In this insightful interview, Jennifer Toon-Davenport shares her diverse career journey, leadership style, and strategies for supporting women in finance. Discover practical advice on building confidence, fostering a nurturing work environment, and encouraging more women to thrive in the industry.
Summary
In this insightful interview, Jennifer Toon-Davenport shares her diverse career journey, leadership style, and strategies for supporting women in finance. Discover practical advice on building confidence, fostering a nurturing work environment, and encouraging more women to thrive in the industry.
You can reach Jennifer using:
Linkedin - linkedin.com/in/jennifertoon-davenport
Website - forestwealth.com
Key topics
Career diversity and progression.
Leadership style and evolution.
Supporting women in finance.
Work-life balance and family support.
Building effective teams and recruitment strategies.
Sound bites
"Showing strength is being empathetic"
"Do or do not, there is no try"
"Building strong foundations is key"
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Women in Business
02:20 Diverse Career Journey
05:16 Support Systems and Family Influence
08:00 Leadership Style and Empathy
12:26 Nurturing Workplace Culture
16:21 Balancing Work and Family Life
20:18 Recruitment and Team Dynamics
21:28 The Importance of Personality in Recruitment
23:35 Mentorship and Personal Growth
25:09 Creating a Supportive Work Environment
27:52 Client Relationships and Trust
28:25 Building Business Through Hard Work
30:22 Overcoming Imposter Syndrome
34:48 Supporting Women in the Workplace
37:00 Attracting Young Talent to Financial Services
40:23 Advice for Young Women in Financial Services
The Priority Lane:
Welcome to the Priority Lane podcast, the show where we discover how to work smarter, not harder. I'm host today, Lawrence Daunsey. And I'm really excited about this particular session as it's a new series on the podcast called Women in Business. And I'm even more excited to welcome our first guest onto the Women in Business podcast, Jennifer Toon Davenport. She is managing director of Forest Wealth Management. Aside from being, you know, having a paper round as a young girl to being a qualified lawyer, working across continents in business development and recruitment for financial services industry. She's done a whole host of things. So I'm really looking forward to chatting to Jen and she's with us now. So welcome, Jennifer. It's great to see you.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport:
Hi, nice to see you too. This is my first podcast, so. I've always thought I'd be better on radio.
The Priority Lane: Well, nothing to be nervous about. Well, I have the face for radio too, we're okay. Not that you do, by the way. I'll take that back. Listen, I'm just going to kick this off. So, you know, when we had a chat the other week, I was intrigued to know how diverse, I suppose, your career has been, you know, starting, as you told me, doing a newspaper round which is, you know, I think is great, is a great start. So yeah, what I wanted to know is, aside from your degree in law and I don't think you've ever practiced, is that correct? Okay.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: No, just did my LPC and then straight off.
The Priority Lane: So what attracted you to the financial services side of things?
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: I think at first it was finding yourself, getting to travel. It was definitely the getting on a plane and going to see the world. Feeling like a grown up, you know, when you first start out, we all know that you're going through the airport and you feel, you know, very grown up and mature. Now you're like, God, I've got to be there three hours before and I've got three meetings to do, changes. But, you know, it was a chance to see the world and work whilst doing it. So, yeah.
The Priority Lane: Okay. And did you have a mentor at that time when you kind of your first foray into that world? Okay.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: No. I just kind of fell into it and I was not very prepared. I turned up to Abu Dhabi in August. I think it was near and close to 50 degrees and I had like a woolly coat with me, all these warm clothes because for some reason I thought it was going to be cold. But I'd been a bit busy at Leeds Festival the weekend before so hadn't done much preparation. So that was a life lesson learned and a quick trip to car four at the time, which is where my budget had stretched to go and buy some cooler clothing.
The Priority Lane: Right. Right. But so that, I don't know, I think that speaks volumes about perhaps your drive, your personality that you hadn't done any prep effectively, and you've just decided to just jump into a, you know, role that, you know, like you say, you hadn't really perhaps thought about, I mean, where does the drive or ambition or no fear come from?
