ZARZA We are Zarza, the prestigious firm behind major projects in information technology.
Listen "Visionary Wealth Advisors: The Origin Story"
Episode Synopsis
On this episode of the Circuit of Success Podcast, Brett Gilliland shares with you his appearance on the Diamond Consultants Podcast in 2021. Brett shares his journey and how Visionary Wealth Advisors was born. This includes his "Jerry Maguire-Style" resignation.
A Northwestern Mutual Advisor’s “Jerry Maguire-Style” Breakaway Story
Visionary Wealth Advisors: The Origin Story
The recurring theme of "incongruence" runs through the narratives of advisors who have transitioned between firms or models. The challenge arises when there is a mismatch between personal goals and those of the firm, making it difficult, if not impossible, to effectively serve clients and expand one's business. Brett Gilliland, while serving as a Managing Director at Northwestern Mutual, experienced a noticeable lack of alignment with the firm's goals as he achieved success. Juggling multiple roles, including financial advisor and recruiter, Brett increasingly felt restricted in his ability to provide unbiased advice and desired more autonomy in serving clients.
The episode delves into the drivers behind Visionary's remarkable growth, highlighting the significant role relationships and referrals have played in their success. Brett encourages advisors and business owners to ask themselves a crucial question he posed to Tim before leaving Northwestern: "What keeps you here?"
Tune in for the valuable takeaways for both employee advisors and business owners.
00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:17.000
IT'S THIS FEELING OF MISALIGNMENT BETWEEN AN ADVISERS
00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:20.000
goals and that of their firm, which drives
00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:22.000
change more than any other motivator.
00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:25.000
Because when your vision is conflicting with that
00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:28.000
of your firm, it becomes difficult if not
00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:28.000
impossible
00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:31.000
to serve your clients and grow your business.
00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:34.000
As a managing director at Northwestern Mutual,
00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:37.000
Brett Gilliland found that the lack of alignment
00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:40.000
could not be more apparent nor more limiting.
00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:43.000
In his role, He wore multiple hats from
00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:46.000
serving as a financial advisor, plus a recruiter
00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:47.000
with the responsibility
00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:50.000
for the training and development of novice advisors.
00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:53.000
But as he became more successful,
00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:55.000
he also became less satisfied,
00:00:55.000 --> 00:00:57.000
and the feeling of being at odds with
00:00:57.000 --> 00:00:58.000
the goals Northwestern
00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:00.000
became more apparent.
00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:04.000
He wanted greater agency over how he served
00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:04.000
clients.
00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:07.000
He wanted to be able to freely market.
00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:09.000
He wanted to give unbiased
00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:10.000
unconflicted
00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:14.000
advice without feeling pigeonholed into selling insurance.
00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:17.000
And ultimately, as he put it, He wanted
00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:19.000
to play in a different sandbox.
00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:22.000
So after thirteen years with Northwestern,
00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:25.000
he decided it was time to build something
00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:26.000
that was more aligned with his vision.
00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:29.000
And in March of two thousand fourteen,
00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:33.000
RIA firm visionary wealth advisors was born.
00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:36.000
But it's his Jerry Maguire exit story that's
00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:37.000
really compelling.
00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:39.000
And a true testament
00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:41.000
to the respect and trust he developed with
00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:42.000
his team at Northwestern.
00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:47.000
Today, visionary manages some one point eight billion
00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:49.000
in assets and has thirty advisors on the
00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:50.000
team.
00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:53.000
In this episode, Brett talks with Lewis Diamond
00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:57.000
sharing details about the motivation behind his move.
00:01:57.000 --> 00:01:59.000
His unique perspective as a managing director at
00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:00.000
Northwestern
00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:02.000
how he is able to fully realize his
00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:05.000
vision as an independent business owner, and of
00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:06.000
course,
00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:07.000
shares a resignation
00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:11.000
story unlike any other. Plus much more. So
00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:12.000
let's get to it.
00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:15.000
Brett, thanks
00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:20.000
so much joining us today.
00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:23.000
Absolutely. It's good to be with you. Very
00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:24.000
good. Why don't you tell us about yourself
00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:26.000
and how you got started in the business?
00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:29.000
Yeah. I went to Eastern Illinois University and
00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:31.000
right out of college. I decided I wanted
00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:33.000
to be in the financial planning business. So
00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:35.000
back then, this was the early two thousand,
00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:37.000
I guess, two thousand Gilliland they were called
00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:39.000
stock brokers back then. And and that's what
00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:41.000
I wanted to do. I knew that right
00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:42.000
out of college, and it really goes back
00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:44.000
to when I was about fifteen years old,
00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:47.000
my My cousin Dean was actually a stockbroker.
