Business Innovators Radio - Marleen Founder Of M2 Advisory – Mark Stephen Pooler

Episode Date: August 22, 2023

Marleen is a highly experienced and recognised finance and risk management advisor with more than a decade of practice within the financial industry. As the founder of M2 Advisory, Marleen delivers finance and risk management strategies for entrepreneurs, CFO’s and business owners to master their financial viability.In 2020, using the extensive knowledge she gained by working for many years with large influential corporates, she pioneered a platform which provides a framework of critical business services ensuring optimisation excellence while mitigating risk. Marleen’s mission is to create engaged leadership for financial and risk management that enable sustainable business performance and purpose driven societal impact. With her extensive expertise and recognition in the global corporate arena for firms such as KPMG, ING, ABN AMRO and Aegon, she also mentor’s startup businesses and helps entrepreneurs to successfully scale up their business. Marleen is passionate about innovative solutions and is blazing the way forward for women in global business to not only break glass ceilings, but also create their own unlimited potential.www.m2advisory.nl Instagram: @m2advisoryLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marleensomohardjo/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/marleen-founder-of-m2-advisory-mark-stephen-pooler

Welcome to Business Innovators Radio, featuring industry influencers and trendsetters, sharing proven strategies to help you build a better life right now. Business TV, conversations with leading experts in business. I am your host, Mark Stephen Pula. We have a wonderful guest today, Marlene. I'm really looking forward to a conversation with her. And who doesn't want better financial. health, who doesn't want financial freedom. So we have a great conversation coming up today. We are streaming live on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube. We're also on the E360 TV network under Fresh Takes going out to Apple TV, Fire TV, Android, Roku and many more. We're also streaming on MSPNewsglobal.com. We're also on business innovators radio network. and we are also on USA Global Radio and Television Network. I'm really looking forward to a conversation with Marlene.

Let's bring in our incredible guest. Marlene, welcome to Brilliant Business TV. Hello, Mark, welcome. Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm looking forward to a conversation with you today. Now, I know you have an incredible platform, profit solutions. What was the idea behind creating?

the platform, Marlene. It just started with, I started my business career at KPMG as an advisor, as you mentioned, and then financial risk management advisor. And so working over there, I really found it's very important to really serve the client from an end-to-end value proposition. And just working from an advisory perspective that was just not always the case, which is more very isolated. So the platform, the thinking of the platform,

is that you can work from a value proposition end to end, you can speed up the process and then just bring more value to the client at that point by taking the whole company dynamics into consideration. So it started with that. And it's my mission to help businesses and to help them in their financial health and then increase their financial wealth over a longer period in time. And that is also what the platform encapsulated. It's just like it's a solution for over a long period, not only included for like only one period or only a certain part within the question or the inquiry, but just like a total review for your business and taking that to a next lesson.

I can't think of any business out there that doesn't want to increase their financial wealth, Marlene. And what do you see as trends, developments within markets for the coming year? Well, hopefully, as we now are getting out of the COVID period, I do see this the period that the hybrid way of working is still there,

and it will stay there. Fortunately, in the sense that it helps people to understand working from home and working from remotely, that solutions coming from a remote perspective are also applicable. So I see that more as a trend, and I also see that

ecosystem change. There is more dependency, unfortunately. We're having the geopolitical issues or also the independencies or the environmental changes that we see, but it impacts the way of how ecosystems are working. So it means it asks and requires a certain level of independence, just working from your own core competences and then building on that and building your network around that.

So I see those two elements as very much leading. So the remote working and the hybrid way of working, combining that. And that's also reasoning behind the platform, which is giving you the opportunity to do it by yourself, but then being helped from an external party, which is less expensive because you're obviously not continuously working with this, but you're totally fully in control by yourself.

So that is an aspect that I see like hybrid working and the way that ecosystem changes that helps us look at a different way to our businesses. It just brings us in a more state to operate more independently or independently and then build on your own network and your ecosystem around that. So that helps you be more sustainable over a period in time. And how and where did the journey start, Marlene? It started quite a while ago in a sense that when I started choosing for my own trajectory, choosing for being in control of my own life. So I probably are the first female in the family that graduated from university. And making that decision was at that point.

not something very common within the family. So choosing for yourself, it started with that. So I found that the way the entrepreneurial journey started with me by choosing my own trajectory, creating a legacy, creating my own reality, my own world in this. That's how it started. And then even when I still wanted to experience the freedom and being in charge of my own trajectory, I don't regret it, though, but I started my career at KPMG almost more than 15 years ago. There, I just, it was a very good way and understanding of working with big, large corporate in the financial sector and honed in into my risk and financial management skills and working with very large programs, delivering multi-million dollar programs, strategies for,

but banks, Tier 1 banks and insurance to help them build on either their compliance part or being more profitable. Banks in such, I have a different business model, but the way that they worked very much intrigued me how they were able

to scale up or and be very, create volume out of their assets. And that way of thinking, that is how I started my entrepreneurial trajectory. saying, well, this is a way how you can also create volume within your business,

working from a process perspective, risk management, then integrated, because that helps you building on your profitability and then taking that over a longer period in time. So it started quite a while back, but it started with the sense of being free, feeling more in charge, and also wanted to experience. experienced entrepreneurial journey. Lots of happy clients when you're giving them more profits. That's definitely a way to keep your clients very, very happy. What have you learned and what makes you unique?

I've learned over the years that I need to believe in myself. Yes. Even though, yes, it's just believing in your talents, in your gifts. And that defines your uniqueness. From a business point of view, my unique news is that I worked in the financial sector with Tier 1 banks. I have a corporate background, but I do approach this from a very authentic way in the sense that I try to bring it to the table, not as being very focused on only results. I take everything into consideration. I approach it from a very comprehensive overview.

But I've learned in over the years that I needed to believe in my own talent and believe in myself. So I just, I stopped doing this. Still, I find myself in times that I stopped comparing myself to others because I, at some point I heard this beautiful phrase and it said, yeah, comparisons is a thief of joy. And whilst I realized that I really thought. well, then I should just believe whatever I'm capable in doing so. And then whatever I do, it just comes from a point of joy, it comes from a point of servicing, comes from a joy of delivering, something sustainable for others.

So focusing on that, understanding that I can only influence what is very much near me. And then just taking that, if I encounter challenges or whatsoever, I see that as a point of growth. I see that as something that I can develop myself even further. So just showing appreciation for the moment where I am gratitude. And from there, and then looking forward to everything that could be able, could come or is there, but then just looking at it from a very optimistic point view. So those are, I think, building this within my working within corporates,

working in a mild dominated environment. These are the elements that build me. a very strong foundation during my career and being very positive and just also believing in myself and building that from there on from my strength building on the competence and and the and the businesses that I build it over the years. And comparing yourself to who you were yesterday and not others is really important because you can never compare yourself to anyone else. You are special and unique. And just, compare yourself to the person you were yesterday. That's the best way forward. How would the world

benefit from you, your platform and your products, Marlene? So the world would benefit from our products as such as it's, I think it's from three perspectives in this. It just brings you a way to upgrade your financial literacy. Just build on a very strong financial vehicle that gives you of profitability over a longer period in time. So it's just being profitable, also pursuing your passion for a longer period in time. Understanding that, and that is the second element, understanding is that it educates you,

it educates you in how you could become a better entrepreneur, how you can become a better business owner. By understanding what is the meaning of a business, What is the meaning of creating value from your assets within your business? So if I look at it from a point of view that, how are you building on your financial leadership? It also helps you. How can you understand that your assets or your liability are being hatched against one another? And that gives you opportunity to even attract investors or build on a very healthy balance sheet,

that you can manage your balance sheet, health here and be attractive to financial cut. markets or capital markets or just being able to create financial freedoms and opportunities and financial instruments within your business. The third element in this is that it just gives you a sense of why did I start in my business and how can I pursue this with passion over a very long period in time. I find it very important. I always say you don't start your business for only one day. you started to be successful over a longer period in time and create your legacy for the world.

So I think that is my product that I want to create for everyone a legacy within the world, being successful and being successful financially healthy. And that issued the opportunity to create a longer period of profitability within your area of expertise. So I would like to bring that. But how can people benefit from me in this is just the, the way that I'm able to translate a very complex board member issues into a very approachable, accessible way, much faster. So, for example, if it will take you, and we would just reduce your implementation time

with two years, if it would be three years. It would just take it, I will create a more simple workflow for you to be able to take things independently from a very expensive external consultant, but just work on that by yourself, improving your business by yourself. And I'm the linking pin in between. I work with the corporate, I work with the board, but I also have my own business and I understand what is needed from a business perspective. So this is how people can benefit from me. And yeah, I would love them to visit my website if they need more information. Just how would this work or how we're able to help you sustain and grow your business

over a longer period in time. Who would be the perfect person, Marlene, that could reach out to you that you could really support? Who is that perfect person that you really would love to connect with you? That will be someone that really understands their business, but just finds and very difficult to translate their vision into a solid business performance and over a longer period in time. So thinking about CEOs, thinking about CFOs that struggle with their business, their finances in the sense that they understand the balance sheet, but they need to bring it

back to the business, but also entrepreneurs that would like to scale up. They have like almost more than five years experience, are now in the face that they would like scale up their business and need help with that understanding their business and both are their growth perspectives and their growth strategies in this. Perfect. I would encourage everyone to go to m2advisory. That's m2advisory. dot nl.

Marlene, I thoroughly enjoyed having a conversation with you today. Is there anything we did not cover that you would like to share? From a business point of view, I think we shared quite a lot. How hadn't you mentioned that? Well, I started explaining what the journey is, but I think the focus is here that it would be very important for me to sharing my mission, sharing my mission that everyone is able to live their financial freedom at some point. And there is no difference in industry. But I think the way of approaching that is very,

in how you can approach it and how can you easily scale up, very fast, being very much informed, and then just with a much less expensive investment in your business, but just then taking things into having control. I would love to understand that. And I would love to share that with people in their journey. Thank you, Mar. Colleen, thank you so much for being my guest today.

I thoroughly enjoyed having a conversation with you. Thank you, Mike. The pleasure's been all mine. Once again, I would encourage everyone to go to m2advisory.n.l. Thank you, everyone, for joining us on Brilliant Business TV, conversations with leading experts. Thanks for listening to Business Innovators Radio. To hear all episodes featuring leading industry influencers and trendsetters, visit us online at business innovators.com today.