029: Building an $1.5 Billion Financial Empire: Nancy Brunetti on the Creation and Growth of Johnson Brunetti"

In this episode, I welcome Nancy Brunetti back as my first-ever repeat guest. Nancy, a retired financial services professional, co-founded Johnson Brunetti, a tremendously successful financial services firm boasting over $1.5 billion in assets under management. Today, she provides updates on her semi-retirement journey and delves into her passion for operational excellence in the financial services realm.

With her broad experience as a chief operating officer in multinational firms and as a pivotal figure in establishing the renowned Johnson Brunetti firm, Nancy brings a treasure trove of insights to the table. In this episode, she will update us on her semi-retirement, underscore the significance of identifying one's passion in business, and provide invaluable pointers for financial advisors and organizations aiming to scale and expand.

Nancy’s Retirement
-A year ago, Nancy transitioned from full-time work following the sale of her last financial services practice. 
-Currently, she serves as a consultant, channeling her expertise to assist other financial services firms and advisors in refining their operations. 
-Nancy accentuates the importance of financial professionals centering on their primary skills and delegating ancillary tasks to guarantee streamlined and impactful operations.

Co-founding Johnson Brunetti

-Nancy recounts the tale of establishing Johnson Brunetti in 2003 alongside her business ally, Joel Johnson. 
-She emphasizes the value of melding complementary skills in business partnerships. Her operational prowess during the firm's nascent stages fortified its path to success.

Scaling as an Individual Advisor

-We explore the hurdles individual advisors confront when aiming to augment their businesses. 
-Nancy underscores the imperative of advisors homing in on their intrinsic strengths and handing off operational responsibilities to adept team members. 
-She suggests that advisors distinctly chart out their objectives and the impetus behind their growth aspirations, ensuring they tread the optimal path.

Scaling at the Organizational Level

-Gleaning from her tenure as a COO in multinational financial firms, Nancy elucidates the intricacies of scaling on an organizational front. 
-She champions the role of robust operations and collective effort in fueling growth and curating superior client experiences. 
-Passionate about untangling operational challenges, Nancy extends her consultancy services to organizations eager to enhance their operational matrix.

Excitement for the Future

-Nancy conveys her optimism regarding the financial services industry's horizon, especially with the integration of artificial intelligence (AI).
-She envisions AI as a revolutionary force in the sector and eagerly anticipates its adoption by financial experts and establishments.

About Our Guest: Nancy Brunetti
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancybrunetti/

About Your Host:  Paul G. McManus is an accomplished author and expert in helping financial professionals grow their businesses. With over eight years of experience working exclusively with financial professionals, Paul has helped his clients generate tens of millions of dollars in fees and commissions.

You can get a complimentary copy of Paul's book at: www.theshortbookformula.com

Claim your free audiobook copy at: www.theshortbookformula.com

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:32

Welcome back to another episode of the Million Dollar Producer Show. I'm your host, paul G McManus. In today's show, we have a very unique situation our first ever repeat offender yes, that's right, our first ever repeat offender, nancy Brunetti. Nancy first graced our show approximately four years ago and we're thrilled to welcome her back today. She's here to update us on a variety of topics and guide us through her inspiring journey.

Speaker 1: 0:57

Throughout her career, nancy has held many hats, including that of chief operating officer in several multinational companies, playing pivotal roles in different capacities. One topic we didn't fully explore during our last episode was her role in co-founding Johnson Brunetti back in 2003. She started this venture alongside her then business partner, joel Johnson. For those unfamiliar with Johnson Brunetti, let's quickly sketch its success. According to a recent article in Financial Advisor Magazine, johnson Brunetti currently oversees $1.5 billion in AUM, with an additional $1.5 billion in annuity and insurance assets. Though Nancy stepped away from the firm in 2012, her operational mastery during the initial eight years was crucial. Her pivotal contributions laid a solid foundation transforming Johnson Brunetti into the juggernaut it is today. In recent news, nancy has retired from full-time work and today we're excited to get updates on her semi-retirement life and find out more about what she's up to. Welcome to the show, nancy.

