#BEYOUROWN MEETS INDRE BUTKEVICIUTE

Indre Butkeviciute is a wealth coach, business mentor and public speaker with a background in wealth management. She started her career at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management. Indre spent almost 8 years with the firm covering High Net Worth and Ultra High Net Worth clients from Iceland and the Baltic States. At the end of 2013 Indre left Morgan Stanley to set up her own venture, Lily Advisory: a boutique outlet providing the tools for women to lead a financially sound and business savvy lifestyle.

After finishing her studies in Economics and Business at UCL in London, she started her career at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management. Indre spent almost 8 years with the firm covering High Net Worth and Ultra High Net Worth clients from Iceland and the Baltic States. At the end of 2013 Indre left Morgan Stanley to set up her own venture Centaurus Wealth Management.  More than 3 years on, the venture has now changed its shape a few times facing various hurdles and has finally become Lily Advisory: a boutique outlet providing the tools for women to lead a financially sound and business savvy lifestyle. Her goal is to develop Lily Advisory into a platform that not only offers investment advice to women but also fosters an environment of idea and experience sharing. The long-term plan for Lily Advisory is to educate women and young girls about the investment world, sharing Indre’s experience and passion.

In April 2016 Indre was elected as a board member of UAB FMI Orion Securities, which is the largest non-banking financial group in Lithuania. In 2017 Indre was elected as chairwoman of the board at UAB FMI Myriad Capital and member of the board of I Asset Management.

In addition to her business ventures, Indre also runs a few different networking clubs in London and has been a frequent speaker at various investment-related events. Indre lives in South East London with her husband. She is a keen traveller, food-lover, and wine connoisseur. Indre’s other passion is art, which she expresses through her Online Art Gallery, that she set up several years ago to promote affordable art online.

Hey Indre! Firstly can you tell us about yourself and your background?

I was born in the city of Kaunas in Lithuania. I am the only child, but I certainly am not too spoilt. My parents were very good at setting boundaries. I had a great childhood and teenage years growing up in a small country, spending my summers by the lake with my grandparents. However, I always had big dreams and always felt the fire inside me to explore more. I was a risk-taker since I was a child, always getting caught crossing the boundaries, not in a malicious way but more of a curious nature.

I remember very vividly when I was around 16 years old, visiting London for the first time when I stepped outside Canary Wharf station I quietly said to myself ‘oh what a dream it would be to work here someday’. I am a huge believer that if you wish for something sooner or later it will come to you, so be very careful with your wishes.

At the age of 18, I moved to London to study at UCL and graduated with a BA in Economics and Business with Eastern European Studies and found myself one morning getting off the tube at Canary Wharf station and entering one of the office buildings housing Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management. I really enjoyed my years at the company. I learned a lot about the business, clients, how to approach certain things and 8 years later I felt it was time to move on and start building my own empire, Lily Advisory

What ignited the fire to start Lily Advisory, can you go through the journey for us?

I first started on my own 4 years ago with an idea to build a business that was very similar to my role in Private Wealth Management. I always wanted to have my own business I just never knew what it would be and when it would happen. In 2013 I was presented with an opportunity as Morgan Stanley was selling their Private Wealth Management department to another bank, which was not very keen on taking on the clients that I have built a relationship with over the years and so my answer to that was to leave and set up on my own.

Lily Advisory took shape about a year and a half later. It took time for me to understand the market, understand where the gaps were and what the clients were really looking for. Coming from a financial background I always felt that women were certainly underrepresented in the financial industry, especially in the senior positions. My other observation was that women were also underrepresented on the investor side as well. Having done some research and reading a few interesting papers I realised that one of the biggest reasons for that was lack of financial education. And that is really why Lily Advisory was born

What is a typical day for you at Lily Advisory?

