Episode 214 – The Learning Quest: Insights & Inspiration with Mr. Ron Greenberg

Episode Transcription

This is the ultimate advisor podcast, the podcast for financial advisors who want to create a thriving, successful and scalable practice. Each week we’ll uncover the ways that you can improve your referrals, your team, your marketing, and your business operations, helping you to level up your advising practice, bring in more assets, and to create the advising practice that you’ve dreamed of. You’ll be joined by our hosts Bryan Sweet, who is moving fast towards a billion dollars in assets under management, Brittany Anderson, the driving force for advisors looking to improve their operations and company culture, and Draye Redfern who can help you systematize and automate your practices marketing to effortlessly attract new clients. So what do you say? Let’s jump in to another amazing episode of the ultimate advisor podcast.

Brittany Anderson 01:07

Welcome back to The Ultimate Advisor Podcast. Today we are diving into we’re gonna call it part three of a three part series, because we have the last of our three new partners in ultimate advisor coaching. I have with me today, Ron Greenberg, at the founding partner of Greenberg and Rapp has devoted his practice to working closely or with closely held business owners and affluent individuals, and has developed one of the leading national firms dedicated to helping clients grow, manage and preserve their wealth. Ron, welcome to the show.

Ron Greenberg 1:46

Thank you, Brittany. Great to be here.

Brittany Anderson 1:47

Well, I feel so honored and privileged to have you here, our audience got to get a first sneak peek at two of the other partners. We had John on a couple of weeks ago. And then we had Bryan Heckert on last week. So today, we get to know all the magic behind Ron Greenberg. So I would love for you to know I give that high level about you and your business. But what really got you started in this industry?

Ron Greenberg 2:15

So yeah, gosh, it goes back to you know, many, many years ago, my baby days went to college. I can’t say that I had this burning desire and career path in my sights. As a kid growing up as a kid growing up, I thought I wanted to be first a baseball player, second and accountant. The baseball career wasn’t going to get me paid. And I found accounting to be a lot more boring and mundane than I thought it was when I got to college. So coming out of college I at that point kind of knew I wanted to do something in you know, the sales and people, the world of people communication. Sales didn’t necessarily be wasn’t necessarily locked in on insurance, financial services, Wealth Management, but just kind of stumbled into an opportunity at Prudential and came out of the came out of college as a Prudential advisor, cut my teeth. They’re getting designations and licenses and all that stuff. And after about seven years without getting too far afield, after about seven years of my career as a Prudential advisor, partnered with a friend who I’d met in the business at Prudential. And we formed Greenberg and Rapp. So I’m the Greenberg and he’s the Rapp. And we’ve been doing this together now for almost 35 years.

Brittany Anderson 3:38

You know, what I think is interesting there, Ron, when you talked about, you know, you’re getting into the business and how you’re looking at, you know, kind of the sale of elements a little bit, helping people, you know, you’re not really sure where it goes. It’s interesting, because I’ve heard that response quite a bit. A lot of times people who get into this industry, get into it in one of those sectors, they love sales, they love helping and supporting people, but they maybe don’t imagine growing and running a large company, managing people and processes and experiences and everything that comes with it. So I would be curious to know, Ron, as times have evolved, and your focus has shifted, what do you truly love about this industry?

Ron Greenberg 4:25

Yeah, I think it’s interesting all these years later, what I love most about the industry is what I loved about it, when I got into it and started doing it. Now I have, you know, 30 employees and we have location, multiple locations and multiple offices. It’s complex. And now I’ve got a CFO and an office manager and all these layers of complexity. But what I truly love about the business is being an advisor and combining I don’t want to save and salesmanship because as a financial advisor, financial planner, I really feel like we are guiding and helping and advising people to make healthy good decisions about their financial world, for their business for their family. So the idea of helping people and having the potential to be a lucrative career, which it has been very fortunate in that regard, and surrounding myself with great people internally, and bringing great people in from the outside as clients, so, but the working with people, the building relationships, the cultivating those relationships, in some cases, and many cases of friendships, with those with those clients we’ve had for many years is the most that’s the most rewarding and fulfilling thing.

