The New Leaf Podcast

Rebuilding After Failure: John Castle’s Adviser Comeback Story

• Daniel Hobbs • Season 1 • Episode 12

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0:00 | 23:37

In this episode of The New Leaf Podcast, Mark Hobbs, Chairman of New Leaf Distribution, is joined by John Castle, who shares his honest journey of stepping away from financial advice, rebuilding confidence, and returning stronger than ever. 

John talks openly about why his first attempt at self‑employment didn’t work, how mindset played a bigger role than he realised at the time, and what changed when he returned with a clearer proposition and renewed focus on tax and financial planning. 

The conversation explores resilience, confidence, lead generation, and what it really takes to rebuild a sustainable advisory business after a setback. It also highlights the importance of having the right support structure around you when starting again. 

This episode will resonate with advisers who have faced challenges, questioned their direction, or are looking for reassurance that it’s possible to reset, rebuild, and succeed. 

The New Leaf podcast is for people turning over a new leaf in financial advice. Learn more about how New Leaf Distribution supports advisers at www.newleafdistribution.co.uk



SPEAKER_00

My career had kind of ground to a halt. I kind of lost my direction in life. Wasn't quite sure where to go next. Um, and you know, on a personal basis, I wasn't really perhaps in the best place mentally.

SPEAKER_01

What I want to get to in this episode is how he really came back, bounced back from what was actual failure to real success.

SPEAKER_00

So I thought, where do I go next? You know, I was running out of ideas and I thought of you and you leave, and I thought, okay, I've got a new mindset, I've got a new proposition.

SPEAKER_01

But how did you leave behind that failure and then turn that into this positivity? How did you manage that?

SPEAKER_00

That's a great question. Uh it it you don't just press the button and it doesn't happen overnight. I had fear because I knew at that point, I'm 57 years old, I'm not going to just go and walk into another job despite my previous career and reasonable success. Um, and I didn't want to walk into another job. Yeah. So I realized that this was make or break. Okay. This is New Leaf and Castle Financial Planning or Bust.

SPEAKER_01

John Castle, welcome to the New Leaf podcast. It's really nice to have you here today. Um, pleasure to be with you. We become good friends uh over your time with New Leaf, um, and we met really closely at the Blueprint event. Yeah. Uh that was when we got to know each other really well over that few days. Tell me about your sort of background first of all, and then we'll come to the New Leaf piece.

SPEAKER_00

Um, well, I guess I've been in the industry for uh total of uh 30 odd years in various roles and had uh a period of great success, which unfortunately came crashing down due to health reasons a few years back. But um when I first um explored setting up my own practice um and getting in touch with yourself, I wasn't necessarily in the right best place. Um my career had kind of ground to a halt, I kind of lost my direction in life, wasn't quite sure where to go next. Um, and you know, on a personal basis, I wasn't really perhaps in the best place mentally.

SPEAKER_01

This this is when you're starting to think about being self-employed and have your own business, you think.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, because I I I figured I I just reached a point where I didn't really want to work for anybody else, and um I'd kind of had enough of being a bit of the the corporate slave, as it were. And you know, I just wanted to be my own man. Um but so it was great to to meet you because of course you were one of the only networks at that time that would take anybody on that didn't actually have an existing client base and an existing revenue stream. Um and so that in itself was from my point of view an absolute door opener. Uh and then when I met you and interacted with you, and I got to realise, you know, who you are and how you are, um, it just felt like a natural fit for me. Um so I was delighted to join you. That was back in 2020. Good timing. Uh yeah. Um, and for all the right reasons, I decided to join, and you welcomed me with open arms, which is great. Of course. Um, but as I kind of alluded to, um, not only was I perhaps not in the best place within myself, I don't think I'd really thought through my proposition sufficiently. Um, I tried to be set myself up as a protection consultant. Um proposition wasn't quite right, the route to market really hadn't been thought through properly and hadn't been planned. And whilst I stuck at it for, I don't know, what was it, six to nine months? It felt like an uphill battle, and it felt like I was trying to make the impossible happen. And as you may recall, I called you towards the end of that period. I think you were on a service station or charging your electric car, actually. Yes, right. Um, I was on the other end of the phone, um, not in a great place, and feeling that I was failing, and I'd kind of reached the conclusion I just couldn't go on as it was. So um I was quite upset emotionally, and I had to tell you that I was gonna leave. And of course, part of me was also worried about your reaction and the commitment I'd made to New Leaf and you know the financial arrangements and so on. Um and you were very kind and um understanding and you helped me to to actually make that well not make that decision, but you helped me actually to uh adopt that decision um and to leave. Um and then my next thoughts were where do I go next? Yeah. Um fortunately with my CV and you know I can come across reasonably well in an interview, I was able to get a job. Yeah. So I took a job with um Blackfinch Investments, the alternative investment manager, and actually I was a BDM role where I was effectively uh responsible for building a new patch and reaching out to IFAs to encourage them to use Blackfinch's products and educate them and support them and so on. You even came to me, didn't you? I did knock on your door, um, amongst many others. Um cut a very long story short, uh that was a two-year period where I'm grateful they gave me the opportunity. The reality was in the marketplace the opportunity wasn't really there. And whilst it gave me a job and some security and a chance to rebuild my sort of confidence and um you know to become proactive and effective, it wasn't the right opportunity. Um, and it became very clear to me that at some point I was either going to have to leave of my own accord, or and ideally before that was asked to leave, because from a commercial point of view it didn't stack up, you know, my salary and benefits and what I was actually bringing to the table.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

