Episode 9
with Simone Douglas
In this episode of Confident Networker, Simone sits down with Katherine Hann.
Katherine is a member of BNI Storm.
Connect with Katherine here:
https://www.facebook.com/katherinehannfinancialplanner
https://www.katherinehann.com.au/
If you’d like to attend a Chapter meeting and meet Katherine, you can book your spot here: https://bnian.com.au/chapter/bni-storm/
Simone Douglas 0:04
Okay, so on today’s episode of the competent network, I am joined by the most fabulous Katherine Han, from affinity financial planning Australia. Welcome. Thank you. So, Katherine, if perhaps we can start for the benefit of the listeners who obviously haven’t met you yet. Tell us a little bit about your business and what you do. Okay, so
Katherine Hann 0:27
I am a financial advisor. But a lot of people don’t know what that means. So what I do is help people make a real financial plan. So if you ask people the top three things that they want in life, it’s good health. It’s good relationships, and it’s good wealth. So I’m helping them with the good wealth. I’m their wealth coach.
Simone Douglas 0:47
Yeah, that’s fun. So Katherine is a member of BNI storm that meets at 7am on Wednesdays, Catherine, how long have you been in BNI? For
Katherine Hann 0:56
I have just had my fourth anniversary. Very exciting. So four years,
Simone Douglas 1:01
four years is a long time to get up at 7am, you know, 48 weeks of the year to go do networking with people? Why are you still in BNI?
Katherine Hann 1:09
So luckily, for me, I’m an early morning person. So that’s not a big deal. For me. There’s a number of reasons why I’m still in BNI. The first one is, it helps me grow my business. And that helps me make money. So I’m a business person. So that’s why I do it. I’ve also developed great relationships with other business people, and they help my clients so I can refer other people to help my clients. And then thirdly, they helped me just in my everyday life, because I’m a self employed person. And so they’re like my mentors. And my marketers.
Simone Douglas 1:44
Yeah, fantastic. That’s really good way of looking at it. So why is networking important to your business?
Katherine Hann 1:51
Well, it helps grow my business. And I’m always keen on growing my business, I don’t want to stay in the same place. And even in financial services, in particular, if you stay in the same place, you’re actually going backwards. So I want to grow. And networking is the main part of how we grow in financial services.
Simone Douglas 2:12
Your industry as a whole is at a really interesting juncture right now, you know, so I think I read or heard somewhere that there have been, you know, I forget how many planners exit the market? 3000? Yeah, I knew it was a lot. So yeah, 3000 planners who have kind of gone with all the additional learning burdens, and having to go back and get degrees and all sorts of things. So there are lots of people getting out of the industry, you’re obviously passionate to stay in the industry. How has BNI and your chapter members supported you as you’ve gone through that journey of doing all the additional learning and training that you’ve had to do?
Katherine Hann 2:49
Well, one of the core values of BNI is lifelong learning. Yeah. And I’m really passionate about lifelong learning for me. So that really struck a chord with me. So the, the ongoing educational for me is not such a big thing. But it marries up knit ties with the values of BNI, which I really enjoy. And also, I guess they’ve helped really not only what’s happened in Finance, Financial Services, and the Royal Commission and all the added burdens from compliance and education that we have to do. But they’ve also helped me sort of, I guess, with my mental stability, yeah, over all of those other pressures that I’ve had. And I had a really tough time a couple of years ago, and I don’t think I would have made it through without my BNI family.
Simone Douglas 3:37
Yeah, fantastic. And I think that’s the thing is that, you know, when you’re brand new, and you go and join a networking group from BNI, chapter, for argument’s sake, you start off by getting a whole heap of new business friends, but you know, the language that you’re using is about family. And I think that’s the transition that happens over time when you form those really strong relationships, which is great.
Katherine Hann 3:59
Absolutely. And I think, probably a year, even a year and a half. I didn’t quite get that yet. Yeah, I think it probably took two years before, that really cemented in my heart and my mind, but that’s what they were.
