Upfront

Listen up! The award-winning, hard-hitting financial services podcast from Iress is back for Series 3.

Emmanuel Asuquo is a financial adviser, TV personality, author and now the new host of Upfront! 

He’ll be asking the questions that nobody else is asking and getting guests to drop some serious gems to help you shine.

Series three is full of upfront conversations that everyone in financial services needs to hear, like:

What do the most successful financial advisers do differently? Are financial services doing enough to help neurodiverse people? Is a fear of maths and numbers putting people off finance? Does digital transformation cause more problems than it solves? Do you have to get up at 5am to be productive? Is it getting harder to make customer experience a priority?

As always, expect honesty, expect humour. Just don’t expect it to sound like any other financial services podcast.

The first episode of Season 3 releases on Wednesday 26th June, and then every two weeks from then. Subscribe to Upfront so you never miss one. Get in touch at [email protected] and visit the blog at iress.com/upfront.

Upfront is a 10-part series from Iress, the people behind the world-leading financial services software.

Find us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/iress/ and at www.iress.com

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What does the financial services business of the future look like?
 
It’s 2023. We’re in an age of artificial intelligence, digital data and supercomputers. So, er, why is the financial services industry still using pens, paper and post? 
 
In this episode, Olga is joined by global futurist and innovation strategist Anders Sorman-Nilsson, who says the industry is doing too much menial and mundane work. He talks about what the successful financial services business of tomorrow looks like and how they’ll be using technology to make a more meaningful difference to people and the planet.

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What will make financial services a sector where people want to work and stay?
 
The lack of diversity in financial services is putting people off joining the industry - brilliant people who could be bringing much-needed skills, new ideas and different perspectives to the sector.
 
In this episode, Olga is joined by renowned financial adviser and TV personality Emmanuel Asuquo. He talks about his experience joining the industry as a young black man from a council estate in East London, what inspired him to become the success he is today and the change he wants to see happen.

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Who will take one for the team for a better, fairer financial system?

Financial services and technology are moving fast. But stop. We need to pause and ask ourselves what we’re really doing, and who for, otherwise we risk not making progress at all.

In this episode, Olga is joined by Adah Parris, a creative provocateur who helps people see the world differently. She wants financial institutions to get out of their echo chambers, ask some big questions and start building a new world. But first, someone’s got to step off the hamster wheel - fast.

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https://adahparris.com/

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What is the future of work?

It’s the question everyone wants the answer to. Has anyone got it right yet? The jury’s out. One thing’s for sure, we all want to work smarter, not longer. 

In this episode, Olga is joined by Charlotte Lockhart, co-founder of 4 Day Week Global. She talks about why a focus on productivity, not time, can help us all be happier, healthier and more successful. Anne-Marie Lister, Chief People Officer at Atom Bank, also joins in to talk about their new approach to work.

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Can responsible investing change the world?

It’s going to take $2.5 trillion to solve the world’s societal and environmental problems. Financial services have the means to help, but first, the industry must ask itself some big and difficult questions.
 
One man who’s not afraid to ask those questions is James Perry, an entrepreneur and founder of ethical investment company Snowball. He talks to Olga Koch about ripping up the rule book in an episode that will change the way you think about investment and returns.

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Do financial services need to lighten up?
 
Everyone loves a deal, and this time, you’re getting two for one as Olga is joined by fellow stand-up comedian and consumer champion Vix Leyton.
 
In this episode, Olga and Vix find the funny in everything from car insurance to student bank accounts and badly-advised store cards. They share their experiences of playing fast and loose with pensions, impressing financial advisers and mixing financial services with comedy.

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How can financial services fight AI-based cybercrime?

Deep fakes and voice cloning are being used in increasingly sophisticated and nefarious ways, raising questions about what’s real and who we can trust.

In this episode, comedian Olga Koch is joined by Skeeve Stevens, ex-hacker and founder of The Future Crime Agency. He talks about new cybersecurity threats, old spy techniques, fighting fire with fire, and what terrifies and excites him about the advance of AI in financial services. Brace yourself.

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How do we stop imposter syndrome getting in the way of success?

70% of people get imposter syndrome and it also negatively impacts organisations, particularly in high-performance cultures like financial services.

In this episode, comedian Olga Koch is joined by confidence coach, Alison Shamir. She talks about why imposter syndrome must be tackled and shares three steps to defeat it plus some advice every employer needs to hear.

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How do we get more people to understand the importance of financial planning?

Making a financial decision is scientifically proven to be one of the hardest things for a human to do. We just can’t get our heads round it, so we bury them in the sand instead.

In this episode, comedian Olga Koch is joined by one of the UK’s leading behavioural economists, Mark Pittaccio (Quilter). He talks about why good people make bad decisions and shares some clever mind-tricks financial advisers can use to help clients empathise with their future selves.

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