What is your role at Brunsdon Financial?
Wellness Consultant
How did you come to your role?
Great question. After 15 years in the Health Cash Plan market, I needed to take my career in a different direction utilising all the skills I’ve learned along the way. At the same time, Director & Employee Benefits Consultant Steve Kenyon mentioned that Brunsdon Financial were considering a new Wellness Consultant role. We started a meaningful conversation, and it went from there. I’ve worked alongside the Brunsdon Employee Benefits team for many years and understand the business, its values, and beliefs, and it’s for all these reasons that I was delighted, excited, and privileged to accept the new role.
What do you like most about your role?
I’m extremely passionate about mental, physical, and financial well-being so being able to speak about this daily, and how this can make a difference in people’s lives is a joy.
What advice would you give someone starting out in business now?
This is a tough question. One I may not be qualified to answer for someone starting out in business, but some of the things that have set me in good stead are:
1 – Set clear goals and how you’re going to achieve them
2 – Understand what success looks like for you and how are you going to measure that success
3 – Be resilient, focused and step outside your comfort zone
4 – Surround yourself with good people/good counsel with talent
5 – Don’t be afraid to seek support from peers.
What’s the best piece of business-related advice you were ever given?
Goal setting, stepping outside of your comfort zone, and surrounding yourself with good counsel have been the best pieces of advice I’ve ever been given. 12 years ago, my sales director told me the importance of goal setting and shared his goal to qualify as a skipper, own his own yacht, retire, and sail around the med. He knew what he wanted, what he had to do to achieve it, the people he needed to surround himself with, and a realistic timescale to achieve it. It stuck with me because I remember when he achieved each stage of his goal and when he finally retired to collect his yacht and start his journey to the Aegean Sea.
If you could, what would you tell your 21-year-old self?
“Don’t leave working on the cruise ship, you’ll regret it, and that relationship will never last! Instead, stay longer, and start saving the tax-free earnings to help you buy a property when you return home.”
Who are your business heroes?
Steve Jobs and Elon Musk on the global stage, but my business hero must be my wife’s uncle, Stephen Dayman (a local Gloucestershire man). His little boy Spencer contracted meningitis and meningococcal septicemia in 1982 and died. Since then, he dedicated much of his life to the meningitis cause in Spencer’s memory leading the way into the vaccinations we have today. He was awarded an MBE and an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws at Bristol University https://www.bristol.ac.uk/graduation/honorary-degrees/hondeg14/dayman.html and https://www.meningitisnow.org/support-us/who-we-are/our-team/steve-dayman-executive-founder/
Outside of work, what do you like to do?
Outside of work, I like to play golf, tennis and enjoy a nice meal out. Do I find the time with a busy family is another question ?.
How would you like to be remembered, a) by your friends and family and b) by your Brunsdon Financial clients
a – Fun, loving, empathetic, supportive, passionate, reliable
b – most of a) along with tenacious, knowledgeable, and professional