00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:49.000
And I drove the gold BMW. You had
00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:52.000
the speakers in the headrest, and that was
00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:53.000
pretty cool. Right? When you're fifteen years old,
00:02:53.000 --> 00:02:55.000
and so I thought for sure. I wanted
00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:57.000
to do that. And so I went to
00:02:57.000 --> 00:02:59.000
a job fair and and found the financial
00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:02.000
planning stockbroker Gilliland here we are almost twenty
00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:03.000
years later.
00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:07.000
Perfect. And your your most recent employment before
00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:09.000
launching your own RIA was as the Madington
00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:12.000
director at Northwestern Mutual. Can you talk a
00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:14.000
little bit about that role in your day
00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:16.000
to day? Because my understanding is you were
00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:19.000
in a full time advisor. You had some
00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:22.000
other duties and responsibilities as well. Absolutely. So
00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:24.000
I was a managing director at my previous
00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:26.000
firm, and we were responsible for recruiting. That's
00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:28.000
a big recruiting world where I was at
00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:30.000
previously. And so we were in charge of
00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:32.000
recruiting advisors to what we call our district
00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:34.000
office. I was in Edwardsville, Illinois. We still
00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:36.000
have an office there to this day, but
00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:38.000
that's what I was doing. I was recruiting
00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:40.000
advisors into this business. We also had a
00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:42.000
college internship program where we would have anywhere
00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:45.000
from twenty to twenty five interns. I had
00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:46.000
a team of people that will whether it
00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:49.000
was a college unit or field directors or
00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:49.000
mentors,
00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:52.000
recruiters, a great team of people around me,
00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:53.000
but that's what we had to do. We
00:03:53.000 --> 00:03:55.000
had to go out and recruit new advisors
00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:57.000
to the firm. These weren't, like, industry folks.
00:03:57.000 --> 00:03:58.000
These were people were brand new, just like
00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:01.000
myself, right out of college, didn't have any
00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:03.000
experience. So there was tons of recruiting, training,
00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:04.000
development,
00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:09.000
mentor meetings, one off drive by meetings, maybe
00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:10.000
being about how do you prospect? How do
00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:12.000
you make more phone calls? How do you
00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:14.000
find more prospects? So on and so forth.
00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:16.000
But then also was a financial advisor and
00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:17.000
did that at a high level as well.
00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:19.000
So it was one of the things I
00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:20.000
really enjoyed because
00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:23.000
I was doing multiple things throughout the day
00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:24.000
wearing lots of different hats.
00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:28.000
Excellent. It sounds like the Northwestern model of
00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:30.000
recruiting, it's kinda like churn and burn. You're
00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:33.000
expecting that a lot of folks aren't gonna
00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:35.000
make it through the program. So I'm curious
00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:37.000
what separated the advisors
00:04:37.
A Northwestern Mutual Advisor’s “Jerry Maguire-Style” Breakaway Story
Visionary Wealth Advisors: The Origin Story
The recurring theme of "incongruence" runs through the narratives of advisors who have transitioned between firms or models. The challenge arises when there is a mismatch between personal goals and those of the firm, making it difficult, if not impossible, to effectively serve clients and expand one's business. Brett Gilliland, while serving as a Managing Director at Northwestern Mutual, experienced a noticeable lack of alignment with the firm's goals as he achieved success. Juggling multiple roles, including financial advisor and recruiter, Brett increasingly felt restricted in his ability to provide unbiased advice and desired more autonomy in serving clients.
The episode delves into the drivers behind Visionary's remarkable growth, highlighting the significant role relationships and referrals have played in their success. Brett encourages advisors and business owners to ask themselves a crucial question he posed to Tim before leaving Northwestern: "What keeps you here?"
Tune in for the valuable takeaways for both employee advisors and business owners.
00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:17.000
IT'S THIS FEELING OF MISALIGNMENT BETWEEN AN ADVISERS
00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:20.000
goals and that of their firm, which drives
00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:22.000
change more than any other motivator.
00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:25.000
Because when your vision is conflicting with that
00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:28.000
of your firm, it becomes difficult if not
00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:28.000
impossible
00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:31.000
to serve your clients and grow your business.
00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:34.000
As a managing director at Northwestern Mutual,
00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:37.000
Brett Gilliland found that the lack of alignment
00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:40.000
could not be more apparent nor more limiting.
00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:43.000
In his role, He wore multiple hats from
00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:46.000
serving as a financial advisor, plus a recruiter
00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:47.000
with the responsibility
00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:50.000
for the training and development of novice advisors.
00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:53.000
But as he became more successful,
00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:55.000
he also became less satisfied,
00:00:55.000 --> 00:00:57.000
and the feeling of being at odds with
00:00:57.000 --> 00:00:58.000
the goals Northwestern
00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:00.000
became more apparent.
00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:04.000
He wanted greater agency over how he served
00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:04.000
clients.
00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:07.000
He wanted to be able to freely market.
00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:09.000
He wanted to give unbiased
00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:10.000
unconflicted
00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:14.000
advice without feeling pigeonholed into selling insurance.
