Five Minutes With Holly Gobell

As one of First Wealth’s talented Client Relationship Managers, Holly Gobell has made a huge impact since joining the team in October of 2023. From supporting clients to achieve their ambitions, making finances a more comfortable conversation, and a career change from beauty to financial services, we sat down with Holly to hear more about her journey to us.

Can you tell us about your role at First Wealth?

My role at First Wealth is mostly client facing.

A huge part of that is being there for our clients; being a first point of contact. Emailing, calling, and welcoming clients to our offices.

My job as a Client Relationship Manager is also about supporting the financial planners and technical analysts. We prep the packs that clients are shown in meetings to ensure they are of the highest quality. We handle client documentation, relationships with providers, and First Wealth documentation (like LOAs) too.

Essentially, whether we are working directly with clients, financial planners, technical analysts, or providers, everything we do as Client Relationship Managers is to increase the value we add to our clients.

What do you enjoy most about your role?

The constant learning!

Being a Client Relationship Manager is different every day. So, you are always learning something new. It’s different every day.

And for me, being in a space where I can simultaneously be confident in what I know and learn new things helps to keep me motivated.

Tell us about how you came to work at First Wealth. What was your journey?

I always said I wanted to work in London. I loved the idea of commuting in and out, but I couldn’t put a finger on exactly what I wanted to do.

There was a time when I thought beauty was the answer – I did qualifications for that industry over three years at college and worked for another two before I finally landed on finance.

When I realised what I wanted, I immediately started looking for opportunities and found a junior role that didn’t require any experience. I took a leap, applied, and got accepted!

I was at that role for a year and a half, and it was great. I was constantly learning and getting to grips with things like investment types, tax efficiency, and client service. Pretty soon, my confidence grew, and I started to throw myself into the deep end more and more.

So much so that I started seeking a new challenge. That’s how I ended up at First Wealth!

What did you learn on that journey?

I learnt soft skills and formal knowledge, but I think the biggest thing for me is confidence. I’ve always been outgoing but quite shy.

Navigating new jobs, confusion about what I wanted to do, and an entirely new routine of commuting gave me independence and a huge confidence boost. It made me realise that we are all human!

What career advice has helped you most?

To keep persevering.

I wasn’t the happiest when taking my beauty qualifications and in my subsequent beauty job. But I gave it a chance.

It is so important not to quit at the first hurdle! When I started to think the industry wasn’t the right fit for me, I persevered for a bit longer. That little buffer gave me a safety net of A) getting the right experience, and B) knowing I was making the right decision.

What do you think the future of the financial services holds?

In time, I really hope that finance will be a more comfortable subject to talk more openly about.

There is so much stigma attached to talking about money that there are huge chunks of people who miss out on some incredibly beneficial conversations.

I hope that in the future, as we start to challenge the stigma with things like Thrive Money, money won’t be as challenging to bring up as it is now. And, as a result, more people will understand what financial planning is, they’ll be more aware of things like investments, interest rates, and inflation.

In turn, this increased awareness will lead to a further decrease in stigma – it’s all a huge cycle.

What’s the best financial advice anyone ever gave you?

My mum always said – you’re not wasting money if you’re making memories.

It’s given me this outlook that money should be there to serve what you want to do, not just accumulate in the background. The whole point of having savings or investments isn’t about watching numbers going up, but about what matters most to you.

Who has inspired you during your career so far?

My parents! They’ve always complimented my work ethic is, but that is a direct result of how they have brought me up, and the environment they created for me and my siblings.

This document is marketing material for a retail audience and does not constitute advice or recommendations. Past performance is not a guide to future performance and may not be repeated. The value of investments and the income from them may go down as well as up and investors may not get back the amount originally invested.