Fabian: 0:06

Welcome to Finance Friends with Fabian, where we give our listeners an opportunity to be a part of our conversation with financial services industry leaders. Hear their stories, the challenges they've overcome and the invaluable advice they have for anyone interested in the financial world. Keep up to date with us by following Finance Friends Podcast on Instagram and TikTok. So welcome to Riva Recruitment or Careers with Riva. Riva Careers. We don't know what it's going to be called just yet, but, megan, what are your thoughts? What should we call this podcast?

Megan: 0:38

I feel like we could come up with something a little bit more catchy A little bit more catchy. Maybe we should ask the listeners for some ideas.

Fabian: 0:49

Yeah, any ideas? Listen, I think I think by the time we finally get, we repost this we will have a name for this podcast. Oh well, fingers crossed that we can remember it this time yeah, I think maybe career ready with reva we could go with that, but let's work on it anyway. Let's move on. Let's move on. So, megan, tell me a little bit about yourself. Who are you?

Megan: 1:06

Tell me about you first what.

Fabian: 1:08

Can't reverse the question.

Megan: 1:10

First podcast is about you.

Fabian: 1:12

Okay, a little bit about me. Where do you want me to start?

Megan: 1:16

Start with just a brief overview of yourself, but include some interesting facts.

Fabian: 1:20

What do you do?

Megan: 1:21

outside of work.

Fabian: 1:22

Let's start with outside of work. Bit of a tragic on the golf course Shocking dad jokes. I'm not a dad, which is concerning what else I do, like going fishing. I go fishing with the old man quite a bit. It's our bonding time. Oh, do you Bonding time?

Megan: 1:41

yeah, I don't think I knew that what kind of fishing.

Fabian: 1:44

I've caught, like lots of fish, you know, I've caught the big fish, the small fish, the fish that got away.

Megan: 1:49

So are you a big fish or a small fish?

Fabian: 1:51

Big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond Depends how you look at it. But no, so good, quite rewarding and hang out with family. I've got lots of nieces and a nephew Are you the cool uncle or the strict uncle? With my brother. It's not hard to be the cool uncle. Don't tell him that I won't send him the link to the podcast.

Megan: 2:17

Yeah, no, trying to hang out with the folks.

Fabian: 2:18

Love to travel. Obviously who doesn't? How can you not love to travel Been to a? Obviously who doesn't? How can you not love to travel Been to a few countries Off to the US soon? And yeah, that's me All right.

Megan: 2:30

Well, what about more professionally?

Fabian: 2:31

Professionally, it's obviously director of REVA recruitment, so I'll start from the start.

Megan: 2:36

Yeah, what did you study?

Fabian: 2:37

What I studied? I studied finance, so I've always been a bit of a nerd when it comes to numbers, like you know. Give me an equation any day of the week, give me times tables just give me something to do with numbers, and I love working it out. I love it obviously not on my dating profile, but anyway, let's move on from that. Because women don't like nerds, well, maybe some of them do. Anyway, let's continue tell them.

Fabian: 2:59

They're the only 10 you see because you're from t, I like it. Yeah, very clever, very clever, anyway. So I studied finance at university, went to La Trobe, loved university life. Well, I loved hanging out, meeting people. I was at La Trobe University out in Bundurah in Melbourne. I'm from Melbourne, grew up in Melbourne near Essendon, went to university and I found that I would very, very easily my arm was twisted to miss a university lecture or a class to either go to Eagle Bar and have a drink or to be in Agora and have a coffee and meet someone. I love getting to know people. That's who I am, that's what I stand for building relationships and getting to know people and, as a result, my university grades weren't great. But that's okay. That's okay.

Megan: 3:54

We got here in the end. You eventually graduated.

Fabian: 3:55

Yeah, sorry, you eventually graduated I eventually graduated with a letter from La Trobe saying we think you should exit finance because maybe you're not up to scratch. So anyway, I wrote, returned to sender and posted it back. But anyway I ended up finishing my finance degree, which was great. I had fun did that and then started working in a financial planning firm. So firm out in Essendon. Big shout out to Stefan D'Alessandro, a good friend of mine, who I used to work with, taught me everything I knew in my first couple of years of working professionally, which is great. We won the practice of the year with our dealer group that we were licensed through which was amazing, and how long were you there?

Fabian: 4:35

It's a great question. I was probably there close to three years, so a decent stint for someone that was 22 to 25, because you know most people most people out of 22 want to change jobs after six months.

Fabian: 4:49

well, at least I did anyway. But I was continually challenged and learned lots and worked with a great bunch of people, which is hard to leave and it was really hard leaving anyway. So then I joined a, a um, what they call an ifa independent financial advice firm, and I was responsible for managing their investment portfolio. So we looked after high net worth clients, we ran direct equities, we ran hybrid securities, we used different fund managers and that was great. Got to meet some amazing people. We had some really high net worth clients that were worth you know, 20, 30, 40 mil back then. And then we had some everyday mum and dad type of investors, as we call them. I don't know if you agree with the wording everyday mum and dad, but you know subtly earth people, which was great and got to know them and learnt a lot about investment markets and talking to clients around investments.