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: I always think what's the worst thing that can happen and your day to day is only as bad as you let the next day be. So if you're willing to work and you know there's always jobs out there like I would be quite happy I've said this to loads of people you know if my kids needed it now I'd go and stack shelves I'd go and do it there's always work and if you work hard there's always rewards so just a little bit of blind faith like as long as you're busy.
The Priority Lane: That's it. Okay. So that's for me, you taking the chances or perhaps seeing opportunities where maybe others don't. That's a kind of that's a true entrepreneurship style. So, you know, I'm intrigued to know, is that something that came naturally to you? Or did your did your parents kind of, you know, give you that drive?
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: I think my parents did something better than that. They gave me the security so I was always alright as who I was as long as I was kind and I did the right thing. You know, I could try anything. They were always like on the sidelines. They still are. They're like the biggest cheerleaders. You know, you can always come home, you know, go out there and make your mistakes. Don't ever hurt anyone. Do the right thing and the door is always open and they stick by that which means that you've got a safety net which means you know and a foundation and there's people you can pick up the phone to and go I'm not quite sure about this and they are bluntly honest so which is a good thing they'll be like we'll trust your gut if it doesn't sound right it doesn't feel right then don't do it so you know I was very lucky in that regard.
The Priority Lane: So that's for you, obviously having a structured and balanced support network is a key thing then for your success, which is clear, which is great.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: Yeah, and my mum's fierce as well, so she was a single mum. My dad's heavily involved, so it was great, but she was taking us on trips to Australia and we wanted to go and learn about the Romans at school, so she took us to Rome on her own. She was quite a figure to follow. Nobody intimidates her. She always is like, it's the right thing to do, I'll do it. She is someone that, you you look at her and you're like, I've got to match that. I've got to try and be at least part of the woman that she is.
The Priority Lane: Yeah, no, that's that's incredible to hear. And she does sound extremely dynamic without a doubt. So and I imagine you probably in your personal life as well as business life, you've obviously adopted a similar, similar traits, I imagine.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: Yeah, she's all very much about the family and if you can open the door to people you do it, if you can help you do it. You know, and we've got this motto and we have it now with our kids and it's like you go, in a world where you can be anything, be kind and that's like a family thing and you know, you don't need everything, you don't need to look at what everybody else has got, you need to look at what's important and what you realise is lots of things aren't important. You know, it doesn't matter and sometimes you get life shocks that remind you and you have to kind of think you can go this is a really bad thing that's happening to me right now or you can go this is helping me to align to back where I need to be because I'm I'm I'm shocked because it's out of my comfort zone but I'm going to use it to pull me back into where I need to be because everybody wanders off path at times or doesn't look at everything everybody makes mistakes everybody's been scanned before or ripped off everybody's not been paid and can either focus on that or you can move forward and go, right, that's a lesson learned. I'll put it on like a scout badge and I'll go forward.
The Priority Lane: It's a good analogy. How many badges have you got?
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: Far too many.
The Priority Lane: That's good. I like that. That's great. Scout badge is fantastic. So now obviously let's fast forward to present day. I know, as I said, you've done lots, cross continents, Asia and Hong Kong all over, is really impressive. But now in your role as managing director for Forrest Wealth, I mean, how do you describe your leadership style and has it evolved to be different from male counterparts that you know.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: I think it's very different. think in your 20s, you're trying to be the man and not, know, trying to act like Mr. Big and be one of the lads, you know, try and fit in. And then in your 30s, I know I went through a stage where I was like, had kids and I didn't quite know what my identity was anymore. Was I a mother or was I a parent? What has it worked? And then I was like, does this make you weaker? And I was like, actually, no, makes you different. So I try and be like empathetic, like... I like everybody to have my mobile number. I don't want to be a ball breaker. I don't want to focus on figures and things that I want to focus on. The people that work for me and making sure they're happy and they're secure and they've got a good base because that's how I've kind of done it in life. I had that good base and I had people that would listen and not judgment, but you could ask the silly questions. I always say to everybody I speak to. Don't be afraid to ask the silly questions, because they're the ones that are important to you, but you don't want to look like you don't know. But if you don't know something, the only silly thing is to not ask about it. I think men have great qualities. And I'm really lucky because I'm married to Ian, and he's a leader in his industry. And we spend a lot of time talking about things. And he's got a very pragmatic view. I'm more heart led, I would say.
