In this episode of A Taste of Financial Planning, we're joined by Mike Hesketh.

Mike's career has taken an unusual path, from training as a dentist and serving in the Royal Navy alongside the Royal Marines, through to building and selling a successful dental practice, and now working with practice owners through Hesketh Healthcare.

But this conversation goes far beyond career milestones.

We explore how early experiences shape our attitudes towards money, how different types of pressure influence decision-making, and what financial independence really means when it stops being theoretical and becomes real.

Mike reflects on his time in the military, including deployment to Afghanistan, and how those experiences changed his perspective on risk, responsibility and leadership. That perspective carries through into his approach to business, growth, and ultimately the decisions we all face when success arrives.

We also discuss:

• the reality of building and scaling a business
• why standards, not shortcuts, drive long-term growth
• the emotional and practical challenges of selling a business
• and what happens when you reach a financial milestone and need to decide what comes next

At the Table
Fish broth with a light Japanese influence
Raviolo with salmon mousse and a soft egg yolk
Rib of Aberdeen beef with new potatoes and asparagus

A conversation that moves from North Wales to the Royal Navy, from Afghanistan to business ownership, and into the realities of money, pressure and what comes next.

Host: Dennis Hall

Host: Sarah Steele

Contact us: ask@yellowtail.co.uk

ABOUT YELLOWTAIL

Founded by Dennis Hall, Yellowtail are the trusted financial planners who advise individuals & families across the UK. Yellowtail's experts provide the clarity, control and confidence to guide you through financial planning, estate planning, pension transfers and investment management directing your journey towards a prosperous retirement and financial peace of mind.

We're joined at the table by Abraham Okusanya.

Abraham grew up in Nigeria before getting a scholarship to study in the UK, a turning point that changed the course of his life.

Today, he runs a business responsible for managing over £13bn of client assets.

But this conversation doesn't follow a straight line from A to B.

We start much earlier.

With childhood memories of money, sitting around the table with family, sometimes not quite enough to go round, and what that teaches you about earning, spending and valuing it.

From there, the conversation moves through very different moments in life.

Pitching to investors while his wife was in hospital.
Being told no, more than once.
And continuing anyway.

What comes through is not a neat story about success, but something much more recognisable.

A conversation about uncertainty, resilience, and how our early experiences with money continue to shape the way we think and behave, even when life looks very different years later.

• Twice baked soufflé to start
• Sole with sauce Veronique and pave potatoes
• A conversation that moves from Nigeria to London, from early money memories to building something from scratch

Abraham Okusanya is the founder and CEO of Timeline, a financial planning and investment technology business used by advisers across the UK.

He is also the creator of Advisor 3.0, a leading conference for financial planners, and has been a prominent voice in shaping the profession over the last decade.

• Growing up in Nigeria and early experiences of money
• The impact of family and shared meals
• Getting a scholarship to study in the UK
• Building a business step by step
• Dealing with rejection and uncertainty
• How early money experiences shape decisions later in life
• Raising children in a very different financial world

Host: Dennis Hall

Host: Sarah Steele

Contact us: ask@yellowtail.co.uk

ABOUT YELLOWTAIL

Founded by Dennis Hall, Yellowtail are the trusted financial planners who advise individuals & families across the UK. Yellowtail's experts provide the clarity, control and confidence to guide you through financial planning, estate planning, pension transfers and investment management directing your journey towards a prosperous retirement and financial peace of mind.

What happens when you walk away from a successful career and start again in mid-life?

In this episode of A Taste of Financial Planning, Dennis cooks a Turkish feast while we sit down with marketing leader and entrepreneur Paul Mills.

After years in senior corporate marketing roles, Paul chose to leave the security of employment and build his own business, working with companies as a fractional marketing leader and strategic adviser.

Over dinner we talk about the realities of that transition, including:

• the mindset shift from employee to entrepreneur
• the financial realities of building a business later in life
• how your relationship with money changes in your 50s
• why many founders quietly see their business as part of their long-term financial plan

It's an honest conversation about reinvention, risk and what it really takes to start again.

Along the way Dennis prepares a Turkish meze feast, proving once again that some of the best financial conversations happen around a table.

Paul Mills is a fractional CMO and marketing adviser who works with organisations looking for experienced strategic marketing leadership without the need for a full-time hire. After many years in senior corporate roles, he founded his own advisory practice and now helps leadership teams bring clarity and commercial focus to their marketing.

You can find Paul at:

https://www.vcmo.uk/

Host: Dennis Hall

Host: Sarah Steele

Contact us: ask@yellowtail.co.uk

ABOUT YELLOWTAIL

Founded by Dennis Hall, Yellowtail are the trusted financial planners who advise individuals & families across the UK. Yellowtail's experts provide the clarity, control and confidence to guide you through financial planning, estate planning, pension transfers and investment management directing your journey towards a prosperous retirement and financial peace of mind.