Joshua Herrington-Vickers is a dedicated financial services professional and US Air Force veteran. With a career rooted in service and a personal mission of bridging financial planning across borders, he embodies the core values of integrity, service before self, and excellence. Passionate about community and industry involvement, Joshua is also actively engaged with NAIFA, working to promote membership and collaboration among financial advisors. His journey from the military to the financial industry showcases a commitment to mentorship, advocacy, and protection of clients' futures, fostering growth at every step.

               

 

 

 

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

• [04:01] Joshua Herrington-Vickers shares his journey from military service to a career in financial advising
• [06:25] The parallels between Air Force core values and the ethos of a financial advisor
• [08:40] Joshua’s involvement with NAIFA
• [15:20] The challenges and rewards of serving in the military and transitioning to a financial advisor
• [19:10] How to get people involved and stay motivated with NAIFA
• [30:13] Joshua talks about his current practice in the financial services industry
• [34:38] The impact of mentorship and therapy in transitioning from military service to civilian life
• [38:31] Joshua’s personal struggle with PTSD and how therapy saved him
• [42:30] The significance of placing an eagle in your doorframe in decades past
• [49:53] Joshua explains the importance of engaging with NAIFA

In this episode…

Could there be a valuable connection between military service and financial advising? The discipline, camaraderie, and values carried from one can empower success in the other. But how can the lessons learned from serving a country translate to serving a community in finance?

Joshua Herrington-Vickers, a financial services expert, shares his journey from the US Air Force to becoming a director within a financial brokerage firm. He highlights how the military values of integrity, service before self, and excellence have propelled his success in the financial sector. Joshua opens up about his journey, from overcoming moments of loneliness in his service days to finding solidarity and support within the NAIFA community. His story illustrates how the discipline and commitment learned in the military can be seamlessly applied to advising clients and building a thriving practice, underscoring the importance of doing what is right for the client, even at the cost of personal gain.

In this episode of Advisor Today, co-hosts Chris Gandy and Suzanne Carawan interview Joshua Herrington-Vickers, a dedicated financial services professional and US Air Force veteran, about transitioning from military service to financial advising. Joshua shares the parallels between Air Force core values and the ethos of a financial advisor, the challenges and rewards of serving in the military and transitioning to a financial advisor, his involvement with NAIFA, and the impact of mentorship and therapy.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Chris Gandy on LinkedIn
• Suzanne Carawan on LinkedIn
• NAIFA
• Joshua Herrington-Vickers on LinkedIn

Quotable Moments:

• "The Air Force has three core values; integrity, service before self, and excellence in all we do."
• "NAIFA is more than just advocacy; it's the education, fellowship, and protecting our industry."
• "If we're going to do something, we're going to do the right thing for the client, for the advisor, and for everyone involved."
• "NAIFA needs you, and we'd love to bring the value to you, and we know that you can bring value to us."
• "Motivation wanes, but dedication sustained by milestones keeps you on the course."

Action Steps:

1. Embrace integrity and excellence: Adopting these values can ensure ethical soundness and a higher quality of work, fostering trust and respect among clients and colleagues.
2. Engage in mentorship and continuous learning: By seeking mentorship and being open to learning from industry veterans, gain valuable insights and guidance to accelerate professional development and navigate challenges effectively.
3. Connect with professional communities: Joining professional organizations can offer networking opportunities, access to resources, and a platform to share experiences and knowledge, thus enhancing professional growth and reducing isolation.
4. Utilize therapy and mental health resources: This can be crucial for maintaining overall well-being and ensuring mental resilience in both personal and professional life.
5. Revisit and align with your "why": Reconnecting with the fundamental reasons for choosing a career path or undertaking a project can reinvigorate motivation and dedication, especially when facing challenges.

Sponsor for this episode...

This episode is brought to you by the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, or NAIFA, the #1 association for producers in financial services. 

At NAIFA, we enhance professional skills, promote ethical conduct, and advocate for legislative and regulatory environments.

By joining NAIFA, you gain access to a partnership that elevates your performance while providing greater purpose to your professional work. NAIFA members are happier, make more money, and stay in the business longer.