And that wasn't necessarily as a failure of m myself, but that it was just the wrong opportunity at the wrong time in the wrong market, and a very niche market. So my time there was in some respects a positive because it got me back on my feet. On the other hand, it it was holding me in a bad place because I knew that I was capable of so much more, and yet again, I felt restricted and unfulfilled, and my confidence and my pride in my work wasn't there.

SPEAKER_01

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00

And I also realized that a lot of advisors that I was dealing with in my time at Blackfinch um weren't really embracing the tax efficient space and the planning opportunities that existed.

SPEAKER_01

So the people you were meeting, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

The IFAs you were meeting during your day-to-day weren't really embracing the tax planning opportunities and the products available. Okay. So I thought, where do I go next? You know, I was running out of ideas and I thought of you and you leaf, and I thought, okay, I've got a new mindset, I've got a new proposition, it's tax and financial planning. Um, I can set myself up as a tax and financial planning consultant and demonstrate how I can add real value to clients. So, not am I just necessarily looking to gather their assets, I'm also looking to um increase their financial position and that of their family by helping them to save income tax, capital gains tax, andor inheritance tax. And if I build that into my pitch, it'll be a differentiator than just I'm a pensions advisor, I'm an investment advisor, for example.

SPEAKER_01

Let's come back to the bounce back in a moment. Let's go, if I may, take you back to the mindset piece. Yeah. That's what interested me in what you said when you first started with New Leaf. You said you really shouldn't have done it because your mindset wasn't in the right place. You weren't in the right place mentally. Tell us a little bit more about that. It could help others.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Well, I guess I didn't know what I didn't know. Uh I didn't know that I wasn't ready. I didn't i I was acknowledging that I was in a bad place, but I thought I could push through it. Okay. Um and I guess it's only with the benefit of hindsight that I, you know, that I can now say I was not in the right place and I didn't have the right proposition, and I wasn't didn't have the right route to market, and I was fighting a losing battle, but I couldn't see it immediately at the time. But after six to nine months, I guess the realization was there. And um, you know, when I came back the second time two-year gap, job elsewhere that hadn't panned out, where do I go next? Um, I just think I had a renewed, you know, uh a renewed um passion, a renewed idea on how I can build a successful business and how I can add value to my clients. Um and and and really the ideas of mapping out my proposition, and a big part of my initial success here, a second time round, is having set out my stall and having built a you know uh a sales and a marketing and a sales machine, if you like, that is plastered across everything that I do and everything that represents my business, whether it's the website, whether it's the initial communications, how I conduct a first meeting, the follow-up emails. I've created insight documents into the four key areas that people want to plan around. So, you know, how you know investing for growth, security, and tax efficiency. There's an insight document about that. There's another insight document about how to maximize your income in retirement, another one on inheritance tax planning. What I've done is I've I've put together a suite of marketing material that is very simple but effective and is full of hints and tips to help with clients think about the key things they need to consider to achieve their financial goals.

SPEAKER_01

So, how did you leave behind the negativity of that first failure? Because failure's good in this scenario, failure's really good. Yeah. But how did you leave behind that failure and then turn that into this posity? How did you manage that?