Megan: 5:35

Okay, and so you were there for how long?

Fabian: 5:37

That's about a year and a half A long time ago now. So what happened was the reason why I was only there a short period of time. So the guy that I replaced a guy called alex grucho, who's become a really good friend of mine again another legend um he uh. He was leaving to go to london, to do work in london, have a sabbatical in london, and I just thought I'm taking his job, this is what I should be doing, this is is what I love to do. So anyway, I was working there and after about six months, I'm like that's it. I'm making a decision, I'm moving to London, I'm getting my youth mobility visa for two years and then I am flying off to London and I'm going to do what Alex has done Anyway. So it was really hard the last six months.

Megan: 6:20

Who did it better?

Fabian: 6:22

Well, depending on who you ask. Depending on who you ask, because we pretty much had the same job.

Megan: 6:26

I thought Alex was a legend.

Fabian: 6:27

Well, he's a legend, but clearly I'm more of a legend, Anyway. No, let's move on. I'm definitely not, Anyway. So I worked there and then I let them know that I'm going to move to London. I resigned, moved to London and then I caught up with Alex and I had a couple of other friends that worked in banking over there, and they gave me some tips. I ended up getting a job working for a Swiss bank called Julius Baer in their private banking division, which was an incredible experience. I learned so much in a short period of time. I was there for almost two years.

Megan: 6:57

What was your biggest learn while you were there?

Fabian: 7:00

Probably learn a lot about investment markets dealing with international clients. So we had clients that were based in the Middle East. So we looked after billionaire clients out of the Middle East and what relationship they were looking for was very different to someone that worked as a prop trader at an investment bank that was from the UK. So theirs was strictly the relationship with the people in the Middle East. We had to invest Shariah-compliant funds, which I won't go into too much detail about that. We'd set up trusts all around the world. You know wonderful places like the Marshall Islands and we hired buyer's advocates to buy property in Cayman.

Megan: 7:41

Islands, so you were vacationing while you were working.

Fabian: 7:44

Something like that, something like that Anyway, and that was a great experience and loved it and I met so many amazing people. But what I realized? That when I was there my boss used to take the piss out of me a little bit and say, where's Fabian? He's never at his desk. So because I used to love getting to know people and I'd go to the trading desk and talk to the traders, I'd go the desk that looked after you know clients that were based out of South Africa and I'd get to know them. I looked after the you know would get to know the people at the Israeli desk and you know all the risk and compliance and HR. And I just became I just loved getting to know people Anyway. So and then in the end I thought, well, I love to get to know people, so maybe I need to work in a sales role.

Fabian: 8:26

So anyway, I ended up, long story short, my colleague next to me, another great guy. Obviously you hang around great people, but this guy did exceptionally well and I supported him and I was working Saturday morning some days We'd be at the office till 11 o'clock onboarding clients and then he got his bonus because he got paid a percentage of the revenue he generated and I helped him obviously onboard those clients and assisted with reports and meeting clients et cetera. But I was on a discretionary bonus. Now I was an associate, I understand that, and he got a bonus that was enough to buy almost a house in Melbourne. It was his bonus. And then I got my bonus and obviously I was probably doing the wrong thing by benchmarking against his bonus, but my bonus was only I say only, which is still a good bonus at the time was 7,500 pounds, which is 15,000 Australian dollars.

Megan: 9:19

So you had the mindset, as a lot of candidates come to us with, a success is a promotion and compensation.

Fabian: 9:27

Yeah, that's right. And because you're benchmarking against, you know you're comparing apples with pears, yeah, and you shouldn't do that. So, and you know, I know that the guy that I worked with, he was in my position, you know, sort of six or seven years ago. So I didn't really understand that, but I didn't have a mentor or someone that I could lean on and ask the question. So I I sort of I wouldn't say spat the dummy, but not far off spat the dummy. I was pretty upset anyway. So I ended up resigning and I'm like you know what I want a job where I can control the income I earn. So I ended up traveling a little bit through um, through through Europe. I actually volunteered on a children's summer camp in Croatia for three months, which is a great experience and I highly recommend people do it, and then I came back to Australia.

Megan: 10:10

Okay, and so what did you do when you returned to Australia?

Fabian: 10:13

Well, I was thinking funds management, sales dealing with advice Well, that was the plan. But the problem was that I didn't have a network of people to sell to, because when you're in sales you obviously need your network. And then the other thing is I didn't really understand the sales process because I've never worked in any form of sales role. So I have the option of going into a sales support role. But I just realized I don't want to be at the desk for two hours, two days, two years, like I don't want to be supporting someone for two years. I can't do that. I want to get out there.

Megan: 10:48

I want to meet people right, keep your bum to the seat for that long, that's right.

Fabian: 10:52

I find it really hard to sit in a chair for an hour, um, especially when talking to my parents. No, that's a joke. That's a joke. We've got a great relationship with the folks and my mum's a great cook, so it's not hard to keep me at the dinner table for more than an hour anyway, so let's move on.

Megan: 11:06

So what happened was um, I'm just thinking what your mom's going to really think of you after listening to that I might have to cut a spotify subscription anyway.