Speaker 2: 2:10

Thank you so much, Paul. That was quite the introduction. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 2:14

My pleasure. Let's get to. What I personally care about the most is how the heck is retirement life, because it tells us just a little bit when did you retire and how has it been.

Speaker 2: 2:28

Yes, I sold my last financial services practice just over a year ago. I had been in the process of transitioning that practice to a great guy in Florida. He has been taking over all the client relationships and doing that part of the business. I've released myself from that hands-on, day-to-day active management of the firm. That's been great. I do act as a consultant in some capacities to the firm, just because when you had that legacy of those relationships it doesn't just end one day by the swipe of a pen.

Speaker 2: 3:06

Since retirement I have been staying active and I don't mean retirement active, business active and continuing to work with some of the financial services firms around the country and other advisors in a consulting role, as needed to help them with their businesses. Based upon my 30-plus year career in the financial services industry, I've been managing to keep myself quite busy, in spite of no longer still owning my latest financial services firm.

Speaker 1: 3:37

Yeah, definitely. I just want to underscore this You've been involved with, and essentially sold, not just one firm, but multiple firms over the course of your career. And the one specifically I'd like to dive into is Johnson Brunetti. Walk us back and I think it's 2003, that you started Johnson Brunetti with your then business partner and just maybe set the scene for us. How did that come about?

Speaker 2: 4:07

Yes, back in 2003, and it just hit its anniversary Johnson Brunetti Although I was on a plane one time with a woman sitting next to me who insisted, probably about 10 years ago insisted that the firm was much older than that and I asked her why she thought that and she said because they've been marketing so well, the name had become so well known that she insisted I couldn't possibly have started it because I was too young. So I took that as a compliment at that moment. But back in 2003, I had just finished selling, participating in the sale of another financial services firm that I'd worked for, the SAGE Group I found myself, after SAGE was sold off to both international and domestic insurance companies, that like what was I going to do next? And I looked at a whole bunch of opportunities that had been presented to me and a gentleman that I had worked with, who actually was my personal insurance advisor, had approached me and said he wanted to grow his business and just to get to the bottom line. That was not Joel Johnson. There was a gentleman named Ray, and Ray was an insurance agent and really had been doing some research about what FMOs were doing in the industry and how he could get involved in working with an FMO and increasing his sales.

Speaker 2: 5:22

That was the impetus for starting the company that ultimately became Johnson Brunetti. Joel Johnson joined the company about two years later as an associate advisor. He and I were a natural fit for one another in terms of how we work together. Joel is an excellent advisor and really has a great relationship with clients. My skill set is more about making the whole company work and putting it together, so it was a great collaboration between the two of us and, as of 2005, we morphed our name to doing business as Johnson Brunetti. That was a great small start to what became a huge business, but it's about combining both of our skill sets into what we both do best and creating the firm that became what it is today.

Speaker 1: 6:10

I'm amazed, or just interested in the story, in the sense that Joel who I have not personally met but I've heard you talk about it before, and who currently runs this 1.5 billion AUM plus company, he started out as an advisor associate. I think you said.

Speaker 2: 6:27

He had been working in the financial services industry for a number of years but, as many advisors do, they're really good at what they do in terms of their relationship, but didn't have the foundation, the operations, the workflow, the processes that we put in Plasley infrastructure to grow it to that scale. So he was continuing to be a very successful advisor on his own, but not in a way that could grow and scale to being what it ultimately became. So that was the difference there. He had been successful in his own right as an independent advisor. The partnership obviously made us both better at what we do.

Speaker 1: 7:09

That leads me into my next question, which is just, just, maybe step back or zoom out a little bit. What makes someone or a team or a company successful? And there's this topic or conversation that comes up sometimes, which is passion. And should I do what I'm most passionate about, and is that the best way for me to be a happy and maybe be to be successful? For example, I love puppies, I love dogs, I have two Boston Terriers, I love them to death and in this I say this tongue in cheek. But should I go and start a pet walking company? Is that what I should do?

