Yes - that's right. Season 1 of the NewIn Podcast has (sadly) come to an end. For the finale, we did things a little differently. Cathi was joined in person by co-hosts Ilana Miller and Hannah Pendlebury to reflect on everything they've learned from a season full of honest, unfiltered conversations with career changers and business owners across financial services.
For this episode, Cathi, Ilana and Hannah turn the mic on themselves - unpacking the biggest themes to emerge from the series. Ilana reflects on the surprising honesty guests brought to their interviews, and the shared values she noticed running through very different personal stories. Hannah shares what stood out from her conversations with business founders - particularly the sleepless nights, income drops, and vital support networks that sit behind every "success story" you see online.
The conversation also tackles some of the season's most debated topics: should paraplanning be a mandatory stepping stone on the way to becoming an adviser, or a respected career in its own right? Is a Level 4 qualification enough, or does the industry need to raise the bar? And who is actually responsible for making financial services more accessible - the regulators, the professional bodies, or the firms themselves?
Underpinning it all is a question that's run through the entire series: do people still fall into finance by accident, or are more people choosing it as a deliberate, considered career move? As this episode makes clear, the answer is rarely as simple as the industry's favourite cliché suggests.
Full epsiode available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and Amazon Music.
The NewIn podcast is brought to you with thanks to Royal London, Lead Sponsor of the Verve Foundation.