The Priority Lane: Okay.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: You know, I think that comes from being a mum and you see, you know, different trials and stuff and you want to help people overcome them. And I do think in our industry, there is a lot of toxic behaviors and bullying and, you can't sign a check or, know, what are you doing? you know, charts and these people are good because, but there's great people that do what they want to do in life and they're doing good work that don't respond well to that. You know, I don't necessarily think it always brings the right outcome for clients. Maybe we should focus on who's got the best client satisfaction stores, who's done the best work, who's made the clients the most money, rather than who's making the most money for themselves, the firm, and bullying people that don't want to do it. Because there is quite a, or over the years, there's been quite a bullying culture. Be one of the boys. A lot of the incentives were very male dominated, you know, sports, you know, not saying that women don't like sports, but for me, you know, it's get out there and I was just like, I don't, you know, I don't need that. Yeah, yeah, there's quite a lot of big egos involved. And I just think lots of people don't need that. And sometimes, know, men in our industry, because it is very male dominated, they struggle with the fact that they've got a lot of pressure. They're quite often the primary burden. They're quite often on commission based roles. And rather than highlighting that pressure and keep compounding it and saying to them, do more, do better, do that. It's like, whoa, what do you need right now? Like, how can we help you? You know, just take a step back because it will come.
The Priority Lane: Yes.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: You are really lucky. Your skill set is yourself. Right. You need to look after yourself and then you can give out to other people. You know, ignore the company, ignore the noise. Like what do you need? If you're full and you're not worrying, your clients are going to be better looked after, your family will be better served. But work is the last thing on the pecking order. The company should come last before, you know, so I think for me, lots of companies are, corporate profit, then the directors, then there's, and that puts the clients at the very bottom. Whereas I'm like, if you think about the clients and then the admin and all the control and support and functions that help us, if they're happy, your ship runs so much better than the advisors, make sure they're listened to, they're supported, they can ask questions, that you're accountable. Because if you're accountable to them, then they become accountable to their clients. treat people how you expect them to treat others and yourself. and then you and the company are the very last person. But if you've poured enough in, there's enough left for you. But you have to pour in first.
The Priority Lane: So it's a true nurture culture, which I think is, which is, absolutely agree. So I was going to say to you, ask you a question. When I was a guest actually on the priority lane myself, I made a comment and I quote, in business, doesn't mean you're weak if you show empathy and you're nice and you listen. And of course I was going to ask you, whether you concur with that and if so, how high do you hold those three things in regard? Empathy, listening and actually just being nice and you've just given me the answer clearly.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: Yeah, I think it shows a strength. It's easy to lose your temper. It's easier to me mean it's a lot harder to think where are they coming from right now? Like, you know, I know anyway, I really couldn't really be a shout in screaming because I'm like five foot nothing and most of the people I work with have got a good foot on me. So I feel like a tiny little child. I feel like that child having a wobbler in the middle of Tesco's.
The Priority Lane: Yeah, so you have to choose another route.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: No, fair enough. well, listen, that's, I just love that whole nurture, engagement. And that's obviously something that you, you really put to the fore in your current role. So you're actually really looking after, you know, the, the advisors that, you know, work under your umbrella. And I think that's, you know, certainly something, certainly something to be lauded without a doubt. mean, amazing. amazing approach. I mean, across your career, what I'd like to know, how have you ever approached, you know, navigating those power structure differences? How have they changed from your early career to now?
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: I used to want to fight it. I used to think it's so unfair and, you know, I want to change everything and, you know, this isn't... you'd shout and... and the problem is, a lot of the time then, when you shout and scream as a man, you're powerful. When you shout and scream as a woman, they're like, whoa, she must be hormonal. Get her a bar of chocolate and tell her to be quiet. And so you have to learn that that doesn't work. And a big lesson I had, my daughter's got a teacher, deputy head teacher. and she's absolutely wonderful. But when the children are shouting, she quiets because you can't argue with someone if they're not arguing back. It's incredibly hard if you just sit there and go, okay, these are the facts, but I'm not gonna scream and shout. We don't need to call each other names. And that's the lesson to learn that not being aggressive is as powerful sometimes as having that aggressive personality.
