Testimonial - Sherrill Pooley
How the right training enabled the path to an exciting career change…
My name is Sherrill Pooley and I am now entitled to put CeMAP after my name, which is fundamental to my career change, and this is a brief insight into the journey that made that possible…
I had been working in the Financial Services industry for over 20 years and the majority of that time spent in a management role in Sales Administration. The role was both demanding but enjoyable and then out of the blue I was offered the opportunity to take redundancy. Whilst my husband was also working for a Blue Chip Company in IT, his position was in the process of being “out-sourced” and so not as secure as it was, but at the age of 44 I decided to take the money and move on!
That was the first major step in my career changing journey and whilst it was a change “forced” upon me I decided it was a positive move and decided after a couple of job changes to enter the world of consultancy. Therefore using the extensive network of contacts that I had built up I managed to secure a number of short term assignments reviewing and advising on the practices and procedures of the office Sales Administration function. Whilst these assignments were financially rewarding they proved to be very frustrating as I never saw my recommendations implemented and so I felt a sense of “a job not completed”.
However, when I was undertaking some work for a Mortgage Consultant (who happened to be female) I had one of those “chance” conversations with one of her office staff which was to change my career direction totally. This guy could not speak highly enough about a Company called New Leaf Training, the leading independent Financial Training Company, who had trained him to attain a Certificate in Mortgage Advice and Practice (CeMAP) that now meant he was qualified to advise and sell mortgages to the public.
I was intrigued by the possibilities that this CeMAP qualification could provide and contacted New Leaf Training to find out more about the courses. The initial contact was very professional, but that should be expected I guess, but the thing that convinced me to sign up was the set fee and a “training until you pass” promise. So, in September 2005 at the age of 47 I started the CeMAP 1 module which entailed intensive training for several weekends in London. The training was given by Mark Hobbs, the MD for New Leaf Training, who had a wonderful way of bringing to life some of these fairly “dry” topics.
In fact it was really Mark’s many “off at a tangent” discussions during these classroom sessions that provided the motivation and belief that each of the attendees could actually take on board the learning’s and make a difference to their life. The key message that came across was that each person has their own goals and levels to strive for and these are not necessarily simply measured by the amount of £’s made at the end of the year but what you as an individual considers an improvement to your life.
The CeMAP qualification is made up of 3 modules and I continued to attend the weekend training, together with some intensive week long sessions and home studying, and managed to pass all my exams with merits and distinctions and achieve the CeMAP qualification in November 2005. Then followed a week of competency sales training in December and so there I was Sherrill Pooley CeMAP but what next…
I guess you could say it was another of those “chance” situations as New Leaf Training were now considering setting up a Mortgage Brokering arm of the business and I happened to be one of the first invited to join what is now known as “Stepping Stones” as part of the re-branded New Leaf Financial Services. There is no question that Mark Hobbs is both a motivational and caring leader but what made the decision easier for me, (even moving to Shoebury) and no doubt the 50+ brokers that have since joined, is that you can have your own individual business objectives and plans within the overall New Leaf Financial Services framework and so you really are “running your own business”.
One of the key philosophies within New Leaf Financial Services is not to just achieve sales but to have “clients for life”. To support this approach continued training is considered essential, from both an FSA compliance perspective and for arming the brokers with the most current product knowledge, and it is available “in-house” to all of the brokers at no cost (I am currently working towards an Advanced CeMAP qualification). This emphasis on training, together with the weekly Monday “training” meetings, also ensure that New Leaf Financial Services are providing the “new breed” of brokers who “embrace” and work with the new regulations and not against them.
What all this means for me is that whilst running your own business is hard work, and in fact my husband is just in the process of joining me to assist on the administration side of the business, it has given me a great career opportunity with a realistic target of £100k in the first year. However, as always in life there has to be a balance between work and leisure and running my own business does provide the flexibility to achieve this and late on Friday afternoon my husband and I were in a beach bar watching the sun set over Southend… now that’s something that we would never have done working in corporate life!
Sherrill Pooley
If you are motivated to become a mortgage adviser because of Sherrill’s story please contact Mark and his team at New Leaf on telephone number 01702 204572 or email us today.