Get in touch with NAIFA and learn more about how to join NAIFA by visiting NAIFA.org.

Episode Transcript

Intro 0:02 

Welcome to NAIFA's Advisor Today podcast series, where we focus on how financial advisors work, live, and give to their local communities and our greater financial services industry. Now, let's get started with the show.

Chris Gandy 0:20 

Hello everyone. Thanks for tuning in to Advisor Today's podcast where we give the voice of the advisor back to you so that we can learn and grow together. I'm here with my wonderful co-host, Suzanne Carawan on this Veterans Day. Hi, Suzanne, how are you doing?

Suzanne Carawan 0:37 

I'm great, Chris, how are you?

Chris Gandy 0:38 

I'm good, I'm good, I'm good. It's Veterans Day, and I know that before we got on, you were telling a little bit of a story, or you were discussing a story about where it even comes from, or where the opportunity was, so I won't steal your thunder. I'll let you do that. But we're happy to be here on Veterans Day, and honor to all those that have served. So with that being said, Suzanne, who is our sponsor for today's program.

Suzanne Carawan 1:05 

So today's sponsor is Life Happens Pro. Life Happens Pro, many of us are familiar with Life Happens, the consumer education arm of NAIFA putting out award-winning content. But what you might not know is that you can actually and by the way, all NAIFA members receive a curated version of life happens content to be able to put directly in front of their consumers and either create new relationships or to continue the ones you've got. But what you might not know is you can actually upgrade that subscription to Life Happens Pro and get a whole new way that you can automate your marketing to get in front of again, new leads, new clients. Tell the story. Raise awareness for life insurance Awareness Month, disability insurance Awareness Month, etc. Our next big one coming up. Currently we're on the Long Term Care Month. Of course, the content is there. The next one we're all gearing up for is February. And ensure your love month. And so thank you Life Happens Pro for sponsoring today.

Chris Gandy 2:01 

Awesome. So Suzanne, would you also introduce our wonderful guest to today's program?

Suzanne Carawan 2:08 

I would love to so in honor of being Veterans Day, we have a veteran with us. So we've asked Joshua Herrington-Vickers, out of Indiana, to be on the show with us today and talk about his career and where he is with NAIFA, Indiana, and all the pieces that he's playing today, and also a little bit about his military background, in honor of all of those who served, and I'm going to totally take a selfish move on top of it and say that big Happy Birthday shout out to my own son, NAIFA member, Jackson Carawan, who turns 21 today and as a hard at work playing lacrosse and studying at the University of Richmond.

Chris Gandy 2:08 

We can't wait for him to come into the business. Suzanne, yeah via, power forward in our world. So Joshua, how are you?

Joshua Herrington-Vickers 2:10 

Doing well, thank you so much for having me. I'm super honored and excited to be here.

Chris Gandy 3:00 

It's interesting we talk about Indiana right now. Everybody's typically hype about Indiana basketball, but for some reason, Indiana football is on the scene. Quite the conversation-starter, right?

Joshua Herrington-Vickers 3:17 

Yeah, we have among our leaders, we have a college football chat. And so just the other night, after the games ended, I just texted the group chat. I said, hey, who's number one in the division right now? And they said, Oregon. I said, maybe refresh your Google search. And so it's pretty exciting to be here and to feel the momentum of everyone around us as Indiana becomes kind of a football town.

Chris Gandy 3:36 

Yeah, that's kind of, that's kind of cool. All right, Joshua, so bring us up to speed. So how long have you been in the industry? Tell us a little bit about you. And Suzanne mentioned the fact that you are a veteran, or you're connected in that space. And again, kind of a little bit about your story, about how you ended up doing this business.

Joshua Herrington-Vickers 4:01 

Absolutely. So yeah, I served in the Air Force, I graduated high school, I went to community college for a bit, and I was like, All right, I don't know what I want to do with my life, and so all right, I'll join the military till I figure it out. And then I joined the military. I did my six years. I met my wife, and I was ready to get out, and I still didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. So I was like, all right, we'll go to college. Go to college and we'll figure it out. So we went to college on the GI Bill, which is one of the best benefits that the military provides. We graduated college and we still didn't know what we wanted to do with our life. And so we said, all right, we're just going to send out some applications and we'll just kind of let God decide our path. Whoever says yes to Josh, Josh is going to say yes to them, and we're going to move forward. And Ryan Penny, at Penny Insurance happened to be right up the road, and they said yes to Josh, and Ryan brought me in.