Brittany Anderson 5:43

Yeah. And you know, I think about something that you said to and think about, you know, the young advisor coming because the people that tune in our audience is full of a wide breadth of advisors, we’ve got people that are earlier in the game all the way up to, you know, very seasoned advisors like yourself. One thing that I’ve really appreciated being call it like a fly on the wall or participant in some of the study group meetings. Now, if you’re listening, and this is your very first episode, I’m gonna give a little background here. Ron has been in a study group with four other gentlemen that three of which you know, Brian sweet. Brian hacker, John machetes, if you didn’t turn into tune into the last two episodes, you need to because you’ll get to meet a couple of them. And then another brilliant gentleman by the name of Pierre malar. So you guys have been in the study group for what is it 25 years now?

Ron Greenberg 6:37

Yeah,

Brittany Anderson 6:38

Amazing. So something that I’ve watched happen in those groups is you’re constantly looking at ways that you can either enhance the industry, enhance how you serve clients, enhance and deepen relationships, there’s always some level of doing even better, and doing even more for the industry that’s given so much to you. So with that being said, Ron, what’s something that you’ve personally identified that you think really needs to change in our industry?

Ron Greenberg 7:09

Yeah, well, it sort of dovetails into what we’re doing here with Ultimate Advisor Coaching, and that is providing really in depth higher level training for folks who want to gravitate and raise the bar from where they are today. There just isn’t a lot out there in my experience of in terms of that kind of next level training. So our industry has, you know, has gotten pretty gray and pretty old. I’ve gotten grayer and older, myself and 35 years, obviously, but I still feel like a young adviser in a lot of ways, I still have that energy, and that zest for the business and the industry. And I want to be more of an advocate for that next level training. So I think you know, what the industry needs is, you know, just more intensity and more intentionality behind getting this initial level advisor to a level of competency, getting the competent advisor to a level of of success, getting that successful advisor to a level of excellence, and beyond. So whether you can always raise the bar, you can always be more productive, you can always be more efficient, more effective. We’re always striving in the study group, you mentioned Brittany, how to train better how to improve and enhance the client experience. So in every facet of our business, whether it’s pure insurance advisory, or it’s financial planning, or it’s pure Wealth Management, or a combination holistically of, of all of that, there’s just there’s always a way to be better, and you can always learn in this industry, it’s one of the greatest things about it’s one of the reasons I’m addicted to golf and skiing. Because you can always learn, you can always get better, you can always improve, you can always take it to another level.

Brittany Anderson 9:02

You know, I think there’s something interesting that I want to pull out here too, that, you know, and I’m thinking again, about, are you talking about these different levels of success for an advisor, you know, you get to a certain point, you maybe hit another ceiling of complexity, and then you break through that, and you get a little bit more success. And then you’re like, Oh, here’s another fun challenge. And then you break through that and the cycle keeps going for those that are dedicated to that true growth and true acceleration. Now, you said something earlier that I would bet for some advisors ears is you said you have a team of 30 people. I would imagine for some advisors who are in that growth mode, who are maybe coming across some of the challenges that might come with managing people in teams that they got sweaty hearing that number went way too a second 30 people that’s a lot to deal with. So Ron, what advice would you give on growing teams while growing the business and you know how you might manage that because it can feel overwhelming.

