Jonathan Self's career story is one of progression, loyalty and passion for the financial services industry. His commitment to 1847Financial and the meaningful relationships he's built along the way underscore the profound impact that a supportive workplace can have on professional growth and fulfillment.

He is now focused on helping elite advisors step into that next stage of their business growth, through organic growth and identifying partnership opportunities to achieve more. 

How long have you been in the financial services industry, and when did you start with 1847Financial?
Jonathan Self: Growing up, I watched my dad build a great career in this industry. I saw how much he valued that experience, and I saw the lifestyle he was able to create by helping other people. I always knew I wanted to get into this business, and I even had the opportunity to work with my dad for several years while he was running an office as a managing principal.

I started in the financial services business 17 years ago, on what was known as a career-builder contract with Penn Mutual. I have been here my entire career and have loved it. After several years in production, I was asked if I wanted to go into leadership, into a sales manager position.

I did that for probably four or five years. I built my own team as a sales manager, and then I moved into the managing director role, helping to manage our firm’s growth. It’s been an incredible process, building on these previous steps to gain experience and build relationships.

And the honest truth is, I've never even interviewed with another company. I love it here. I don't see any reason to look elsewhere. The neat thing about being here as long as I have is that I've created a lot of great relationships with people in the field and in the home office. A lot of them have been here a long time too.

What does your firm do better than other firms?
Jonathan Self: We have a game plan to recruit the people that we can best support. It’s deliberate and well thought out, and it pays off. 

Also, we understand the value of the resources 1847Financial has committed to us. We want those resources to go, exclusively, to elite advisors. Those people who will truly capitalize on those resources and gain the most from them. 

So, we are recruiting elite advisors. We want people who are top notch. That's who we're looking for. There are a lot of firms who are looking for anybody who can talk a good game. They just hire a bunch of warm bodies…but that saturates resources and dilutes impact. 

We're really good at helping elite advisors grow to the next level of success. We help them develop a well-rounded overall financial planning practice, or if they are already strong wealth managers, we can help them take their practice to the next level as a business, through teaming or growing in other ways. 

We're talking with several people right now that are doing a great, great job from a revenue standpoint. But they're capped out. They're really hitting these thresholds where they can't grow their business anymore. The way that it's currently structured, they’ve reached the limit of their scale. In our firm, we're really good at working with those experienced advisors to scale higher and higher.

Do you have examples of financial professionals who you've recently brought into the fold and have seen them achieve great things, reaching levels they struggled to achieve at their previous firm?
Jonathan Self: We brought on a group in Virginia. They came over from another mutual company, which wanted them to grow their practice in a very specific way that wasn’t the vision they saw for their own practice. 

So we started talking with them about what they needed. We worked with them to define what their ideal practice would look like, and we put together a growth plan, including different strategic partnerships they could consider. 

This year they'll do more than two million dollars of revenue. Which is probably four-to-five times their best year ever. They've been with us for 18 months. I got a text from their lead advisor over the weekend. He's doing business planning for next year, and he projects doing a million more than that next year. That’s an elite mindset!

We’ve helped them take the handcuffs off. Working with them has been a tremendous experience.  

We’ve also introduced that team to a senior advisor on our team who has been looking to start a practice succession plan for quite some time. So, that new team is buying into this senior advisor’s practice on a 50/50 basis, with a specific buyout plan over the next 5 years.

We’re really helping them multiply and do things on a bigger scale.

I think more planners need to start looking at acquisitions and partnerships with other advisors who are already doing great things, but they could do even greater things together. It’s a long play, but the payoff is often significant. 

Did the Penn Mutual Practice Development Team help you with the practice-succession process?
Jonathan Self: Yes, they did help. And they had several calls with me and this senior advisor over the years, encouraging us to work on a practice succession plan. Which really made me start thinking about the type of person this advisor needed to partner with. Tina Spenzos and Jen Viscosi, from the Penn Mutual Practice Development Team, were instrumental in surfacing the idea, getting us prepared and executing the agreement. 

How does a financial professional know they’re a good candidate to start practice succession talks or if they could step in to help a senior advisor begin a practice succession plan?
Jonathan Self: I think when you look at solopreneurs, solo-practitioners, there's only so many hours in the day. There's only so much knowledge that they can have as one person. Even if they're doing a great job, many of them can capitalize and grow by working with other successful financial professionals and forming teams. 

In some cases, that’s a great way to start the practice succession process. Sharing some of the work and expenses. That’s one thing that intrigued Jim and Mark, in the example above. Jim was thinking, “So I can spend less time in the office, have somebody help with the paperwork, and still trust that it will be done right because we're now part of the same team—we're a cohesive unit.” A lot of financial professionals are out there doing it all by themselves, and for many of them, that may not be the best way to move forward. 

How do you support financial professionals the most?  
Jonathan Self: We're not looking to just hire people. We want to hire the right people. People we know we can help grow, and who are (or are well on their way to becoming) elite financial professionals.” 

We need to make sure that this is the right fit for them (both in the short-term and the long-term view) and that’s it’s the right fit for us. The support here is all encompassing. We've got you on the marketing side. We've got the Practice Development and Advanced Sales Teams. We've got people at the local level. We understand what it means to grow a practice in a meaningful way…the correct way.

Tell me a little more about your ideal recruit candidate.
Jonathan Self: We’re looking for people who are actually running a business, or maybe right at the cusp of running a business. They’ve been earning significant revenue for years. They have staff. Most even have a small team; they're really running a business.

They also need to be well-rounded planners who want to grow. 

That's who we're looking for. If they're well-rounded planners with great revenue, but they don't want to grow, I don’t think we're the right spot for them. We'll talk about it, but we want people who want to grow.

What mistakes do you think financial professionals make when they transition from one firm to another?
Jonathan Self: Here’s a big one – find out who owns the book of business before you start to consider a transition. That's something that a lot of people don't really understand before they make the move.

With us, advisors own the client relationship. Advisors are our clients, and their clients are their clients. A lot of people don't ask that question in great detail, or what happens to the clients if the advisor moves to a different firm. What happens with those clients? Most of the time, those clients are clients of the carrier or company, period. 

Also, focus on what is realistic. There are a lot of companies out there, and some people will say just about anything to get somebody to make a move. Either from a monetary perspective or from a support perspective…products, underwriting, you name it. Trust but verify! 

And don’t be short-sighted in that. Sure somebody may pay a big transition bonus, but how does that stack up compared to how much they can help you build your annual revenue? 

What do you love most about this industry?
Jonathan Self: That I can do great things for other people while doing great things for myself and providing for my family. I never worry about the money; if I help enough people and make a big enough impact, I'll make plenty of money.

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