I've only been in the industry since 2020, so going on four years now, and Ryan brought me in, and he had me on his application team desk, where we served advisors all over the country, and we helped their clients fill out the application. We coordinated exams, we did all the processing for it. And he saw me do that for a couple months, and he said, okay, we're going to move you over to sales. Had me in sales for a couple months. Said, we're going to move you over brokerage. And Ryan has really fostered my growth. And as he exited Penny Insurance, and they were able to have a successful exit, he found himself aligned with Steven Kagawa, and I got a phone call, and he said, hey, Josh, you got to see what we're doing over here. It's totally different, and radically different from what you were working on, and I'd love to be able to build something with you. And so I've been working at The Pacific Bridge Companies for the last three, going on four months now, helping to build out their United States brokerage and being able to wear many hats and be able to assist where I can.

Chris Gandy 5:56 

So serving in the Military to share with us a little bit about the parallels of being an insurance advisor and or being an insurance advisor and being in the military. What are some of the traits that you learned in the military that make the financial service business, a business that just seems to make sense?

Joshua Herrington-Vickers 6:25 

Absolutely. So the Air Force has three core values, integrity, service before self, and excellence in all we do. And those core values are something that I still carry very near and dear to my heart, right? So if we're going to move forward what Steven calls pono. I call integrity and everything, right? So if we're going to do something, we're going to do with the right thing for the client for the advisor, for everyone involved, we're going to move forward with righteousness and integrity. I can tell you, we had a situation where we had, we've gotten some bad numbers, and we thought that there might be an opportunity for the client to 1035 their annuity and get better income if they moved it over. And then when we looked at it later and double-checked, we recognized that the client's better in their current situation. So okay, tell them to turn on income, right? You lose the commission, but you do the right thing, right? And that will come back to you 10-fold. Service before self.

The mission always comes first, right? Sometimes we're working on a Saturday, right? Because that's the right thing to do. We have a late deadline. We're going to put the mission first and make sure that we are putting service before self, and then the last one is easy, excellence in all we do. If we're going to wake up and we're going to come to work and we're going to clock in, we're going to log in, we're going to make sure that we're operating with the best that we can be. Right? We don't have to be the best in the space, but we have to bring forward our best to every situation. So those three core values have served me in the Air Force. They've served me in my volunteer work. They serve me with my family, to be a good spouse. They served me to be a good father, and they served me to be the best in the insurance and financial advising space as well.

Chris Gandy 8:09 

So where did NAIFA come into play, like you're already serving your clients? Then this NAIFA group comes knocking at the door and says, hey, by the way, I know you have an abundance of time, and we would really like you to volunteer most of it to our mission. So how did NAIFA become an important part of your ongoing development training and also kind of a part of your DNA?

Joshua Herrington-Vickers 8:40 

Absolutely. I mean, Jan and Ryan Penny, right? They love NAIFA. They believe in NAIFA. They are NAIFA zealots, right? So anyone that joined their organization, day one, you're told you will be a member of NAIFA. This is non-negotiable. If you want to succeed and you want to remain in our industry, you need to be active and involved in NAIFA, right? But then I went to my first meeting out here in Indiana, and that's when I really became what I'd call in NAIFA zealot. And really, really believed and saw and drank the Kool Aid. Daniel Stallings, our current NAIFA president, the time I went to Day on the Hill, and I walk into the room, I haven't met these people before. I just moved from California to Indiana, and he immediately comes up and with just the most personable person you'll ever meet, and welcomes me with open arms and hears my story and takes me around and shares with me that for him, NAIFA is more than just the advocacy that we do, protecting our clients, protecting our industry, protecting our livelihoods. It's more than just the education that we receive from each other, but it's the fellowship that NAIFA brings.

