The Difficult Second Album

Allow me to reintroduce myself.

363 days ago, my nerves were jangling. I hit publish on “The Second Act” and immediately switched off my phone.

A quick Google tells me that last November was primarily notable for Max Verstappen winning a third F1 World Championship and a lion going mental in Italy.

I, meanwhile, was about to go on holiday with The Boss and my final paycheque from the old shop was due to land on the 1st December. Anyone who has been in this position who says that it is anything other than utterly terrifying, is either lying or a psychopath.

But a year down the line I can honestly say that it has been the most fun twelve months of my career.

There is no other word for it. Getting the opportunity to genuinely be yourself, in every meeting and every interaction, is beyond addictive. It’s a drug.

There are now 345 of you who subscribe to read this nonsense. I burn with pride every time I think about that number. Thank you.

On the commercial side of things, the business is a living breathing thing and is now more than viable. This is also very cool.

If you had offered me this scenario a year ago I would have snapped your hand off. But life has a funny way of moving along and taking the goalposts with it. And so today I find myself thinking about what the future holds.

The first thing to say is that this thing (whatever it is) is absolutely not going away.

Every Sunday after I’ve been writing for a couple of hours, Sarah asks me how it’s going and I almost always reply with something to the effect of “rubbish, but there is a decent idea in there somewhere”.

Can I shock you? I love Sundays.

There are two hobbies that I genuinely believe have changed my life. Running and writing.

I am objectively naturally terrible at both and just trying to get a wee bit better every time I have a go. I cannot begin to tell you how I grateful I am to you for sticking around while I figure it out.

The second thing to say is that, commercially, we are just getting started.

The last year has absolutely convinced me (even beyond what I already thought) that there is a market of people who are prepared to pay a clear, fair and non-contingent fee for simple, high quality financial advice delivered by someone who (stop the presses) has an actual personality.

None of us can define ourselves by what we are not. But it strikes me that by this stage the financial services industry is all full up on its quota of self importance.

My promise to you is that I will continue to be relentlessly, unashamedly authentic (a nice word for weird).

As it stands today, we are six feet off the launch pad. If you want to grab a seat before we exit the atmosphere, you know where I am.

Have a brilliant weekend.