SPEAKER_00

That's a great question. Uh it it you don't just press the button and it doesn't happen overnight. Um so when I rejoined I felt generally better positioned. Did you have any fear at that stage? Did you have fear? I had fear because I knew at that point I'm 57 years old, I'm not gonna just go and walk into another job, um, despite my previous career and reasonable success. Um and I didn't want to walk into another job. Yeah. So I realized that this was make or break. Okay. This is New Leaf and Castle Financial Planning, or bust. Wow. Now, literally, and I'll tell you how um I'll tell you why that is the case or I'll just add a bit of flesh to that discussion. Um there was no there was nowhere else for me to go, and I didn't want to go anywhere else. I had the fear, but I also I suppose deep down also had some self-belief and some confidence and a realization that in recent years I had not fulfilled my true potential.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And this was my opportunity, and you gave me that opportunity by you know welcoming me back the second time.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, it's chuffed.

SPEAKER_00

Honestly, I was so pleased when I got the call. Um, so I was I was chuffed. There was fear, there was also a lack of resource in the background, um, which is, you know, again, that fear and that lack of resource is a motivator to not be mucking about, to not be wasting time doing the wrong things in the wrong way. So I became very focused on not failing again and making sure that this time it's a success. And I've just put so much time, effort, energy, you know, mentally and emotionally and practically into building a proposition that gives me the best chance of success. How long have you been back with New Leaf? So I um we met again early last year. I rejoined, I think, for the initial training in May, signed off in July, uh spent three to six months looking at all my uh different avenues for marketing my business and and gathering clients, bearing in mind I started with zero clients, zero income, and everything to go for. And um, so uh effectively I was uh uh back on my feet, if you like, operationally from July last year. Took a long time to get established and up and running and to generate inquiries and then convert them into paying clients. So I landed my first case in January this year,£40,000 investment, great training experience. Um, and then since then it's just gradually built and built and built on the basis that I've been really working hard on generating inquiries, given that the biggest problem we all have uh as advisors, whether it's mortgage or uh IFA, is finding clients. Yeah, but I've found a system that works.

SPEAKER_01

Let's hear about that. You know, your bounce back is amazing because last month you were top IFA in New Leaf. So within a new business, you were top IFA, yeah. That's a proper bounce back. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

How have you done it? Tell us.

SPEAKER_00

Well, first of all, when I saw uh the leaderboard and my name on it, I was quite um you know, pleasantly surprised. Um, and in in some respects it was a validation for all the work I've done over the last year, and I I actually acknowledged, you know, I gave myself a pat on the back rather than beating myself up, which is historically kind of what I've alluded uh tended to do.

SPEAKER_01

Um and you're sorry, your question again was Well, I I noticed that you were top, and you know, I I I was how did you do it? How did you change that around so quickly? You know, within a year within a year you're top for new business in that particular month, you're the top IFA new leaf. Yeah. How how did you make that happen?

SPEAKER_00

Um, I mean, initially I I I did I looked at all the marketing avenues and I explored um LinkedIn, uh networking, uh professional introducers, reached out to a load of accountants, a load of solicitors, emails, phone calls, meetings where I could. Um so I I kind of did all of the usual stuff. And you know, as an example, networking, it's almost for me it's a necessary evil, but I don't enjoy it. It's not my forte, and I for me it doesn't work, it doesn't yield results. So, you know, what was Einstein said, you know, the the definition of madness is keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Yeah, so I I learned from what didn't work. Um, but also when I got signed off in July to start trading, I immediately in July signed up to Unbiased. Okay. So as most people might be familiar, Unbiased Bias is a lead generation organization. So people looking for advice will go online, they'll say looking for advisor, looking for pension advice, and so on. And inevitably they'll come to unbiased, you know, uh in in their uh their their search. And then um, so unbiased are effectively a big marketing machine. Um, they make money by charging uh fees to advisors for for taking on inquiries. Yeah, the clients actually get the inquiries for free. Um, and our job then as advisors is to uh to decide whether to accept the inquiry and pay the fee for it.

SPEAKER_01

It's expensive.