The Priority Lane: Sure.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: And those personalities are good in some ways because they are powerful and they're addictive and you want to follow them. But you have to learn as well that you maybe don't have that. I'm not going to be banging on my chest and walking up and down. But you do try it first. You try and fight it and you try and then you just get yourself in a tiz.
The Priority Lane: And you can't change some things, so have to learn to adapt.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: That's fair. And so how would you in that adaptation? And obviously you've mentioned, know, what we mentioned about the human element, something that, you know, I talk about a lot, but you've mentioned that where you're basically crossing over from your home to your work life. And that balance, as we all know, has always been tricky, probably more so for women, as you pointed out that the men we're generally seen as the breadwinner, that sort of thing. But for independent entrepreneurial women in business like yourself, how challenging is that balance being mom to managing director? mean, how difficult is that?
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: mean, it's about building a village and working it and knowing what you can do and what you can't do. You've got to put your kids first because they only get one run at having parents. They only get one run. They're only this little for so long. You only get so much time when they're just little sponges. So they come first. But I'm really lucky. Obviously, I've got good parents. I've got an amazing commercial director, Tom, who works with us, who keeps me very organised. He almost plans in advance, like this week in May is normally sports day. So, you we're not going to put in a track trip there, whereas I'd be thinking last minute. And then, you know, over the years I've made lots of good mum friends that are also juggling big careers. So we do a lot of like, you know, at school holidays, I'll take them one day, you take them all and they'll be 12 kids running around on one day. But then you've got four days, which you can do. And also most things can be fixed on a mobile phone. If you've got a good team that you trust, if your company can't survive you taking a bit of time to go and watch a school play and put him back in, then you're not doing something right. Because, you know, I'm the same for everybody. You know, I would tell everybody in my team, like if your child needs you, that child comes first. You can cancel any meeting with me, you know, because it's the most fundamental thing. We're here to build families and... And then I think people kick back. So, and I think COVID did a lot to teach people that there is a balance going on because it was all before everyone is in the office and then they're panicking and there's a lot of stress. Whereas now people are wanting to work from home today because Johnny's got a tooth appointment at two o'clock. And it's a lot more accepted for people to say, I do have these other things and they are important. But I think if you allow people to put their family life, there's, you're not saying go off and play golf all day. But you know, your child's poorly, be at home with them, do admin, and then two days later they'll be
The Priority Lane: Yeah, but that's it. That's for me. It's just displays, you know, an acute skill of communication, which clearly you clearly have. you know, none of it communication. Communication is the key, I believe. And it's certainly in managing a business as you do, as you've just mentioned, you're you're communicating with your team all the time. And if they
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: Yeah, don't shut up.
The Priority Lane: It's awareness as well, think is also is a key driver there. You're aware that every other people have, you know, they've got lives, they have different things that happen. And it isn't just your team in the company, it's your clients as well. Because as you said, we're people, everyone's human, and we all have those those pressures. So I think it's a real breath of fresh air that you are very strong on pushing that forward for as well. I think that's a It's a huge attribute and no doubt you're enduring some significant success, I would hope. That's good. In terms of that communication, your team development, when we spoke the other week, you mentioned that you were kind of brought on to recruit and bring on new talent to make teams more productive, you know, effectively to, you know, be more successful. I mean, if you how did you how did you go about that? How did you I what is it that you use to identify
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: Yeah, no recruitment training whatsoever, but realising quick, pretty quickly that if you didn't tell the truth, it went horribly wrong. And if you put a bad apple or the wrong apple in the wrong team, it throws the whole team off. So even though they could be perfect somewhere else, you know, you were quite, I was quite open to going, right, you know what, you're not right for this firm. However, I know such and such at this firm. you don't earn anything for doing this, go and give them a call. Because that's better for that person. Five years later, they might be in a different place, so might you. They'll come back to you because you've given them honest advice. But also knowing that when you put, and you've done it before, you put the wrong person in, so you put someone that's quiet and sensitive in with a really rowdy team, they become more withdrawn. That team isn't fully gelled, it's always been, you know, you've got to look at skills are quite simple, yeah.
