Founder, Dadpreneur, And World Traveler On A Mission To Fix Money – Interview With Derek N.H. Notman
I'm a REBL Dad on a mission to fix Money. Hi, I'm Derek! I dislike ties, love flip-flops and board shorts, and enjoy challenging the status quo. I was born in Ireland to a South African mother and German American father. I have a passion for world travel and adventure and believe it or not was actually compared to "The World's Most Interesting Man"! I'm a dadpreneur fintech CEO and love to challenge the status quo.
Derek N.H. Notman, Founder
Who’s Derek Notman?
Hi, I'm Derek! I'm a REBL Dad that dislikes ties, loves flip-flops and board shorts, and enjoys challenging the status quo. I was born in Ireland to a South African mother and a German American father. I have a passion for world travel and adventure and believe it or not was actually compared to "The World's Most Interesting Man", although I am not sure I deserve it! I’m married to my lovely wife with whom we have our awesome son who’s named after an Irish pub. We live on an island, love the ocean, and enjoy our two quirky English Setters recue dogs. I’m a million miler on Delta Airlines, love to surf, and am a gearhead that is always tinkering with my 1965 Ford Mustang. I work hard but put a premium on work-life balance to make sure we make the most out of every day since tomorrow is not guaranteed.
What is your business name and how do you help your clients?
As a serial entrepreneur I have a couple of things going on right now. My main focus is at my fintech company, Couplr. We have a white-label SaaS lead generation solution that is helping consumers and financial professionals connect for the right reasons at the right time and place. I also have my online training & coaching program for financial advisors called Conneqtor where we help advisors achieve excellence in the digital world we live in. I also have my RIA firm, Intrepid Wealth Partners, a virtual financial advisor practice but am not taking on new clients at this time. Last but certainly not least is the mentorship based Rethink Financial Advice podcast I co-host with my friend and fellow fintech founder Adam Holt where we challenge the status quo and have a laugh doing it.
What would you like to achieve for yourself and your business in the future?
I’m on a mission to fix Money. Money is arguably the most important tool we virtually all have access to in some form, yet there’s no formal education on it. When we are not financially literate a lot of bad things can happen, like stress, going into debt, living paycheck to paycheck, poverty, not being able to retire or pay for our kids college, having a business go under, and even a lot of divorces happen because of money issues. When we fix Money, which I’m doing with the different companies I previously mentioned, we give more people a better chance of empowering themselves to become masters of their money and improve their lives.
Who inspires you to be the best that you can be?
Outside of my wife & son who always inspire me the most, Dads inspire me, in particular dadpreneurs. Being a great dad and entrepreneur/intrapreneur is not easy and trying to balance the two can be a constant struggle. But there are a lot of dadpreneurs out there helping each other be the best they can be including the OG dadpreneur Richard Branson who I admire who has some great advice for all dadpreneurs out there. I’m actually on a mission to help 1 million dads be the best they can be with our REBL Dads Global Mastermind group, a safe and inspiring place for dads to come together and help each other thrive.
Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today.
When I almost went bankrupt. I had just uprooted my wife and newborn son halfway across the country to work with a new business partner who ended up one of the most untrustworthy people I’ve ever met. Within one month of moving he pulled me aside to say he was moving over 1,000 miles away! Not only was I depressed but financially stressed too. I still had a business back East and was traveling their every couple of weeks, missing more and more time with my family while slowing burning out. I was eventually exhausted and tired of missing time with my family, so I took a solo trip to Ireland to reset and had a great conversation with my wife about what we wanted to do moving forward. Do we stay and make it work or move back. The hard decision was to stay but It forced me to rethink my entire business model and ended up propelling me to be one of the first virtual financial advisors in the USA. This pivotable change exposed me to so many great new ideas and people which ultimately springboarded me into becoming a fintech founder while also getting my life back by leaning into remote work. I now work less, make more, can do it from anywhere, and have a great work-life balance.