SPEAKER_00

It can be. So I pay, I've got two areas, I've got S uh Chelmsford, uh kind of Chelmsford mainly, and then West London, because I have a London-based office. Uh so I pay a fixed fee of about£700 a month for to have the locations, and then I pay an aver uh a fee for each inquiry. On average, let's say about£200 an inquiry. Now, you could burn a lot of money if you don't handle those inquiries in the right way, if you don't interact with the clients in the right way, um, you know, impress them from the outset and um and demonstrate how you can add real value to them from the outset. So um I've kind of built I've learned through trial and error. I've spent a lot of money, typically two and a half thousand pounds a month on lead generation, which is a significant investment. Um I almost ran out of money about three months ago before the conveyor belt started delivering the results. Yeah. Um but what I've realized and I've learned along the way is that it's absolutely uh an investment, not a cost. And generally speaking, I can generate um for every pound I spend on unbiased, I can probably generate a four-pound return in year one, plus of course we've got the ongoing fees as well. Yeah. So I keep feeding the machine, yeah. Um, I keep learning and refining my process for dealing with them, uh, with the inquiries and and and getting the clients on board. And it, you know, over the past 13 months now, I've found something that just works for me. We'll have to do a master class on that, on the Mastermind Alliance one on Monday for the group. So Eve Yeah, I'd be happy to do so. So even though um it's been expensive and it almost got made me run out of money, yeah. Thankfully, everything else fell into place. The results started coming through, and it's more than paying for itself. So I will just keep going, probably at the same level of investment, um, because I've got something that that a process around using these unbiased leads that works. Yeah, the return on investment is good. Um and you know, if if somebody would give you if if you gave somebody a pound and they gave you four pounds back, how often would you do it? You take it. You just keep doing it. So I've got a repeatable process, and if I'm honest with you, with all the other routes to market that I've explored, this is the one that works for me. So I'm just gonna keep going.

SPEAKER_01

It's fantastic when you find success like that. Let's go back to when you rejoined New Leaf. What sort of help did you get from the group, the team, the mentorship from Kerry Weaver, who's your mentor when you start, and the power planning team. What sort of help did you get to get you going?

SPEAKER_00

Um, so yeah, the kind of uh I guess standard induction and uh Kerry was great because you know, not only does he understand our industry and the new leaf business and the model and the systems and the processes, he understands people with his psychology background. Um, and um he knows from experience in onboarding new advisors what works and what doesn't, so he can help you with the shortcuts and try and help you from to prevent you from making mistakes, shall we say? Fantastic.

SPEAKER_01

What about a poinning team? Have they helped you? Because every case is powerplanned for you from start to end.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Well, look, this this for me is one of the big differentiators with New Leaf, I believe, and also probably the greatest asset for me as a business owner and as a customer-facing advisor, bearing in mind, of course, that I only make money when I'm sitting in front of a client. So the more time I spend sitting in front of a client and less time sitting at my desk shuffling papers or doing research. So when I um realized when we when I joined the IFA side in phase two of joining New Leaf, um when I realized that I'd get the letter of authority desk, the power planning desk in technical support, you know. Full research. Full research. Uh, and all I really all I really had to do was market, sell, engage with clients, gain their interest and their confidence, um, pitch my services and um take them on the journey, and then basically hand over all the back office stuff to you guys. For me, um, you know, not only would I be bogged down in dealing with LOAs or or research or report writing, which would suck up all the My time, it would be a mind distraction.

SPEAKER_01

It's fantastic. Success brings all that problems with it, doesn't it? So this podcast is all about turning over a new leaf, turning over a new leaf in financial advice. As we conclude this meeting, it's been wonderful. What would you say is your new leaf that you're going to turn over for the foreseeable future?

SPEAKER_00

Well, um, what I would say is it probably doesn't come across in the short time that we've spoken, but I've had a pretty tough journey in the last several years. Um, you've been part of it, and um I think now that I feel that I'm in the right place with the right proposition and opportunity, it's time my new leaf is to stop giving myself a hard time now.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

To stop um beating myself up, and you know, those the little kind of uh monkey on the shoulder that can sometimes, you know, we talk ourselves down. Of course. I think now that I've worked really hard, now that I've found my feet, started to get some success again, it's time for me to actually then my new leaf is to give myself a little pat on the back. Yeah. And um to keep going.

SPEAKER_01

It's brilliant, John. John Castle, set yourself free, push yourself forward and achieve the success you thoroughly deserve.

SPEAKER_00

Thanks, Mark