The Priority Lane: Thanks.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: are you qualified? Have you got the degree? Have you got the qualifications? Can you do the job? Yes. So it all comes down to personality really and lots of people put it down to other things like performance figures but you put the right personality in the right spot with the right team you'll get the figures and sometimes you won't but that's okay because at least you've not disrupted the team so the rest of the team will still float but yeah that's I think that's the biggest part about recruitment is knowing that you could have somebody brilliant on paper that builds really well, but that one person can knock out five other people that are already performing.
The Priority Lane: Yeah, understood. So that, mean, that's a very, I mean, that's such a skill to be able to identify, you know, who's going to work and who isn't. you know, and to, again, for you to have taken on roles like that without any proper, you know, sort of training is, you know, as a testament to what you do. I mean, you know, I'm sat here, sat here thinking, you know, I'm such an underachiever.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: No, no, I think I used to work for a guy called Tim and he was a lovely, real nice guy to work for in this industry. Very focused on his family and his kids. you know, didn't see women and men, just kind of saw people and their potential. And he pushed me out and I think he saw that. He kept saying, when you're older, you will be brilliant. You just need to hone it. You know, don't go jumping first in. It's like dating. You just need to take your time, get to know them.
The Priority Lane: That's interesting. So Effective Tim was, he is a mentor of some description in a certain way. That's great.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: You know. Yeah, I still speak to him. I value his opinion. He's always been very supportive, even when I've moved on and worked elsewhere. So, but yeah, I was very lucky, I think, in financial services being young to work for a company that was headed by someone that was not necessarily aggressive, like that was more to the more gentle approach that wanted to get to know people. Obviously, everyone's got their own opinion, but my opinion was that he was a really good learning curve for me.
The Priority Lane: Yeah, well, that's dumb. that's, that I think is a, that's great. The fact that we have, you know, that demonstrates that I know that we, we had a joke about men and women in the workplace, but to have a, you know, a male entity, shall I call it, that's, you know, helping you or at least supporting you and giving you the, giving you the right direction rather than, you know, shouting you down, I think is, you know, it's, it's, it's proves that the empathy side of things is a, a
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: Same. Yeah. also shows you what you will tolerate and what you should tolerate because then when you've worked for other people that don't do that and it's like you know from the be on the inside and piss out on people that approach and the shouting and the toxicity I'm like no you don't need to be like that and I don't need to have that in my life you know there is plenty of good places you can work good people you know Forest Republic is not the only great company like I love what we're doing
The Priority Lane: you know, as a key thing. Interesting.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: But there's great companies out there and I believe that, you know, the industry as a whole needs to value each other. You know, don't throw stones or lift ourselves up together so you can be a bit like car manufacturers where you'll have Audi, Mercedes, BMW, Range Rover, all on a four-court facing each other because somebody's going to go and buy a luxury car that weekend and they might as well be all in together so that they've all got a chance of already walking around all of them. But you don't ever go into BMW and BMW go, Mercedes, they're bloody, they don't. They're like, that's a great car, but look at what we can do. Look at this. have you seen the body on this? They don't talk about the Mercedes body. They are, like, they're quite comfortable in that their product is an equal and it is about the consumer and the fit. So they put the consumer first. And that always, you know, like in our industry, there's a lot of. there are clients, there are clients, there are clients. The clients are people they deserve. You can't have somebody that's worked for you for eight years who decides to move on, who's self-generated, on commission, all of their own clients, looks after them, sat with them when they've had breakups, when mums died and done all that and then say they're brilliant, they're brilliant, they're brilliant. Well they've got our badge, they move across the street and you're like they're awful, they're sink, well if they were so awful why did you have them under your badge? And what you're doing then is you are just putting the clients through turmoil. You know, the advisors, I believe, should just say, you know, I'm leaving. If you want to go, you're with me. And the company should send an email saying, you know, your advisors, Matt, we've had a lovely eight year tenure with him. I believe he's moving on. If you don't want to go with him, the door is always open here, but whatever, we wish you the best and thank you for using such and such a service. And leave the clients out of it. Because at the end of the day, You know, we go to work, this is our income, this is our day to day, but it's there forever. It's their families, it's their children's savings, it's their life insurance, it's their critical illness. And you go through stages, like our advisor, you know, has been through us through hard times, tough times. He knows us, he knows how myself and Ian work. He knows how many times he has to chase for paperwork. He knows he has to send it to us in paper form, because even though we've got a printer, we won't print it off, you know.