Ron Greenberg 10:03

Yeah, well, you just don’t wake up one day and have 30 people, right? So it certainly evolves over time. And my thought on that is to just do things like that gradually, hire gradually be smart about when you’re bringing people on board, whether it’s another advisor or it’s a co advisor, or a junior advisor or underwriter or client service, what whoever you’re adding, whether it’s a client facing person, advisor, or it’s some of the behind the scenes, I don’t use the word intentionality again, but be intentional about what you’re looking for, and that person or those people you’re going to hire. So, you know, in 1995, when we split from Prudential and became our own firm, we had a total of five people, myself, my partner, Tom, and three others, so you know, almost 30 years ago, but it happened very gradually over time. And even though we’re much bigger, now we don’t, I don’t feel like we’re that much bigger, because at the end of the day, where the rubber meets the road is the one on one relationship that either I or another team member has with that client. And so one of the one of the things that we’ve done not getting too deep into what we do, and how we do it, is we are always, almost always meeting with our clients in teams, almost every single meeting, whether virtual or in person is with two or more people on the team. That can be two advisors, it can be two advisors, and a client service person to advisors and a an advanced design person, someone with with tax expertise. And I think our clients appreciate that. And one of the things that we go we’ve really worked hard to do. And I know Brian sweet has done this as well is to make your deliverable. Bake your value add about the process, and the team and the organization, the firm, not about one advisor or one person.

Brittany Anderson 11:06

Actually there’s one word here that we’re going to we’re going to bring to highlight or bring to fruition and that’s the word intentionality. And it’s actually funny because that is hands down one of my favorite words to use. If Bryan Sweet was sitting here, he wouldn’t be chuckling right now at this. And you know, I heard something recently, Ron, where a gal we were talking about all that comes with running and growing a business and when you have multiple businesses and multiple things, pulling your attention, and then how burnout is a real thing. She made a comment to me, though, that she said you should say You know what, Brittany, I believe that all burnout is due to a lack of intentionality. Because when you have intentionality, you have a clear vision of where you’re going. And while it may be overwhelming at times, you still have a vision. So Ron, when you think about you know your career, and you think about other advisors that you know, in your network and have come across? How have you managed to really stay clear on your vision and your intentionality Since you weren’t you that word a couple of times now?

Ron Greenberg 13:01

Yeah. Staying clear on your vision, your intentionality from the support system that I have with my study group partners, from the support system, I have with my business partners in my firm, and from the boss at home, who when she sometimes sees or hears me talking about this, or that new shiny object will bring me back to reality and say Is that really where you want to spend your time and attention you really want to go off and that kind of thing, it’s going to take your eye off the ball or yada yada, so, and then key team members to having great great associates, I hate to even use the word employees, but I just our associates are bright or dedicated. They get what we’re trying to accomplish here, they get what we’re trying to grow here, they’re a part of that growth mechanism. A big part of it, we’ve tried to be really creative in how we reward them and bring them in to make them think and behave like owners, even though not everyone can be an owner. But it’s I think it’s a combination of those sources, study group members, business partners, my wife at home and our key team members here all meeting and talking regularly. And that helps me keep my eye on the ball and focused on the vision.

Brittany Anderson 14:15

You know, it’s an interesting theme that I think comes about with what you just said. I mean, in reality, so much of success can be attributed to just putting yourself around great people. And you know, going through the process of trying to not reinvent the wheel. And again, that’s that’s what I love about what you guys have have cultivated within the study group and now what you’re bringing into ultimate advisor coaching is it’s this zone of of being completely competition free. Now you guys get on the golf course and you make your bets and do your fun stuff there. You can be competitive all you want. But when you’re around each other, there’s this essence of you know, truly leaning in and helping each other and not feeling like oh, I have to keep my two Read secrets because this is how I’ve grown. It’s, hey, I’m going to share with you you’re going to share with me we’re going to grow together in our own ways by our own vision. And we’re going to support each other in that. And I know that that’s what you and the other wonderful gentlemen, joining an ultimate advisor coaching as partners are bringing to the table is that same spirit, and that same collaborative focus. So Ron, I guess my question would be then is, you know why at this point, why do you want to support other advisors on their journey to even more success?

Ron Greenberg 15:35

Well, I think it’s a couple of things. You know, number one, in that I am now a little bit longer in the tooth, and I’ve got the experience behind me, I feel like I have something I feel like we have something to really offer something valuable, something that’s transferable, that can really make an impact.