Simone Douglas 4:16
Out of curiosity, do you have a rough idea what percentage of your business is made up of BNI referrals?
Katherine Hann 4:23
The number of new referrals that come through my business about 50%?
Simone Douglas 4:26
Wow, that’s huge. fantastic but do you think that that’s great, has that grown over time as you’ve been a member?
Katherine Hann 4:33
Absolutely. And particularly for financial advisors, it does take a little bit longer because it’s such a trusted relationship tonight, not just about their finances, but literally about my clients or their lives. And so it takes time to build that trust and and it takes time to set up that trust and that relationship would be an eye people so they will refer their clients and their family and their friends.
Simone Douglas 4:57
Yeah. What has been your biggest surprised over the years when it comes to being a BNI member.
Katherine Hann 5:05
I guess for me, it’s that you don’t ever actually give it up. Don’t get too busy, don’t stop, because you never know what’s going to happen when your biggest referral is going to come or your best relationships gonna come, I will never leave.
Simone Douglas 5:21
I’m glad to hear that I quite enjoy seeing you want to go visit on Wednesdays. Who has surprisingly helped you the most? Because I think often, you know, when we go and visit a chapter and we’re not really sure what it’s about, because we’ve never seen BNI you know, often people go well, my clients aren’t in the room. My ideal clients, that’s often something I hear visitors say. But in my journey, you know, the pest control guy gave me the best referral like it was a massive, ongoing piece of work. Who has surprised you? But
Katherine Hann 5:54
I wouldn’t say suprised because most of my referrals come from my power group. Yeah, because we have the same kind of clients without competing with each other. Somewhat best referral is an accountant. Yep. So that kind of makes sense. The ones that have pros. And one of my people that I lean on the most is my bookkeeper. Because it’s not that I don’t understand finance, but she’s my compliance auditor for that. Yeah, no, absolutely. The most surprising. probably is most really recent and newest member. Yeah, Marianne. Yeah, she’s in marketing. This is not something I get I don’t understand. But I know it’s essential to my business. And, and I guess I put it on the back burner, because it frightens me a little bit. And she’s made me feel comfortable.
Simone Douglas 6:43
Oh, excellent. Yeah. One of the things that I love and loved about being a chapter member, and even now as an executive director having 184 Business family members, is, you know, being able to go to those different people like Marianne and ask advice or, you know, have a conversation without feeling stupid. What is the best piece of business advice you’ve received from a member of your chapter?
Katherine Hann 7:13
best piece of business advice, I think, and it’s probably something I’ve only learned in the last four years is to be a bit more humble and very goal oriented and very driven. And I want to achieve my result. Yeah. And I tend to sometimes get a bit tunnel vision. So just take a bit of a step back, be a bit more humble, a bit more open. And then things will happen.
Simone Douglas 7:38
And that makes sense to me. Because I think a long time ago, someone once said to me, you have to be prepared to be vulnerable first, if you want other people to be vulnerable with you. So if you’re if I’m always the high achiever, if I’m always you know, look at me, I’m doing all these things, aren’t I? Fantastic? Then there’s no safe space for anyone else to be honest with me about how they’re feeling or if they’re struggling with something because of the date, you know, the comparison thing. So then I couldn’t be Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I think, you know, it’s amazing what happens when you just, you know, you actually just slow down a little bit. You know, don’t get me wrong, I love celebrating. It’s so cool. I do like a bright, shiny object. Where is your favourite place to catch up and do a one to one with another member?
Katherine Hann 8:33
For a time perspective, straight after the meeting? Yeah. It’s not that I don’t do other ones outside of meetings, and I go for coffee in in somebody else’s favourite area or my favourite area, my office is in Norwood. So there’s lots of coffee places around there. Yeah. And but I also really enjoy we have a good social network. We are storm family, and we go out and do things together. And sometimes it’s like, a picnic in the park with the kids in the family. That’s been one of the best ones. Yeah, cool.