Speaker 1: 7:49

Now, I say that in jest, but the serious point is that Joel had a skill set and you had a skill set. I'm going to say this because I know you pretty well. Even though you're very skilled and good at sales, or can be, you don't necessarily like that role, like the capital love operation. So if you would tell me more, just from your point of view, should someone follow their passion? And how was that instrumental into what you and Joel created by, I'm guessing, both of you focusing on what it is that you're passionate about and really skilled at?

Speaker 2: 8:23

It's interesting you mentioning your passion for your dogs, because I think so many people take a career path to follow their passion, which I totally admire and respect. I've often made the analogy that you find someone who loves baking, for example, and they decide that because I love baking, I'm going to open up a bakery, and that those skill sets are not necessarily consistent. They don't know how to find the right store location, they don't know how to configure it to make it welcoming to people, they don't know how to get their supplies from a wholesaler, they don't know how to get the scale of equipment, they don't know how to hire staff, they don't know how to pay taxes or do payroll, all those things. But their passion is they want to have a bakery because they like to bake, and so my passion is to say okay, you get to go bake all day long, I want you to go bake and I'll go figure out all the other stuff that maybe someone doesn't see. It's behind the scenes. But in that analogy I'm going to figure out where the equipment should be and how to decorate the room when people walk in. And why does it smell so good in here all the time? Why do people want to come in your store. How do we market? How do we arrange for delivery, how do we do payroll All those things that have to happen to allow a business to grow and scale.

Speaker 2: 9:44

People can follow their passions, they can follow their hobbies and think they can convert it into a business, but that may not be the best use of their time and skills. That's exactly what Joel and I both recognize. Like his skills, he doesn't want to know about how payroll is processed or that the rent was paid, or we found this great space, or where I bought the office furniture from, or why the computer systems and the contact management system work the way they do. He just wants it to work so he can meet with clients and be the face of Johnson Burnetti, which is great. So many advisors in general that I meet along the way want to believe they can do it all Because I love being a financial advisor, a CPA, any kind of financial professional. That's your passion. Go do it, but recognize what you need if you want to build and scale is more than just having a passion for what you do.

Speaker 1: 10:40

I would imagine that many financial advisors are more like Joel, where they're more naturally I'll just use the word in that salesperson relationship role. They're good at that, but they're not necessarily good at the operations, systems etc. I think for any advisor to really scale on your own, without those systems and operations or the operational excellence, I think you can get to a point where maybe you become a million dollar producer, maybe you become a multi million dollar producer, but probably around that two or three million dollar mark. That's going to limit your ability to scale beyond that point. There's only so much any one individual can do based on their skill set, charm, charisma, what have you? What do you see?

Speaker 1: 11:29

And as we go forward, just for audience, we're going to talk, I think, about this from both, maybe a individual advisor's perspective, but we're also talking, maybe about from a larger organizational perspective as well. So just thinking about, maybe, someone who's at that million dollar stage. They're successful, they've achieved a lot, they don't have to grow bigger. Maybe they have a desire to do. What are the kinds of things that you see that really stop them from getting to that next level? I'm going to frame it where I was just looking at your LinkedIn and I saw that you updated your timeline. You're now calling yourself the fixer I'm imagining some show on Hulu or Netflix. The fixer you go in and you fix financial advisory practices and you help them scale to that next level.

Speaker 2: 12:16

Like I said before, that's my passion. But what keeps advisors from really enabling themselves to grow? And, by the way, when I'm acting as a consultant to advisory firms, other financial professionals, the question comes in first is what do you really want? Because so many of them they see other advisors or other firms being successful and however they value and deem success to look like they go. I want to be just like that. They have a bit of FOMO. I'm missing out. I should be doing this, I should be doing that, and they get distracted from what they're doing. So often when I'm consulting, I meet with the executive, the owner, the advisor whoever they are and just say what do you really want?

