Victoria Lympus spent years as a book editor. She had three children. She freelanced from home. And for a long time, when people asked what she did, she didn't quite know what to say.
Then she lost her parents. And a financial planner helped her navigate what came next in a way she hadn't expected - not just numbers and spreadsheets, but questions about values, and what she wanted her life to look like.
That was the moment she started wondering whether she could do the same for someone else.
Episode 1 of the NewIn Podcast is a conversation that challenges everything people assume about careers in financial services. Victoria joined co-host Ilana Miller (Investment and Retirement Specialist at Royal London) and Nat, Chief Engagement Officer at Verve, to answer a question that turned out to be more interesting than it initially sounds: is financial services a head career or a heart career?
Ilana has been in financial services for nearly 30 years. She'll tell you she "just fell into it" — and then in the same breath tell you why that's not quite the truth. She couldn't afford university. She wanted a job where she could earn well without a degree. So she found a pathway that paid for her exams and let her build from there.
"If we told the truth," she says in Episode 1, "it would actually open up financial services as a pathway."
The idea that financial services is something people drift into by accident has become self-fulfilling. It creates a perception of a narrow doorway — certain qualifications, certain backgrounds, certain families. None of which is actually a requirement.
In this episode, Ilana says: "Financial services is like saying sports. You could be an Olympic star, or you could be the person keeping the grass perfect on the pitch, or one of the coaches. It's a whole array of roles."
"It sounds simple, but it reframes things completely. There isn't one type of person who belongs in financial services any more than there's one type of person who belongs in sport."
The most memorable exchange in this episode is quiet, and Victoria almost throws it away. She describes being at a children's birthday party recently, meeting someone she didn't know, and for the first time saying without hesitation: "I'm a financial planner."
After years of imposter syndrome, of saying she was "doing some exams" or "kind of retraining," that felt like something." It was a really momentous thing to say, and own, and believe.
Head, heart - or both? Nat's answer to the head-or-heart question is the one that sticks: "I'm led by my heart. But I think that's the point — you can be a creative, heart-led person and finance is still for you."
The podcast closes with her conclusion about Verve and the Foundation: "If Verve is the head, Foundation's the heart of financial services."
Hear the full conversation on the NewIn Podcast, 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.