Brittany Anderson 15:53

Hey, Brittany here, stopping and pausing for a moment to talk about something that we’ve had so many of you inquire about, and that is our ultimate advisor, mastermind. Now, I’m going to start by saying, if you are not a growth minded individual, if you are not somebody who’s focused on taking your business to the next level, if you’re not focused on engaging your team, and helping them to help you in turn, level up the business, the service model, how you provide that wow experience to clients. If those things are not your focus, just fast forward right now, because the ultimate advisor mastermind would not then be for you. However, if you are looking to take your business to the next level, if you want to experience exponential growth and feel supported along the way, if you want to start working smarter and not harder, if you want to help your team members to work within the God given talents that they were provided, and use those skill sets in a way they haven’t yet to help support you and your business, to help them realize their biggest goals, their biggest dreams. If you want creative approaches to marketing, I know that can be an intimidating word. But we’re not talking here about the fancy Facebook stuff, or you know, the latest and greatest, but rather looking at how you can market what you do, how you can express how you’re different, and how you can truly differentiate yourself in a crowded market space. If those are problems you’re looking to solve, then you absolutely want to go check out ultimate advisor mastermind.com To learn more about how we can help you on your path and journey to growth.

Ron Greenberg 17:52

But just because you have that doesn’t mean you want to share it and spend the time and the effort and the energy. So you know, brings me to another aspect of this, which is our group, all advisors in our study group and now part of UAC have worked together, we’ve seen each other’s strengths, we’ve seen what we each bring to the table. And we’re excited to do something more than just grow our own practices. But give back to the industry, which is given so much to all of us. And then lastly, for me, you know, I grew up the son of a teacher, a high school teacher or an educator and my dad loved to impart his wisdom on his students. And I saw how much how much fulfilment he got from that, you know, not just during his teaching years, after his teaching years, students he’d bumped into students would look him up and tell him how much of impact they had. And that reward is something that’s been missing from my day that’s in my DNA has been missing from what I’ve done. For my, my years in the business. Yes, I’ve done some mentoring and, of course, some coaching with our people here and my own firm, but to do it more broadly, and have that opportunity to give back and coach consultants, whatever you want to say that’s that’s certainly something that’s in there, that I’m excited to bring out and share.

Brittany Anderson 19:14

You know, I think those kinds of stories are so fun to hear too, because I do believe that whole element of of coaching and mentoring, it’s either built into somebody or it’s not, it’s not something that can be forced. So I am so excited to see, you know, that essence that you’re gonna bring to the table and how that again, spirit of contribution is going to impact you know, our coaching members, our mastermind members and anybody in the future who comes through our programs there. So, you know, you’ve mentioned a couple times about how you know, with given row with the study group, how you guys are contributing and how you are looking at, you know, better, faster, easier, more efficient, you know, those kinds of things and how you run your practice, if you could give one piece He’s of just monumental advice to call it an earlier stage advisor to help them not reinvent the wheel. What would that be?

Ron Greenberg 20:10

Well, one piece of advice, there’s so many different things that come to mind, but I can give you two.

Brittany Anderson 20:16

Okay, fine, I’ll compromise two.

Ron Greenberg 20:19

One is so simple yet, so elusive. And what I see in that is promise what you’re going to promise and deliver what you promised, just do what you say you’re going to do when you say you’re going to do it. And that, believe it or not, will separate you from so many people. But in terms of not reinventing the wheel, and something that is a specific piece of advice or something, it’s maybe transferable. And that is constantly be looking for ways to improve your average client or average client revenue. So if your average client makes as much money per year or as this much, and assets, be always looking to ratchet that up, look for creative ways, through referrals, through centers of influence, through observation through all the different ways, which we’ll certainly talk about throughout the program about, you know, prospecting, networking, but getting upstream and continually moving the needle. And I have a lot of really good ideas on this, I think that that have worked for us, in my practice, constantly be looking to move that upstream. That’s the true way that you’re going to have more success, more revenue, more profitability, and more fun, because the larger clients are more complex and more challenging, the more interesting and they know more challenging, interesting and complex people because that’s who they hang out with, that’s a battle, that’s a specific piece of advice. But that’s an arena and an area you always want to be focusing on and thinking about as the young adviser, less experienced advisor, or what have you, and advisor just wants to kick ass and do more.