Simone Douglas 9:05
So now that you know, I’m always fascinated when you go to those social events that the chapter my input on and you see people parenting their children, it teaches you so much about who they are as a human being. So I love like being able to engage with people like that as well. But I was actually expecting you say the golf course because I
Katherine Hann 9:23
I do love my golf. And over the years I’ve have a great number of my clients are from golf. Yeah. Because if you spend five hours with somebody, every week, you get to know them really well.
Simone Douglas 9:37
You’re really absolutely going to build
Katherine Hann 9:40
that relationship and that trust Yeah, for
Simone Douglas 9:42
sure. What would you say is the one thing that you wished you’d known sooner? When it comes to being I like if someone could have given you a piece of advice that could have helped you, you know, settle in faster or you know, start building relationships.
Katherine Hann 10:01
probably be a bit more patient, because I expected I was going to win the world in six months. Yeah. And it takes longer than that. So give it some time. And just commit to the basics.
Simone Douglas 10:14
Yeah, that makes sense to me. Absolutely. What would you say to another financial advisor, or someone in those finance industries, if they’d een, they’ve been invited to this BNI thing, you know, someone’s like, rang them up and said, uh, you know, you need to come along to breakfast or lunch or whatever it might be. And they’re like, I’m not sure this is the thing, what advice would you give to them?
Katherine Hann 10:37
Well, I would say, come along and meet some other business people, because you might just enjoy your breakfast and meeting other people that never hurts. There might be room and opportunity for you to make some connections where you can help your clients. You know, people come along, don’t have to join, I just have to come along and experience. It actually only took me one meeting to survive. This was for me, and I wasn’t invited by another financial person. Yeah, that makes sense. And I just thought, this will work. This will help my business grow.
Simone Douglas 11:08
Yeah, I think I was invited out of my business school first business was three months old. And I was like, I would like some of that money, please. They talking about all this close business that they’re doing? Okay. I know how to make friends. So yeah, but you know, I’ve also invited other people because I wanted them to meet someone that was in the room, because I knew that there was a benefit. Yes, for the two of them that they could do work together, or they could help each other’s business. And I still remember, you know, like saying to Sergio, who’s who ended up joining, but I said to him, you know, what are you doing on Friday morning, you really need to meet Chris Edgar from Red Dog building, it’s coming into Christmas. He’s a builder, the only place I know where he’s going to be that I can pin him down is Friday morning at breakfast in his BNI chapter. And it’s like, the BNI thing, you know, and I said, I’m not inviting you to join me. Do you want to meet groups? I will make the introduction and you know, you guys can have coffee or whatever, after the meeting, say hey, yeah, absolutely. And rings me up like two days after mangoes sweet Am I allowed to apply? And I’m like, you can do what you like. But that’s not you know, and I think sometimes that’s the concern when you’ve got visitors and things that are like hard, but you’re inviting me to join, I don’t want to join, I don’t have time and it’s up and up. You know, I invite people to meet other people.
Katherine Hann 12:26
Exactly. But you’d be amazed that there are actually some people that they haven’t heard of BNI. But you know, that’s true. Best case. I had or hadn’t heard of it. Like I had to really understand what it was. Yeah, just heard bits and pieces, but never been to a meeting.
Simone Douglas 12:41
Yeah, that makes sense to so I suppose finally, to wrap up if there was one person that you could have coffee with, that might help you take your business into its next stage? Or is a good potential referral partner for you? Who would that be?
Katherine Hann 12:58
I would love to have coffee with an estate planning lawyer. Okay, because they are the people that I refer to the most
Simone Douglas 13:05
guy that makes sense. So there you go, listeners if there is an estate planning lawyer out there or if you’re good friends with an estate planning lawyer then you know, maybe just look up BNI storm on the BNI Adelaide North website, book yourselves and go have breakfast with the lovely Catherine and you know, make some new friends which is what it’s all about. Thanks very much. Thanks. There we go. Thanks, Chris. That’s it.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai