Motem | Online Soft Skills Training & Courses

I believe the quality of our lives, depends on the quality of our communication.

Motem’s human and soft skills courses

Helping you (financial advisers and planners) to win and keep clients through great communications and experiences.

I work well with finance professionals who:

Are looking to improve their first-meeting conversions

Want to communicate in a way that’s human, concise and compliant

And/or are high achieving but can feel like a fraud at times.

If any sound familiar, you’re in the right place.

Check out the Finesse your First Meeting mentoring programme
Ace your Annual Review pack
Upcoming events

Finesse your First Meeting

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Feeling Like An Imposter?

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Communicate Clearly

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John Symonds

Very useful course. I now feel much more confident in discussing fees with potential clients. I also have a clear structure to my initial meeting which allows it to flow much easier.

Heidi Sparkes

I recently worked with Melissa on a series of 6 bespoke 1-2-1 coaching sessions, to help improve my confidence when returning to work after maternity leave. Melissa has helped me to feel so much more comfortable when communicating value and fees and also around handling difficult conversations. I fully intend to work with Melissa again in future as part of my Continued Professional Development

Rachel Toseland

Melissa's training has transformed how I approach my conversations with my clients. Through her kind and caring approach, with a focus on easy-to-action steps in bitesize chunks, I have been able to implement a first-meeting process which I now feel really confident in and proud of. She does such an amazing job of reducing the overwhelm when it comes to navigating how to communicate with clients, and makes everything so simple! Thanks Melissa for being a real beacon within the financial planning space!

Emily Loveridge

As part of refreshing our client onboarding experience, we worked with Melissa to help us communicate our value more clearly and consistently. Her coaching was really valuable and gave us practical ideas we could implement straight away. She helped us approach conversations around fees with greater confidence and focus more closely on what matters most to clients. Practical, engaging, and full of ideas we could put into action. Highly recommended.

Johan Torres

This course came at the perfect time as we were overhauling our suitability report templates. I have implemented many principles, ideas and approaches that I learnt from the modules into our new templates. Feedback from the directors of the business and compliance has been really positive. When you compare the old and new templates, the difference is really staggering. We are now in the process of integrating the new templates within our back office system and will be going out to clients very shortly. The ideas from the modules and sessions are very easy to apply. It teaches you to move away from old, unhelpful habits and see the reports as an opportunity to emphasize what is really important. The modules are also accompanied by Q&A sessions where you can raise any successes and challenges, which were really useful. The modules also include brief assignments that also allows you to put the learning into practice. Overall, a really valueable course and if you need to improve your client communications, reports or emails, I definitely recommend these sessions.

John Brennan

I've been a financial adviser for 35 years and think very carefully how to hold my first meetings. The initial meetings with clients is fundamental in the ongoing relationship and laying strong mutual foundations. My relationship with clients is strong and I'm always open to learning new approaches and selective about implementation. I attended many types of these approaches over the years, most are trying to reinvent the wheel and simply do not do it for me. Melissa's session pleasantly surprised me - a fresh approach facilitated by some one with an obvious passion for what she does. I used Melissa's suggestion to use a sketch immediately after the workshop with a client and it had a real impact. I'm certainly going to incorporate more simple sketches going forward. Melissa's ideas are fresh, practical and work! Highly recommended. Great course and I had a lot of take aways I will try to incorporate with clients.

Harriet Compton

Melissa is simply fantastic. Working with her has hugely improved my ability to communicate with clients and demonstrate value. I am so grateful for her help, and would recommend her services wholeheartedly.

Suzanne Ward

I’ve just completed Motem’s Finesse Your First Meeting course and found it extremely useful. Melissa focuses on the client experience and helps you build a clear structure for the client journey that fits your business and the client’s personality. She breaks down rapport building into practical elements and gives you clear steps that you can adapt to your own style. The course helped me ask better questions and feel more confident in how I work with clients before, during, and after the first meeting. It strengthened my process without making it feel scripted or artificial. I really enjoyed the course and would highly recommend.

Nick Croke

Melissa did a great job in creating a bespoke session for our team which offered some solid, actionable suggestions on areas we had highlighted for improvement. Communication was clear before, during and after the session. Would recommend

Andrew Reed

Working with Melissa at Motem has been a genuinely eye-opening experience in what high-quality communication practice can be. As a communication specialist with deep expertise in the financial advice sector—a combination that is genuinely rare—Melissa brings exceptional clarity, thoughtfulness, and professionalism to every interaction. Her ability to make complex financial concepts accessible, engaging, and carefully framed is a standout strength. Overall, Melissa/Motem delivers an impressively high standard of specialist communication support. I came away with a far deeper appreciation of what effective, sector-savvy communication can look like, and I would confidently recommend her to anyone seeking a reliable, thoughtful, and highly capable partner.

A speaker and specialist in communications training

You could be organising a conference or an away day and keen to ensure your content is fresh, motivating and practical. For more information, check out my speaking page.

“Motem” is inspired by the Latin word – motus – which means to move and to make progress.

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15 First Meeting Questions For Financial Advisers

This list of questions is quickly becoming every adviser’s best friend.

Because we uncover value through asking questions.

But not any old questions.

Questions that we have earned the right to ask.

An effective question can bring clarity, connection and fresh thinking.

But an ineffective question can damage rapport, snarl up the flow and lead to awkward silences.

Great, well-timed questions can lead to people leaving feeling excited, hopeful and reassured.

Yes, you can answer expensive technical questions.

But facts don’t move people. Feelings do.

SEND ME THE LIST

5 days to better engagement

How do you get clients to come to their annual review without a lot of chasing?

It’s tough.

Because if clients won’t engage, you can’t ensure your advice is still suitable.
Nor can you charge for your recommendations.
Nor demonstrate compliance.

But when your communication improves, your engagement goes up, your client’s commitment increases and you save time.

Everyone wins.

So, I’ve put together a free 5 day email course designed to increase your uptake.

You can expect principles, tips, common mistakes and subject line examples.

Because you can’t ace your annual review if they won’t attend.

Click below to enrol:

YES I WANT BETTER ENGAGEMENT

Communication courses in London, Bristol and online

ONLINE: Many of the communication and confidence sessions can be run virtually. And writing skills lend themselves well to being developed in this medium.

You can also access some short sessions to help you Ace your Annual Review or Overcome Imposter Syndrome.

IN PERSON: I’m based in Bristol but tend to travel a lot to London, Birmingham and other major finance hubs in the UK to run tailored, face-to-face soft skills training. Subjects include: confidence, negotiation and communication – typically for underwriters, actuaries and other brilliant analytical minds.

Find out more

Our client reports are now far more concise, easier to understand and have greater impact at client meetings. We’re better able to convey the value we’re adding to clients in simple, yet compelling, language. And feedback from the compliance team has been very positive.
Paul Stewart, Head of Bartlett Wealth Management

Melissa speaks at many of our national conferences where her feedback is always amongst the highest.
Carly Knights, Professional Development Manager CII

I was at the PFS Duty Bound conference event yesterday and I thought your final session: “How to Ace your Annual Review” was the best of the day and very insightful.
Richard Davies, Chartered Wealth Management Consultant at Peter Harding Wealth Management

Melissa is the queen of communication. I will attend anything she presents on or join anything she creates.
Qais Hamza, Chartered Financial Advisor, IHT & estate planning specialist

I wanted to contact you after attending your session on Monday. To say it has changed my life would not be much of an exaggeration. I have been struggling with some personal issues for some time, and since listening your session I have felt so much lighter.
Chief Compliance & Risk Officer, Major Insurer

First impressions and how you act are just important as what you have to say. Melissa’s ‘Personal Impact and Power’ workshop helped identify easy fixes to give me greater authority and confidence. This is high-quality, cutting-edge training to improve those personal skills that can otherwise take years to develop.
Russell Wright, Head of Retirement, Hargreaves Lansdown

Three months later, the team are 61% ahead of target. And to put that into perspective, this time last year, they were only 8% ahead. We’re delighted with the results of the training.
Frank Mowat Regional Wealth Director, HSBC

All the courses have been received really positively by all participants, with the overall Net Promoter Score results looking very strong.
Jason Howes S.M.M Regional Manager, Midlands and South West, Allianz

The training can easily be tailored to suit the business areas and Melissa takes ample time to understand the business objectives and adjusts the training accordingly thus making a bigger impact on the relevance and learning outcome for our staff.
Paula Cook, Head of Client Services, Marsh

It might sound as if I’m exaggerating (I promise I’m not) when I say that your webinar has had a profound impact on my communication mindset. This in turn will help to change the lives of not only clients but young people I work with.
Susan, Get it Write attendee

Probably the best session of its type I have been part of. For context, I started in FS in 1993…The presentation was packed with meaningful content from beginning to end. Presenter was on top of her brief but without excessive self-promotion and ego.
Kenneth, Get it Write attendee

Human skills training and courses

Mentoring programme

Finesse your First Meeting Mentoring Programme

Ace your Annual Review for Financial Advisers

5 days to better engagement

Motem’s human and soft skills courses

Finesse your First Meeting

Feeling Like An Imposter?

Communicate Clearly

A speaker and specialist in communications training

15 First Meeting Questions For Financial Advisers

5 days to better engagement

Communication courses in London, Bristol and online

Some of Motem’s happy clients