adrian for identifying that with the C-suites and we're certainly keen to help people build.

multiple streams of recurring income to create that financial certainty when that day comes when you don't need to do any of that. And by the way, for some people, we know that with some of our coaches that we work with, business coaches that we work with, that sometimes they would work time for money with their coaching clients, so they'll charge a fee for the time they spend. But when they get to a certain point, they can afford to coach for equity.

You they can say, instead of being paid a sum of money per month, I will work with you as a non-executive, if you like, and in exchange for a share of the equity. And if you've got enough skill, you can build a portfolio of equity positions with different companies. And I know certainly that's true of those who sell businesses for multi-millions. They will often do that.

they'll create equity stakes in other companies because they want to influence them. I think the desire to influence and to give back, but with value, not for free, reinforcing the point that Adrian wants to make very powerfully and he does so well.

Speaker 1 (37:10.956)
Yeah. So thanks to Adrian for sharing today and Kevin next week will be our last podcast before Christmas. We'll be taking our usual couple of weeks break over Christmas and the new year. When are we going to be doing We have to, yeah. We have to get the red wine out for next week.

in the jungle.

Speaker 2 (37:28.174)
I never say no to red wine, there's no one.

But obviously a time for all of our listeners to reflect and to start thinking now about what they want to achieve next year. you know, please do reach out to us and we would love to have a chat with you and love to put the plan in place and help you to make next year your best year yet.

I think it's important actually, and I think you make a good point Chris, that rather than create a resolution, resolve instead to create a plan. Because a plan you can act on in small amounts every month, and because they're small steps and easy to act on, you won't lose that momentum. We're all too often, I suppose more often than not, resolutions or aspirations without really an action plan that gets

considered and resolved to stick to and I think everybody knows that. So I don't think we're big on resolutions, but we are big on plans.

We are indeed. Feel free to reach out either by heading to wealthbuilders.co.uk and you can click on the big red button that says book a discovery call or send us an email. Hello at wealthbuilders.co.uk. think that's a wrap for today, Kevin. Thanks again for listening and Kevin, you and I will be back same time, same place next week.

Speaker 2 (38:48.088)
We will indeed my friend and until then, see ya!

Speaker 2 (38:54.478)
We hope you enjoy and don't forget that we are constantly updating our resources inside the Wealthbuilders membership site to help you create, build and protect your wealth. Visit wealthbuilders.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk

Today's episode, don't

Speaker 1 (39:04.398)
Head over to builders.co.uk.