I caught up with one of my recent podcast guests for an early Christmas drink on Friday when he asked a question I have been getting more often these days. He asked, “When are you going to be a guest on your own podcast and tell us about your journey?”. I then shared a few stories about my journey. He seemed to think it was a fascinating story and joked that he wanted to buy the story rights. Having lived it the reality is less exciting, but I can appreciate that it’s a story worth sharing with some great life lessons I learned along the way. Firstly, you never know who is listening and the opportunities that follow. Secondly, go all in and don’t be afraid to make a big move. Thirdly, trust yourself and back yourself. Fourth, these things only work because my wife and family were all on board and supported me 100%. Fifth, don’t stop growing and building. Ever.
First investment role in Geraldton (1998)
I was at a BBQ in early 1998 in Geraldton with my dad and a few of his mates, mainly blue-collar types, plumbers, and tradesmen were sitting around chatting. One of the blokes though was an accountant and started big-noting, talking about shares, and quoting Warren Buffett. I was only 21 and only a couple of years earlier was working for Dad’s earthmoving business as a labourer on the shovel. But I was well read and had been investing in shares for a couple of years on my own and was particularly fond of a good Warren Buffett story even back then. So, after hearing the accountant butcher the stories for a few minutes I explained that he’d got a few things wrong, provided the correct story and explained the concepts properly to the others. I thought nothing more of it. But you never know who is listening and paying attention.
A few days later the plumber who hosted the BBQ, known to everyone as Pirate, phoned me. He said that there was a wealthy investor there that day at the back of the room and he was really impressed by my knowledge and how I handled myself. The investor had spoken to his investment adviser, and they wanted to meet with me and offer me a job. My wife, Paula, was expecting our first baby but within weeks I had joined his firm. It was the best apprenticeship you could ask for. The firm advised many of the wealthiest people in the area, farmers, cray fishermen and business owners. My education and study were fast tracked, and I was authorised as an adviser. Within a couple of years, I’d finished my study, achieving the highest marks in the state and became a Certified Financial Planner in early 2003.
The move to Perth (2003)
By the age of 27 Paula and I had 4 kids under 5. I was trying to negotiate a pay rise with the firm I was with and wanted to buy into the business and become a partner. Negotiations were moving slowly mainly because there were limited options for me outside of where I was. There were no other firms as sophisticated as where I was at and with 4 kids and a mortgage, I wasn’t ready to start my own firm yet. I had vowed I’d never leave Geraldton and would be a country bumpkin forever. But backed into a corner and frustrated, I came home from work one day and said to Paula “What if we did move to Perth?”. That night we sat up in bed and wrote a list of pros and cons. By the end of the night, we had a list of pros that were all about exciting opportunities and growth, while the cons were effectively ‘security blanket’ type reasons to stay, family, friends, and what was comfortable. We decided that night to move to Perth. Paula was equally as excited for our new adventure and unwavering in her belief in our ability to make it work.
Once a decision was made, mentally we were all in. Three months later in August 2003, we moved to Perth to start the next exciting chapter of our family. In that 12-week period, we had made the 8-hour round trip from Geraldton to Perth 11 times to organise job interviews, house, and school. I had completed many job interviews and after 3 interviews with JB Were I was excited to be joining one of the most prestigious firms in the country at the time. Then, at the 11th hour when we were about to move, Goldman Sachs acquired JB Were and put in place a hiring freeze. That role wasn’t going to happen. But at that point, I didn’t care, we weren’t going to let that stop us, so we made the move anyway. I had no job but worked the first month in my uncle’s truck yard until I found one.
Starting Fortress (2007)
Over the next 3-4 years I worked as a Senior Financial Planner at stockbroking firm, Bell Potter and then a smaller boutique firm. I was steadily building a client base when I was referred a new client by an accountant (incidentally they are still clients to this day and now in their 80’s). It all went well, and the accountant was impressed. At a meeting shortly afterwards, he had a proposal that we start a business together. We’d own the company 50:50 and he’d underwrite a great salary for the first 12 months. I was 31, the kids were all at school now and Paula was a full-time mum. So, the opportunity to start my own firm and still have a salary was the perfect deal.