Brittany Anderson 21:53

Um, you know, and I think Ron, those two pieces of advice are so valuable. And honestly, they tied together a lot more than I think what people realize, you know, when you look at that service level offering, and do what you say, when you say you’re gonna do it, under promise, over deliver, you know, really making sure that you’re leaning into what you’ve committed to, you know, when you’re looking at how you can, let’s go to the house for a minute. So how you can get additional asset and or revenue opportunities, depending upon your model, you have to lead with value, it’s really hard to capture additional opportunity within a client or prospective client, if you’re not fully focused on delivery, on value, add. And that’s what you should lean into every single time. So I think both of those pieces of advice are absolutely amazing. And something for our listeners to really tune into simple but absolutely attainable. So in the spirit of you know, education and learning, because you kind of talked about this, how, you know, you watched your dad, and how that’s kind of built into you that inherent teacher call it and that’s what you’re contributing. We talk a lot on this podcast, and in all of our programs about all of the great things that we’re reading, absorbing, listening to taking in, because we are all lifelong learners, every single one of us here. So Ron, what is a book and hopefully we can narrow it down to one, what is a book that has truly positively impacted it could be your you as in your person, it can be your business, just across the board? What was really impactful?

Ron Greenberg 23:37

Ah, gotcha, I would say was probably the one that I’ve read most recently, believe it or not, who not how? And, you know, you’ve read it, right. Yeah, so, yeah, it’s, like, the concept of it, I don’t need to belabor this or go too deep into it. But the concept of it, the message of it is, you know, be more focused, and more, you know, keenly focused on who is doing what, so that the right people are doing the right things, because if you have the wrong people doing things, you know, mistakes will get made, the quality will suffer, the growth will be stagnant. So, we’ve definitely seen that in my organization where we’ve made some mistakes, no one’s perfect. So we’ve made some mistakes at some people on the wrong seats on the bus, getting the right people on the right seats on the bus and filling the seats that need to be filled on the bus is really the name of the game. Obviously, when when the when you talk about the final three feet, so to speak between the advisor and the client, the advice has to be good. The counselor has to be sound. The recommendations have to make sense you have to be you know, advising them to do things that are in their best interest and best For them, of course, all those things at the really the heart, real heart and soul of our of our industry in our business. But in growing a any kind of a practice a small one or a larger one who is is super important. And you realize, you don’t realize this as a young advisor because as a young advisor, you’re the WHO for everything, right, you’re doing it all, you’re wearing all the hats, you don’t have an assistant, you don’t have a manager, COO a CFO, you don’t have, you know, client service people, underwriters case designers, people running illustrations, people building portfolios, you’re doing it all. So one, you’re gravitating and growing towards not doing it all and having others do all the things I just mentioned that are necessary to have to be a great financial steward and an advisor for your clients.

Brittany Anderson 25.53

And you couldn’t have chosen a better book. I mean, this feels like a setup, and it wasn’t. But we’ve had Dr. Benjamin Hardy, the author on that book, it was authored by Dr. Benjamin Hardy, and Dan Sullivan, Dan Sullivan, the creator of the Strategic Coach. But But Ben has been a guest, he’s been a guest on the podcast, he’s been a guest into our mastermind sessions. And he’s absolutely brilliant. And you know, Ron, to your point, when you think about putting the right butts in seats, having the right who’s per se, it also frees you up to focus on you know, what’s that the 8020 rule to focus on the 20% of the activities that are going to generate 80% of the results. So if you don’t have the right butts and seats, and if you keep that mentality, that starter mentality of oh, I have to be the doer of all the things, it’s actually going to stunt your growth. So you might be thinking and short term, you’re saving a couple of bucks by not having to pay somebody. But in reality, you’re cutting off massive opportunity because of where you’re spending and allocating your time. So I love that you brought up that book, I know that a lot of our listeners have actually read that. We have a lot of listeners who are Dr. Ben Hardy fans saw that was an absolutely perfect example. And I know so many people can relate. So as we get close to wrapping, we like to, you know, clean up the curtain a little bit to get to know, Ron. So just a question for you here is, you know, what’s something that you personally do? And I feel like I already know the answer to this. So we’ll see if I’m right. What’s something that you personally do to unwind to relax to kind of let the stress of your business go away?