The Priority Lane: Right.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: He knows to send Ian's part of his to the office because Ian will sign it there. He knows us. So for us, they just give us somebody else, you know, and it's all, you know, it's not fair on the client and that's from our perspective and we know the industry. So I can't imagine clients that don't know it that then get pulled into these big facts. I'm like, stop it. Just be enough on your own.
The Priority Lane: Yeah, it'd confusing. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, in terms of that, you know, generating that sort of business, you've obviously talked, but you know, focusing on the client is a, is a clearly key, but also your own team. If I was to give you a scenario now, so if you were given, for example, you had 90 days to, let's say, generate some new business from scratch, you know, what are the first sort of steps you would take.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: gosh, and figure out firstly, what kind of business, yeah. And research. And then I do the old fashion thing, I get on the phone. Everything comes from hard work. You know, if you take shortcuts, if you cut corners, if you try and take other people's stuff, like it's short lived, you know, we've all seen so many people that come in, they do 500,000 pounds for two years, and they never heard of them again, because they've sold loads of people a load of rubbish and they can't renew on them. The biggest thing is to get on the phone, build trust, build a point. It might take longer than 90 days. It might take 180. It might take three years, but you'll do it properly and then it builds. I was talking, I went for lunch with an advisor yesterday, Chris, he's like a key member of our team and he's got a brilliant client bank and he's going for dinner with them and he's just grown and as they make money, he makes money, but. He's not trying to pull it out, he's not trying to put anything risky, he knows each one. That's what advising should be. It shouldn't be a, need to make this much profit in 90 days. It should be, let's look at what we need to achieve for the client, how we best do that. Because if you serve, so, for example, if I've got an advisor and he makes me 10 % a year, every year, there's ups and downs, but 10 % a year, takes fair charges, I can see it. I can call him when I need him. He's got all my policy documents if I ever need anything. I'm only going to feed into that, I? I'm only going to refer people. I'm only going to work with him more. People aren't out there going, oh, I've got a great service I'm going to go and shop around. People shop around when they're not happy. So if you just focus on that and you get on the phone and you speak to people, people always have big schemes and get rich quick.
The Priority Lane: Correct, yeah. I see.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: schemes and products and I'm like yeah just just do what you want to do.
The Priority Lane: Now that's sound advice. Something I wanted to ask, which I don't even think I know the answer already is, imposter syndrome. Have you ever experienced that yourself? I doubt it.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: Oh God, everybody has that. Everybody like, that was like that today. No, today I was like, oh my God, podcast or, I don't like this. I've only just started posting on LinkedIn. got 30,000 followers and I've only only started posting recently. I'm like, I don't know what they've all been following, but you know, we'll get there. It's hard to put yourself out there and go, I'm great. Like, cause there's always things you can work on. There's always exams, like I'm trying to.
The Priority Lane: That surprises me from you really is you obviously you're so together
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: at the moment registered for September's ICA level 8, like, so you can keep working on yourself, like, and I, you know, the things you don't know, like, I've just started doing sign language, so I've done my British Sign Language level one, and now I'm doing level two, and I'm like, wow, these people are incredible, they can't hear to learn it, and yet they're fluent, and I'm like, wow, like, and I go into those lessons, and I'm like, wow, I'm not that smart, but.