Fabian: 11:19

Um, so so what happened was um anyway. So then I realized that, um, and then I met with a recruiter and, uh, that recruiter said, well, why don't you work in recruitment? You can build your network, build a sales process and, you know, get paid well in the meanwhile and, be you know, you have a clear you know, based on the revenue you write, you get paid a certain percentage of that revenue, right, certain commission structure. And I thought, well, this is a great idea. Like I love people, I love finance.

Fabian: 11:44

So I spoke to a few people that I know in the industry. I said what are your thoughts? Do you think you know me? You know the industry? Is this something that I should do? Anyway, long story short, everyone said, yeah, I think that'd be great, but I'm not the type of person that you know what the my previous boss said to me do it for two years, build your network and then move into a funds management sales role. I'm not the type of person that says, oh, I'm going to do something, just so I can sort of transition. I'm like, if I'm going to do it, I'm going to give it a crack and I want to be successful. I was going to say I need to be successful.

Megan: 12:12

So you gave it a crack.

Fabian: 12:14

So I gave it a crack and I loved it working a great team, great people. But there were a few things a little bit different in that organization that I wanted to do on my own and I guess you know I guess we talk about REVA and what REVA stands for and I had a vision right as to what I wanted to create for a business.

Megan: 12:31

Wait, so maybe let's backtrack. You came up with the idea of starting your own business.

Fabian: 12:35

Yeah.

Megan: 12:36

And then you established obviously the name. Yeah, can we share what the name actually, the meaning behind the name?

Fabian: 12:47

Yeah, that's a great point. So I you know as a, as a, you know values is who you are right, live by your values to die by by those is my mindset and and I wrote down like what important values for me. So I had respect, integrity, vision, accountability.

Megan: 12:59

Okay, so that's where so all right, that's where it came from so, um, so anyway.

Fabian: 13:06

And then I started and I said, well, this is what I want to create, this is what I really enjoy doing. This is what I probably don't enjoy doing in my current firm or the way it is. So this is what I'm going to set up and this is what I've created. So that was four and a half years ago and I started in Feb 2020, which is right when COVID hit, which was not ideal Made. And here we are today. We've got a great team, we've got great clients. Obviously, we specialize in financial services. That might expand over time, but at the moment, we cover investment management, we cover private wealth, we cover financial planning, we do analyst roles. So we cover a lot and obviously, so now we're starting this podcast.

Fabian: 13:51

Yeah.

Megan: 13:52

What can our listeners expect from the podcast?

Fabian: 13:55

What can they expect? So I think the thing is for me. I didn't grow up in an affluent family. My parents didn't finish high school, both migrants. My dad had to really work hard to get the family to where it is today. So what it was for me?

Fabian: 14:07

I never had that mentor. I never had a mentor. I never had someone to help me with my maths homework, someone to help me with writing my English exam, my essay. So I had to really, you know, build resilience and just say, you know, this is where I want to get to and this is how I'm going to get there. But if I had a mentor, I had someone to listen to or learn from and understand what opportunities are out there, that would have been really important for me. So what I want to create is I want to interview leaders in their field. So, whether it be someone that's a portfolio manager, someone that's, you know, works as a, you know head of sales for an investment firm, or someone that's a mortgage broker, someone that's an investment banker, and get a story for them. How did they get to where they are today? You know, what skills do they have? What did they learn? What setbacks did they have to?

Megan: 14:52

battle through, it's still about supporting others for their own success.

Fabian: 14:54

That's right. So share the ideas, share their success, so then the listeners can actually learn and hear and have a mentor without actually sitting down.

Megan: 15:04

Use these skills of how they can apply in their own lives.

Fabian: 15:07

That's exactly right and I think that's really important. So that's what I want to create. So, watch this space, get engaged, listen to us on whatever streaming podcast you listen to. We're gonna be. On spotify, we're gonna be, you know, apple music, is that right? Something like that. I don't know, I'm not an apple user, but anyway, don't hate me for being a samsung user, as most people do anyway. So, um, you know, follow us on our tiktok, follow us on our instagram, follow us on our linkedin. You know we're we're. We're about sharing the love, we're about sharing experiences, we're about sharing knowledge. We want to, you know, give back to the people that we've, you know our network.

Fabian: 15:42

That's right and it's making an impact and exactly what you said. So maybe career with an impact, oh, maybe that could be our name.

Megan: 15:53

That is. I'll remember that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll take a vote.

Fabian: 15:57

We'll see Sienna's saying I'm not sure about that, but anyway, let's move on. But thank you for listening. Megan, Thanks for the introduction. What about you? Just a quick one. We're about to finish up because you're going to be. Oh, we'll have to tell the listeners to stay. Okay, well, let's keep it there. But thank you for listening in to our first podcast. We're looking forward to introducing you to leaders in financial services and giving you the opportunity to learn from them. Thank you. Disclaimer this podcast exists for informational and entertainment purposes only. The personal opinions of the speaker and guests do not represent the view of any other party. If this recording contains reference to financial products, that reference does not constitute advice or recommendations and may not be relied upon.