Ron Greenberg 27:35

Yeah. Well, it’s not one thing, it’s different things. I’m really, I’m overly passionate about exercise, and phys and physical fitness. So I try to do something physical every day, at least five days a week, if not seven. That’s a real stress relief for me. Starts my day off, but I always do it first thing in the morning, I’m not a late afternoon or evening guy, and it starts the day off with a great in a great way, in a really positive way and an energy increasing sort of way and a stress relieving sort of way. But the only other things that I’m passionate about are my family spending time with them doing anything, any number of things. And if it’s just me personally doing something to de stress, you know, being out in the snow, you know, on skis is, is my favorite thing to do in the cold weather and, and playing golf, whether it’s with my wife, or my kids or our friends, is a huge stress release as well. It’s funny because it can be a stressful game. And when you’re not great at it, it can be really stressful. But for some reason, it still just relaxes me, you know, being out there in the you know, in nature for you know, four hours or whatnot. And then having a glass of wine or cold one afterwards. So those are the things that bring the stress relief and lots of fun, lots of joy.

Brittany Anderson 29:09

You know, I was gonna guess I had two guesses in my mind and one was golf and the other one was working out so I I was pretty pretty well aligned there with I believe see I knew it and I believe if memory serves me correctly, you’re a fellow peloton person too. Is that right?

Ron Greenberg 29:31

I am. I am. Yeah.

Brittany Anderson 29:33

Yep. See? That is man that has been a game changer for me. So highly recommend. I know this sounds cliche for anybody tuning in, but creating your morning routine. And we’re all of our bodies are built different. Right? And so this is something that I think is such a great way to kind of bring this episode to a close here shortly, is physical activity. I mean, you’ll hear people talk about their Miracle Morning or their morning routine or Whatever. If you are right in the morning to get your workout in the morning, if you are great at, hey, if I’d get a midday break, I’m super charged for the rest of the afternoon. Doing something to move your body is truly a game changer. It adds for clarity. It adds for focus. I could stand on a pedestal and talk about that all day long the highest achievers that I know all build physical exercise physical activity into their day on, you know, the very consistent basis just like Ron laid out here. So

Ron Greenberg 30:30

Once you do that. I’m just gonna say once you do that, you’ll miss it if you don’t do it once the biggest part of your world, right? When you have a couple of days in a row where you don’t do it. You can’t do it for whatever reason you feel it,

Brittany Anderson 30:41

Amen. And it’s funny because my kids now like they know that mom needs her bike ride. And if I haven’t done it by a certain time in the day, they’ll be like, Wow, aren’t you? Aren’t you gonna go down and ride your bike? And I’m like, Yes, I am. So, down there. It’s so true. So Ron, as we wrap up the episode here, you know what final piece of knowledge genius advice would you like to leave for our listening audience?

Ron Greenberg 31:08

Be curious, and never think you have all the answers and always be interested in learning and growing and listening to others. You might listen to a lot of what you think to be hogwash, but if you don’t listen, with both ears open, you can always filter out what you don’t like and what doesn’t work for you or what you don’t think will work for you or what you don’t think makes sense. But stay open minded. Stay curious. Stay in that learning zone always. Because you’re never too old to keep learning and improving.

Brittany Anderson 31:41

That is absolutely valuable. Ron, thank you for sharing your time with all of us today. Truly, truly appreciate it.

Ron Greenberg 31:49

Pleasure was mine.

Brittany Anderson 31:50

Awesome. Well, that wraps up today’s episode of The Ultimate Advisor Podcast. We’ll catch you right back here next week.