And I was in, I went to my next meeting, and then I went up to Daniel again, and I said, okay, how do I be more involved? How can I help grow NAIFA? How can I share the value of NAIFA with other advisors? And so they said, Well, we really need help on the Communications Committee. We need to make it younger. We need to make it fresher. We need to bring a younger perspective. We need to leverage social media so he puts me to work there. And like you said, when you have an abundance of time, NAIFA will help fill that spot. But I truly believe in the work that NAIFA does, being able to actually have a direct conduit with legislators, being able to go to the state house and be able to have those conversations and be able to draft the course for the future, as well as being able to give mentorship and to receive mentorship from great leaders in our space. That's probably the greatest value, as NAIFA given me is when I signed up for a mentor through NAIFA and Baker Ron signed up as well, and we got matched, and we actually just met each other for the first time at MDRT edge, where she'd been mentoring me for a year.

We met every other week virtually, and she helped grow my practice. She was there when we talked greatly on personal levels. And so the first time we saw each other, and I felt like I had known her my whole life. NAIFA has given me great friendships. They've given me great mentorship, but it's also given me a chance to protect and preserve our industry, which I think is super important — now more than ever.

Chris Gandy 11:19 

Indiana, so California and Indiana, that's, yeah. How'd that happen?

Joshua Herrington-Vickers 11:26 

So, me and my wife both met at Effie Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming. She'd just come back from Japan, and she got orders there where I'd spent my entire time, and we both got out. We both went to college. She gets a great job, working for Riskalyze, and then she comes home one day and says, hey, I really, really miss it. I really miss being Sergeant Vickers, and I think I want to sign back up. And so I'm a little bit crushed, because, she was my sugar mama. She had a great job. She was gonna decide where we went and what we did, and now we're going back to the military. And so we were stationed in California at Beale Air Force Base for quite a bit, but she received an amazing opportunity to come and be a strong leader out here at Grissom Air Reserve Base. And so we took it, we packed up the dogs, packed up the car, we drove all the way here, and it's been such a blessing. Indiana has become a great second home to us, and we're so happy to become Hoosiers. I miss California. I miss my home in California. I miss the fresh produce a lot. I really love the home that we've built here.

Suzanne Carawan 12:41 

So she's still active-duty.

Joshua Herrington-Vickers 12:43 

So she is active Guard Reserve. So it's kind of this blessed middle ground that not many people know about. You get to be active-duty, but in the reserves. And so it's really kind of the best of both worlds, a great hidden secret.

Chris Gandy 13:00 

You hear about the conditioning and the mental fortitude of people that are in the military, and I sit on a board of a group called a not for profit, called Healing Can't Wait, I get a chance to talk to some of the veterans, and they talk about this exemplary level of discipline and mental fortitude, right? And so to be in that space. How do you transition that into, I guess, volunteerism, and bring that same kind of level of the 1% of the 1%. How do you channel that kind of mental toughness and that mental fortitude to use it in a positive way, right? Because, obviously you can use it in a not-so-positive way, right? Yeah, take over the world, right? There's that side of it, but obviously you've chosen to use it in a very positive way. So, talk to us a little bit about that experience. Like, what was it like going through it?

People ask me all the time I played sports, and they're like, hey, what was I like to dribble basketball or professional basketball? Like, okay, yeah, cool. But what was it like, I guess, going into the service, representing your country, right? And doing that unique perspective, what was some of the things as you were going through, because you were young at the time, right? That you were telling yourself to kind of get through it and talk a little bit about the mental toughness and just the physicality of it all, and then how did you push yourself ahead or to overcome and to excel into and to achieve, graduating, doing all the things now and now transitioning. So talk to us a little bit, take us back into the space like so tell us a little bit about the mental toughness that it took and physical toughness of just, I guess, having the world on your shoulders there, right?

Joshua Herrington-Vickers 15:20 

Well, one, I was Air Force, right? So I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I was Army, Marines, and the physical toughness was as hard as others had, but I would say from day one, there's a different standard set than elsewhere. You walk in and you know from day one, what's expected of you, and you're going to deliver, right? Because they kind of build you up early, you know, like you are the few that raise your hand and we're willing to be here, so you will overcome, and you will champion, and that kind of helps you get through basic, right? You're okay, we're all together. We're brothers. We're going to lock in, we're going to push forward, we're going to make it, but that, like motivation wanes, right and goes away over time, but dedication is a different breed, right? That's what actually gets you up in the morning. That's what makes you choose to be there. That's what makes you want to lock in. And so that motivation over dedication was something that I learned from Master Sergeant Tony Gitron, so it's my first week on base.