It might sound like a cliché answer, but there really is no typical day. I have a few habits that tend to remain no matter what day I have, but generally, it is quite diverse. Normally my mornings start at 7.15am with a huge cup of coffee on the couch with my full attention to my phone going through all the social media channels, checking in, scheduling etc. The next step is to move with another cup of coffee from the comfy couch to my computer to get cracking on my emails. I am lucky to work from home to have these comforts. Although I do miss an office atmosphere sometimes. Depending on the day, I either keep working on preparing materials for my masterclasses, researching topics for clients, having Skype calls with clients, writing articles, writing my blog and whatever other tasks might come up.

I either go to Mayfair or City for meetings with clients and other connections. In the last 4 years, I have done a lot of networking and have built a rather large database of connections so I need to make sure I keep in touch with everyone on a regular basis. I would normally base myself in one of the member’s clubs and work in-between my meetings. That helps have some of that corporate feel when you are not all by yourself sitting surrounded by 4 walls. It is good to always have a balance.

Two or three evenings a week, I will have evening functions, ranging from networking events to gala dinners. In the begging I used to really attend any event I was invited to, now, however, I can afford to be more selective and choose those events that I feel will add value to me either by making interesting new connections, catching up with existing connections or learning something interesting about a specific topic. Weekends I generally keep strictly for family and friends and tend to avoid any work-related functions. I strongly believe it is very important to take time for yourself, your family, friends and activities you like. It helps you re-energise and push forward.

You started your career at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management, but what has been a real winning moment since in your career trajectory?

It is by far the toughest question for me as I feel that there are so many of such moments because they all are important in one or another way. If I can pick one perhaps most recently, would be the launch of the Financially Sound Woman Investment Club that helped take the business to the next level.

What is your favourite aspect of what you do?

Funny enough I always used to say that I could never be a teacher and now what I absolutely love doing is teaching in my masterclasses. Those 2 hours I am totally ‘in the zone’ having the time of my life. It gives me so much satisfaction to be able to pass on my knowledge, to see the interest in the topics and just seeing the women walk away feeling like they have learned something new that they can now apply in their lives and become more financially sound.

We saw that you offer business mentoring for female-led businesses, did you have a mentor yourself?

I never had an official mentor but I did surround myself with several women who I consider to be great mentors to me and I really have them to thank for helping me push forward when it was very hard and I was close to giving up, for being truthful and honest with me and giving me constructive feedback, and for sharing their experiences to help me learn. I think having a mentor is crucial, especially when you are on your own.

What is the importance of having a mentor?

One of the biggest challenges I have faced in the last few years is self-doubt. Every idea that you have, you think it over and over and over again for 100 times until the point that you start doubting about the whole business altogether. And I am sure all entrepreneurs have come to breaking points on numerous occasions where you just want to drop it all and walk away. In order to have the strength to power through these moments and just accept that building a business takes years, you need to surround yourself with strong mentors and motivators.

How do you feel young women could feel more empowered to go on to achieve greater things?

One of the definitions of empowerment is ‘the process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one’s life and claiming one’s rights.’ What I think happens too often, is that empowerment becomes encouragement and praise and too often the focus is on the positives and we forget all the hard bumps in the road and the negatives. What has made me stronger and more confident in not just my successes but my failures as well, I learned a lot from the mistakes I made and trust me there were a few. I think it is so important to be aware that the road can get very bumpy and you need to be prepared for the tough times. Nothing ever comes easy. Like an old saying, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

We love the synergy between both of us here as we are both trying to empower and support women, so if you had to sum us up in one sentence what would it be?

We all are strong, independent, inspirational women we just need a little guidance sometimes to find that within us and BEYOUROWN as a media hub can light up the path for you.

Finally, the long-term plan for Lily Advisory is to educate women and young girls about the investment world, so where can you see yourself in the next 5 years?

I want to see the Financially Sound Woman Club expanding internationally into other countries and cities. I will always continue working with clients on a one-on-one wealth coaching basis as I enjoy that so much.

I would like by then to launch either the UK or European mutual equity fund focusing on investing in companies led by women and those who create equal opportunities for women. I would like to see Lily Advisory becoming a household name known for empowering women to take control of their personal finance.

Twitter: @IndreButke | Instagram: @IndreButke

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lilyadvisory/

Website: http://www.lilyadvisory.com/