00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:17.000
And ultimately, as he put it, He wanted
00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:19.000
to play in a different sandbox.
00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:22.000
So after thirteen years with Northwestern,
00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:25.000
he decided it was time to build something
00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:26.000
that was more aligned with his vision.
00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:29.000
And in March of two thousand fourteen,
00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:33.000
RIA firm visionary wealth advisors was born.
00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:36.000
But it's his Jerry Maguire exit story that's
00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:37.000
really compelling.
00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:39.000
And a true testament
00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:41.000
to the respect and trust he developed with
00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:42.000
his team at Northwestern.
00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:47.000
Today, visionary manages some one point eight billion
00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:49.000
in assets and has thirty advisors on the
00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:50.000
team.
00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:53.000
In this episode, Brett talks with Lewis Diamond
00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:57.000
sharing details about the motivation behind his move.
00:01:57.000 --> 00:01:59.000
His unique perspective as a managing director at
00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:00.000
Northwestern
00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:02.000
how he is able to fully realize his
00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:05.000
vision as an independent business owner, and of
00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:06.000
course,
00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:07.000
shares a resignation
00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:11.000
story unlike any other. Plus much more. So
00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:12.000
let's get to it.
00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:15.000
Brett, thanks
00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:20.000
so much joining us today.
00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:23.000
Absolutely. It's good to be with you. Very
00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:24.000
good. Why don't you tell us about yourself
00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:26.000
and how you got started in the business?
00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:29.000
Yeah. I went to Eastern Illinois University and
00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:31.000
right out of college. I decided I wanted
00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:33.000
to be in the financial planning business. So
00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:35.000
back then, this was the early two thousand,
00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:37.000
I guess, two thousand Gilliland they were called
00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:39.000
stock brokers back then. And and that's what
00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:41.000
I wanted to do. I knew that right
00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:42.000
out of college, and it really goes back
00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:44.000
to when I was about fifteen years old,
00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:47.000
my My cousin Dean was actually a stockbroker.
00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:49.000
And I drove the gold BMW. You had
00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:52.000
the speakers in the headrest, and that was
00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:53.000
pretty cool. Right? When you're fifteen years old,
00:02:53.000 --> 00:02:55.000
and so I thought for sure. I wanted
00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:57.000
to do that. And so I went to
00:02:57.000 --> 00:02:59.000
a job fair and and found the financial
00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:02.000
planning stockbroker Gilliland here we are almost twenty
00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:03.000
years later.
00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:07.000
Perfect. And your your most recent employment before
00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:09.000
launching your own RIA was as the Madington
00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:12.000
director at Northwestern Mutual. Can you talk a
00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:14.000
little bit about that role in your day
00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:16.000
to day? Because my understanding is you were
00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:19.000
in a full time advisor. You had some
00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:22.000
other duties and responsibilities as well. Absolutely. So
00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:24.000
I was a managing director at my previous
00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:26.000
firm, and we were responsible for recruiting. That's
00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:28.000
a big recruiting world where I was at
00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:30.000
previously. And so we were in charge of
00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:32.000
recruiting advisors to what we call our district
00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:34.000
office. I was in Edwardsville, Illinois. We still
00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:36.000
have an office there to this day, but
00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:38.000
that's what I was doing. I was recruiting
00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:40.000
advisors into this business. We also had a
00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:42.000
college internship program where we would have anywhere
00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:45.000
from twenty to twenty five interns. I had
00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:46.000
a team of people that will whether it
00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:49.000
was a college unit or field directors or
00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:49.000
mentors,
00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:52.000
recruiters, a great team of people around me,
00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:53.000
but that's what we had to do. We
00:03:53.000 --> 00:03:55.000
had to go out and recruit new advisors
00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:57.000
to the firm. These weren't, like, industry folks.
00:03:57.000 --> 00:03:58.000
These were people were brand new, just like
00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:01.000
myself, right out of college, didn't have any
00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:03.000
experience. So there was tons of recruiting, training,
00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:04.000
development,
00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:09.000
mentor meetings, one off drive by meetings, maybe
00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:10.000
being about how do you prospect? How do
00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:12.000
you make more phone calls? How do you
00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:14.000
find more prospects? So on and so forth.
00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:16.000
But then also was a financial advisor and
00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:17.000
did that at a high level as well.
00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:19.000
So it was one of the things I
00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:20.000
really enjoyed because
00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:23.000
I was doing multiple things throughout the day
00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:24.000
wearing lots of different hats.
00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:28.000
Excellent. It sounds like the Northwestern model of
00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:30.000
recruiting, it's kinda like churn and burn. You're
00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:33.000
expecting that a lot of folks aren't gonna
00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:35.000
make it through the program. So I'm curious
00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:37.000
what separated the advisors
00:04:37.
In God we trust