The Priority Lane: Yeah.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: you know, I think that's it. think anybody that doesn't is lying to themselves or they are overly confident and they fall down then and it's bit too much ego. You know, like everybody is flawed. I see all these posts like, I'm gonna put the gym at 4am and I'm such a nice person and all. I'm deeply flawed. Like, ask my husband, I don't put my shoes away, I drink far too much red wine, you know, I love cheese, you know. The gym would probably have a heart attack if I walked through the door. You know, I'm not a perfect mum, you make mistakes, but you can only, if you don't know that you're these things, you can't make any changes. You know, you've got to have an alertness to yourself that you, and everybody's playing imposter for a bit. You've got to learn things.
The Priority Lane: You have to have a confidence though there, Jen, to be, to, it isn't just about for me, recognizing that, you you could, there is personal development that you could do. It's having the confidence to try or do that, do that something. I mean, to be fair, I've stolen a, I've stolen a phrase from return of the Jedi where Yoda says to Luke Skywalker, do or do not, there is no try. And I, and I love that. I actually have a,
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: Yeah.
The Priority Lane: I've never watched Star Wars. I actually have a dog. Okay, we need to talk. I have actually have a dog tag, which has that on it. Do or do not, there is no try because effectively trying to do something you are in effect doing is the act of doing. I think what he you know, what people associate is his success or not succeeding. And I think that's what creates the stumbling block. Right.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: Yeah. Yeah. I think as long as you can feed yourself, as long as you can feed yourself and you're clothed and you're happy, you're richer than so many people in the world, so give it a go. But a lot of it is building really strong foundations. like, mind some of my parents, but, you know, my husband is wonderful. Like, he's supportive and we always just think, you know what, it would be rubbish to be living in a caravan together. But as long as the kid's healthy and we, you know, we'd make do, you know. And it's about having that people that believe in you behind you. Like I eat off his belief in me and I know like when he's gone for jobs, I'm like, come on, he's my little chick. he's gonna hate me for saying this, but cheerleader. I've just put him in a dress on my first podcast. So yeah, no, like that's important. Like I've got friends that have got businesses as well. Like one of my friends has just opened like Beauty Bar in Harrods. And I...
The Priority Lane: and some pom poms.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: champion her, like share it, and then I get that back and I get it from my husband. So you do have imposter syndrome but then you've hopefully got people behind you going, go on, go on, get out there.
The Priority Lane: Yeah, I understand it. Yeah, your support network, it comes back to that. So, about your friends, you you've got friends who are running other businesses and that sort of thing. How do you actively use your influence to help other women in an industry? Not necessarily yours, but any that you know, how do you actively influence them?
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: I gosh, I honestly don't know. just try and be supportive, know, share posts, just be there. Like, you know, it's hard in our industry, we're so pit to go against each other. And I'm like, why? Like, you you can be great if you work at another firm, you can be great if you work at this firm, you know. And I think what we do need is to make it an environment where women are supported, like how those changes come.
The Priority Lane: Just try and be there.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: You know, we're commission-based in the majority. What happens when women have children? What are they going to do? Is there place, things in place? Have you got some team that will look after their clients, still pay them their regular amount and you swallow that cost as a business so they can stay in? You know, but there isn't. Lots of businesses are like, off you go, try and juggle it. You know? And I think, again, for young people, you know, we bring people in and they're BDMs, they're on tiny salaries. and 10, 20 % survive. And if you make it, then you've got to do it all again and try and build your own client bank, because we're not going to start you off with anything. And I'm like, the average age, I think we were discussing it, is like 50. What happens when everybody wants to retire? I mean, somebody's going to have a huge book of clients, but we do need to focus on bringing young men and young women in and nurturing them more and making it long-term, because we get a lot of people that come in, do a couple of years and then leave.
The Priority Lane: Yeah, good. Right.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: Sure, Yeah, that's that's that. Yeah, that's that we we talked about the other week, you know, I think, you know, off the top of my head, there's approximately 35 and a half thousand IFAs in the UK. The average age is 58 and 18 percent are women and five point seven percent are below 30. OK, so.
The Priority Lane: But yeah, how you do that.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: Yeah.