Speaker 2: 13:02

I had an advisor recently who was really just baffled by the question he's I want to get bigger. And he had a very nice income, very nice net income after all his expenses, and I was like why tell me why you want to get bigger? Is it for you want more income? Is it you want a different lifestyle? Is it you want to be braggadocious? I don't know what it is for you that's motivating you, but it's really important for you to understand that Before you decide what you want to be when you expand, do you really want to expand? And he told me I don't want to meet with any more people during the week.

Speaker 2: 13:37

If you don't want to meet with more people, it's really hard to grow your firm. There are some challenges in there, but it's really about sometimes with organizations is holding up a mirror to them and saying this is how you appear to the world and how is that? And the answer may be yeah, that's perfect. Then fine, don't change. I'm not here to make people change that. Don't want to.

Speaker 2: 14:03

But if you say I want something more, I want to grow, I want to expand, I want to have 16 associate advisors working in my organization, how do we do that? But mostly I always find that the advisors aren't really good at managing their own time. They're spending time doing things that they shouldn't be doing. If you can hire somebody we talked about this in the before you can hire someone for $20 an hour to do this administrative task, like your payroll or something. What the heck are you doing it for? Because your time meeting with clients growing your business Is much more valuable elsewhere. So they're like oh. So there's often these penny wise pound, foolish decisions that are going in. But if you really want to reach those economies of scale, there has to be an investment in the growth model and what that goal, what the goals are that you want in that growth.

Speaker 1: 15:01

Talk to us a little bit more about at the larger organizational level and I don't have the names at the tip of my tongue so you'll need to share some of those examples but you've been involved, I believe, at the chief operating officer level in several multinational companies In the financial services arena, so we've talked about from that individual advisor level what it takes for them to scale some of the challenges that they have. Walk us through some of your experiences or insights when it comes to the larger organization. Let me start with a story about I think was American Scandi, if I have the name correct.

Speaker 1: 15:36

American, scandi yeah, yeah, and just maybe walk us through your role there, what you accomplished and we'll dive in from that perspective.

Speaker 2: 15:43

Yes, my story at American Scandi is I started working there initially as a consultant. They were located in a different state than I lived and I had previously worked with the gentleman who was CFO and the controller of the company and they were having some challenges in terms of managing their growth and they're like can you fly here and come help us? And I did. I would fly there on a Monday morning and stay the Thursday night and do work with them to look at OK, your commission processing isn't working. Let's go figure out how do we fix your commission processing, because you as a financial institution, you as an insurance company, are going to lose your production network If you're not paying commissions timely and correctly. So initially I was brought in by them as a consultant to fix that process. Because if we don't, if we don't pay people to do the work we want to ask them to do, please invest millions of dollars with us, but we'll get around to paying you up. Sorry, it was the wrong amount, was the wrong product. That wasn't, that wasn't your client, whatever it is. So I started there as a consultant and came back a few years later as a business analyst.

Speaker 2: 16:57

So the role as a business analyst is really to understand what it is Understand holistically. I look at myself sometimes as being the ultimate generalist, like I know how everything works and how it needs to fit together. I am not a specialist at any of those things. My job as a business analyst is to make sure that the business world and the technical world coexist, so I speak both languages. I'm going to speak the business languages to the marketing organization, the sales organization, to the board of directors, but I'm going to speak the technical language to the people who are on the front lines or developing the computer systems to make it all fit together. So I can talk to an actuary or a lawyer or the marketing guy or the sales guy or the head of IT and Speak the language they need me to speak to make all of that work together. Long story long, sorry.

Speaker 2: 17:58

I ended up moving up in that organization from being a business analyst to director of the business development, to Vice president of all of customer service, senior vice president of operations, ultimate executive vice president and chief operating officer of the company and, as well as being on the board of directors the one I used to try to communicate with I became one of them. I was on the board directors at American standia and an executive vice president, chief operating officer. But it is about making all the pieces work together, that when someone in customer service picks up that phone and starts talking to either a financial professional or an end Client policy owner, they have to be educated in what they're talking about. So I'm figuring out how does the computer system, has the phone system work to make sure the right people are getting the right phone calls? What is the computer screen in front of them, say, to give them the information that they need to effectively answer the person? Who's on the other end of the line, making sure statements are being sent out, all the logistics Surrounding the company.