We registered the company Fortress Financial Pty Ltd in March 2007 and opened the doors a month later. We had a number of new clients join us. But I was concerned about the global economy and what was developing overseas. We held money in cash and waited. We had some clients become impatient with my inactivity and they left to go invest the money more quickly. It was quite difficult to manage growth while tempering client expectations that we should be investing. Over the next 18 months the Australian share market fell 56% as the GFC took hold. I had retained more than 70% of client’s funds in cash during that period though what we had invested had dropped in line with markets. We had done very well for clients in that phase, and I was immensely proud of how I managed that crisis for both clients and the business. However, no one will thank you when their portfolio is down 15% even though it could have been a lot worse. But we weathered the storm and were all the wiser and stronger because of it.
The move to Sydney (2011)
By 2011 the business was growing solidly, markets had improved, and Paula and the kids were all well settled. Along the way, the kids had been IQ tested and found we had 4 little Einstein’s. The boys were now at Wesley College in Perth, our oldest skipping 2 years and was in year 9 at age 11 while the other kids skipped up 1 year. The girls were at St Hilda’s and doing great. But as gifted as they were none of them were the sort of kids who study all the time, get straight A’s, and become doctors. They were all quite different and alternative in their own way. Being a parent of kids like this meant you really needed to be a part time psychologist. But what was clear to me was that with all their quirks a bigger city like Sydney was going to be better for them to allow them to thrive and find their tribe.
At the same time, from a business perspective, I wanted to be where I felt the financial action was. I’d grown up around earth moving and machinery and I found the mining aspect of WA boring. I was more interested in being in a place that was a real financial hub and global city. One day I came home from work and said to Paula, “What if we moved to Sydney?”. We again did a little list of pros and cons and we started to get excited about the idea. The kids were settled, they had good friendships and the older 2 were in high school. Moving from Perth to Sydney would be a bigger and much more complex move for our family now than the one from Geraldton to Perth. There was also another catch. Neither Paula nor I had actually ever been to Sydney. We only knew 1 person in the entire city. But I didn’t care about that, I knew what was best for my family and we’d work it out.
Knowing how life-changing such a move was going to be for each of our kids, we knew the kids needed to be as excited about it as us. Before we told the kids we were going to move, for about a month Paula and I started highlighting really cool things about Sydney. “Wow, kids there is a Pokémon event on in Sydney next week, how cool” or “Imagine being able to go Luna Park any time we wanted”. After a few weeks, the kids thought Sydney was the greatest place in the world, lamenting the fact that they had to live in boring Perth. A few weeks later when Paula and I said, “What if we lived in Sydney?” we had 4 kids begging us to do it.
From the time I first talked to Paula about moving to Sydney to the day we actually moved was 3 months. Same time frame as the first move. Once we decided to move it was too exciting not to go all in and just get on with it. Funnily enough, it never seemed like a big deal, there was a lot to organise, but we’d just tick the items off one by one and we’d work out the rest. If we didn’t like it or it didn’t work out it was pretty simple to come back if we needed to.
Fortress Family Office (2023)
Once in Sydney I joined Wilson HTM (Wilson Advisory today) as the Head of Financial Planning in 2011 while still retaining Fortress and our clients. I had recently completed a Master of Business Administration (MBA), and this was the potential precursor to roll Fortress into a much larger business and commence my corporate career. It was very appealing at the time to link in with a much bigger and better resourced firm. However, I had overestimated these benefits and there were added layers of bureaucracy and politics that I wasn’t interested in. By 2014 I’d left the role at Wilson’s and proceeded to obtain our own Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) for Fortress. I was determined from that experience to never work for anyone else ever again. I brought in Jon Fyfe as a partner and together we bought out the accountant’s 50% share. Unfortunately, in 2019, Jon moved back to home to Queensland with his growing family to take on a completely different business and lifestyle opportunity in agriculture. I always admired his decision to make such an important move when many others would have stayed where they were.
Around the same time my youngest child finished high school. It gave me the opportunity to consider the business and what I really wanted to do. Understanding that I loved financial markets and working out the investment landscape led me focus on how best to share my thinking. That led to this weekly insights note. Understanding that I genuinely loved hearing the stories from clients and other company founders led to my podcast. It is a privilege to learn from such interesting people and it’s been fantastic to have some of our guests join our firm as clients. More importantly, I continue doing what I do best which is advising clients on their investments. Understanding that I wanted to do this forever helped me focus on the next part of the puzzle. I think we’ve got a great foundation here at Fortress and in this next phase, I really look forward to the challenge of building a great business for the future.