The Priority Lane: My question would be to you, what is it the industry or what can we do to get more women into the financial services industry and how are you going to be able to attract that talent? What is it you need to do?
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: I think you've got to show them that people can do it. There is great women out there. We've got great women advisors. I know there's great women advisors in other firms. And I think it's only by showing people, it's only by showing people that you can lead a company or you can head on or you can go out and be an advisor. You can't make them, but you can show them and then you can try and ease the path and keep saying, well, actually this would be better. if they're training, don't want them to go out and meet men in their homes on their own, put them with family visits, you know, or bring the clients to the office, you know, work with them. Because that was one thing when my first company, I don't want to go and meet random men in their homes. Like, you know, I don't know, I'm young, I'm like, not so comfortable with that. And it's a consideration when you're a man that you probably don't think of. So having more women in, the world is like that.
The Priority Lane: Yeah, yeah.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: And women that are probably braver than me that actually went out and did that, whereas I chose the recruitment thing. But leading then going, actually, you know what, we'll have this rule set. you for the first 10 meetings or so, they'll go out with another advisor and we'll do it like this. We'll have a checking system so we know where they are and, you know, different things, you know, that other women will have thought of over the years.
The Priority Lane: So effectively, so that sounds like to me, there's a lack of, I suppose, public knowledge about perhaps the industry and what it potentially could offer. My question would be to you, have you, either now in your current position or with any other firm that you've looked after, have you ever done or do you do like discovery days where you give up?
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: Yeah.
The Priority Lane: your time to effectively use the company's resources to do a talk or promote something and try to attract. Have you ever done anything like that?
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: No, I don't. I've not really seen a lot of that focus that young people and women, there's a lot of let's bring in BDMs because they'll generate leads and not a lot of let's talk about it. mean, like SJP have got the Academy, which I think is great, you know, and I think that more people need to discover that. But, you know, I think they need to come out with a structured learning plan. They need to know where they're going. And, you know,
The Priority Lane: Mm-hmm.
The Priority Lane: Academy yesterday. Yeah.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: It is hard at the beginning, they're young and you know as a young person you're going in but that comes with education. If you educate them you know you can go and see a lawyer at a big firm and they might be 27, I'll still listen to them because they know more than me. You know but we need to make sure we're educating them and that they're getting the qualifications and that they are sitting with advisors all the way through that so they learn it so that when they do go out They're not just young in the experience, they're just younger.
The Priority Lane: Good point. So I suppose that leads me to a couple of closing questions because I'm just intrigued to hear from you. What piece of advice would you give, know, not let's say your younger self, but what piece of advice would you give to, you know, any young women thinking about or not not knowing about coming into the financial services industry?
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: Give it a go, don't change who you are. You know, you've got different strengths, just find them and it will be great because it's a great career to have when you do have children when they're older because it's more flexible. You know, you can do it, you just have to do it a different way. know, believe in themselves.
The Priority Lane: That's a good one. Believe surely I understand to imagine.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: and pally up with other women. Women champion women. Me and Sarah work together so closely. You've got to build each other up. You are in a man's world, but that's changing. My children are now coming into a life, they're three girls. They need to see women working because financially the world's a different place. You need two incomes, or most families need two incomes. They need to learn to work. And I also think the dynamic of life is changing.
The Priority Lane: agreed
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: And if they've got their own money and they've got their own career and they've got a husband, they can make a real partnership, a team, rather than reliance. you know, then it's like, we're having a baby, but I'll take this part of this slack and we'll build it up because we're building something together because they feel like an equal. You know, none of my children will sit down and listen. That's why I want them to learn. If something's wrong, they've got to say it. They've got to act on it.
The Priority Lane: You're not alone with that, I'm pretty sure. Well, listen, Jen, thank you so much for your time. Just as I said, breath of fresh air and lightning and some very strong advice, which I really appreciate. So thank you for joining me. This is the Priority Lane. I'm Lawrence Daunsey with Jen Toon Davenport, and we're going to sign out now. But thank you very much, Jen. See you next time.
Jennifer Toon-Davenport: Thank you. See you.