Speaker 2: 19:09

And it's funny I mentioned the word logistics. I had a. The president of the company at one time wanted to change my title from chief operating officer to chief logistics Officer because he'd read an article about patent in World War two and he said the only reason we won that war was because of logistics. And I said the only reason we're growing this company is because of the logistics of how we do what we do. So in a larger environment there's more moving parts, but the message is the same about how do you integrate the sales, the marketing, the Operations, the client experience into something that works and allows you to grow?

Speaker 1: 19:50

as I'm listening to that and I have my own small business, I would really appreciate someone like you, because I think a probably a lot of our listeners agree we all. I don't know that your average advisor Enjoys those things. They know that they need to be done and they probably Delegate to an assistant or they try to do it themselves to some degree or they have a team, but I don't know that the average advisor has a passion to do those things, and so I just maybe want to bring it back to that passion, because I know I'm not knowing you now for I want to say close to five or six years and you genuinely have a passion for Operations and diving in deep to those details and understanding it and driving change Effectively. Is there anything else that you would add to that?

Speaker 2: 20:37

I would only say that you know operations only Exists and should never be noticed. Okay, the customer should never be aware of all the stuff that has to happen so that when they get their statement it's just right when they make the phone call that they get connected to the right person, that when the advisor gets paid their commissions that it's the right commission, when operations works well, all of the outward facing Interfaces shouldn't notice it. It just happens and they find it a positive experience, experience or something that's endearing enough to say I want more. So why do advisors choose to do business with organization a and not organization b? Is it because it's is their product that much better? Maybe, but is it because they're easier to deal with and they get it right? And now the assistant doesn't have to spend hours and hours on the phone Following up with people. So it has to happen.

Speaker 2: 21:41

Well, but without losing the focus on why we are doing this. It's not because I have a passion to just say, oh, let's fix your operations. What does that mean to your organization? What does that mean to your level of production? What does that mean to your client, your customer, the whole customer experience? And in the flip side of that. It's all about the teamwork that you can create in an organization, and that's one of the things I've done. Also is, say, I've got 650 people reporting to me and I need them to work together as a team. You know that this isn't more important than that, so part of it is team building and understanding people's differences and skill sets and how to get them to work together effectively as a team.

Speaker 1: 22:31

And Team buildings probably become a trite word these days, but the effectiveness of a well-oiled Machine team can't be overlooked for someone listening to this podcast, whether they're an advisor or A sole advisor, they have a small team, they're an ensemble practice or they're a bigger company. What are the kind of opportunities that you're?

Speaker 1: 22:52

Yeah open to exploring. Yeah, I work with a lot of advisors as and one of the key topics is as they help their clients is that you want to not just retire from something but you want to retire to something, and I know you fully enjoy being semi-retired. You're not looking for a job per se or to start a new company per se, but you do have this passion for operations and you have a skill set and experience that can really move the needle for advisors and organizations. What are the opportunities that you're open to today to help either advisors or organizations with at this point in your career?

Speaker 2: 23:37

Yeah, as I said, I do some consulting. Still I'm not entirely out of the game. I think my brain would turn to mush if I entirely stopped doing it. I can't help but see opportunities. Everywhere I go I can walk into a restaurant or a business and immediately see what's wrong with it. It's like my weird superpower that like, oh, if I owned this business, this is how the flow should work. Why does it not work that way? Why does your phone system work the wrong way? I see those opportunities.

Speaker 2: 24:10

To answer your question, I am open to working with people in a consulting arrangement. I don't mind getting my hands dirty to set an organization on the right path. It is only in a consulting capacity that I am available to do that type of work. It really is that evaluation of going in first and telling you what do I see? Then we could figure out what do you want your organization to be.

Speaker 2: 24:42

I was just talking to a large corporation and I have a president of this organization who isn't open to feedback. He knows he needs to be from the people who are doing the real work all around him, but he has a real reluctance to do that. The coaching I'm doing with him is to figure out how he can make that paradigm shift without losing what he deems to be his credibility as president of this huge organization, which, for this conversation, will remain nameless. How does he open himself up to feedback without losing what he perceives as his credibility? Those are the kind of things that I do, that I'm open to doing If organizations truly want to grow or they need an evaluation of where things might not be quite right that are impacting them negatively, either from an operational or, ultimately, a sales perspective, because things aren't working the way they should be. My passion, like you said with LinkedIn, I want to come in and fix it. That's it. I want to come in and help you, as a business owner, as an executive, fix that issue. That's my passion.

Speaker 1: 25:57

When does the Netflix series begin? I can see it the fixer.

Speaker 2: 26:02

Yeah, I would love to see it If there's any.

Speaker 1: 26:03

Hollywood agents listening. Now we got a pitch for you.

Speaker 2: 26:07

Yeah, I've got a pitch for you. Because businesses are large or small, they all have the same type of problems. It's just a different scale of how we go about fixing them and how indoctrinated bad habits may be within larger organizations. That can be a fun thing to tackle. I know you tease me because I always say how much fun these problems are, but that is how I see it. If I look there's a problem, I think I know how to fix it. We get into that. That's my calling in life.

Speaker 1: 26:35

What's the best way for someone listening to this? If they're interested in learning more potentially about working with you, what's the best way for them to reach out?

Speaker 2: 26:44

Yeah, the best way is either via LinkedIn Nancy Brunetti on LinkedIn or, if you need to, you can send me an email NancyBrunetti14 at gmailcom. We can reach out and set up an initial consultation to see if what your challenges are makes sense in terms of something that I can honestly help with and we can have an honest dialogue about. I don't need any bravado in the conversation. I just need to get down to brass tacks about what the issues are and how I can assist clients in getting through those issues.

Speaker 1: 27:20

Here we are in. I guess we're approaching the end of 2023. What has you, Nancy Brunetti, most excited about, whether it's the year to come or the future? What are you, personally, most excited about going forward?

Speaker 2: 27:38

I'm excited about a couple of things. Obviously, ai is a big thing and it'll be interesting to see how this evolves into our business. What does that mean to the advisor? What does that mean to the advisory relationship? What does that mean to corporations in terms of the number of employees they have? How do we effectively use this tool and you know this from a marketing perspective like, how do we market ourselves using the technologies that are available? For me, it's a combination of the hard skills and the soft skills and figuring out where they can most usefully meet for any given organization. That's something that's really on my mind, because I think we have a legacy industry in general. And where does it go from here? What do the larger organizations require of individual producers or smaller firms the independent advisory, the CPA practices, any of the financial, professional myriad of industries and how does that evolve as we go forward? There's ethical issues involved. Obviously, there's technology issues involved, so it's gonna be interesting to me to see how we can use those things effectively, honestly, in our practices.

Speaker 1: 29:03

Yeah, that's something that I'm personally very excited and passionate about. I've been knee-deep myself in AI, I'd say the past year or so, I believe. For larger companies, I think it's gonna make a lot of average employees redundant because it has the potential to significantly scale someone's efficiency and productivity. But then for smaller companies like myself, entrepreneurial companies it has the capacity to help us massively grow and to have a need for more people. It's interesting just not to get too much of a tangent but I started this year thinking, okay, I just need me and a couple of people in AI, and now I'm hiring new people almost every week because I need to keep up with opportunities that are in front of me. Thank you for sharing that. Thank you again for being a guest, a repeat offender, our very first repeat offender on the million dollar producer show. It's always a pleasure to talk with you and thank you for sharing with us what you're up to today.

Speaker 2: 30:11

It's an honor, thank you. Thank you.