I'm at Effie Warren. It's winter. It's cold. We got volunteered to go move a giant commercial refrigerator from one building to another, right? This is grunt work. This is what e1 is supposed to be doing. All the young guys are supposed to get up and move this thing, and we're gonna muscle it over. But Master Tony Gitron was a crusty old dude. He's old, right? He had no hair, he wore stripes on his shoulder, and you know what he did? He was the first guy that took off his blouse, got down and started moving the fridge. And I saw that, and I was like, that's a lever. That's a leader. That's the leader that I want to be, that's the leader that I want to follow, and that's who sargitron was, is he would never ask anyone to do anything that he wasn't going to do himself. And so I'm younger, right? I've got I heal quicker. I've got more time on my hands, right? But I wasn't going to be outworked by my leader. And so I really learned from starting Gitron that anything I do, I'm going to set the standard. I'm going to be the leader that leads from the front.

I'm never going to ask anyone to do anything that I'm not willing to roll up my sleeves and do myself. And that made such an impression upon me that that's how I moved from that day forward. The mental toughness Joshua was not that tough of a guy, right? But the leader that I want to be is going to be a leader who's strong, even if I don't feel it inside. That's how I'm going to move forward with purpose.

Chris Gandy 17:51 

You mentioned a couple things there, expectations, right? I mean, you entered the military with expectations, right? You didn't go in saying, hey, yeah, we're not going to win. You guys went in saying we're the bad we're the bad boys, right? We get it done, regardless...

Suzanne Carawan 18:15 

You will champion, which I love, I love the phrase thinking you will champion. That's a great phrase, right? Sorry Chris.

Chris Gandy 18:21 

Yeah, there's a couple of great phrases out of there that he just kind of dropped nuggets on motivation over dedication, because motivation wins. I mean that I’m going to borrow that from you there, Josh, and we're going to use that. But because I think as NAIFA members, I think they are, I think we have people that are motivated in spurts, and then we have the truly dedicated ones that sometimes don't have the motivation. We've got a little bit of both in our, yeah, so I'm gonna ask Josh. I'm gonna kick this to him, how would you motivate? How would you dedicate the motivated and how would you motivate the dedicated? Let's see. Let's hear what his thoughts were. I love it.

Joshua Herrington-Vickers 19:10 

I think that power lies in reconnecting with the why, right? We all joined NAIFA for a reason. We all chose this industry for a reason. We all do things in our life for a reason. But man, does life get busy, right? I mean, this is the busiest time of year for some of our members, and it's really easy to lose the why, it's really easy to lose that motivation, because life gets really noisy, and your motivation and your purpose can be lost inside that noise, right? And so helping others understand and reconnect with their why, I think, is some of the most important and powerful things that we can do as leaders. Brief segue into a story, but so we are the gas kickers here at Grissom right? Our families, our spouses, they support the refueling mission. So we are an in-flight refueling base, and one of the blessings that I get to do as a key support liaison in my volunteer time is once a year, they take us up, and we get to go and we get to see a refueling happen. And so I was telling the other volunteers why they need to go on this trip. I know it's a Saturday, and we all have families.

I know that, man, if Saturdays are such a special and rare time that being asked to go on base and then hang out all day and then go up can seem like a burden, but it's so important of reconnecting with our why, understanding why we support our families, why we support the Air Force family as a whole, why we volunteer, because when you go up there and you remember, and you see, like we are the best in the world, we are gas kickers, like we do fuel the fight, that is what we're born to do, and that's what we're doing here, and that's why our spouses go and that's the importance that we have. You do that, and then you get that motivation again, right? You get to be able to remain dedicated, because you get to reconnect your why. So for NAIFA, sometimes even with fellow members, it's asking them again why they joined, and then helping them pull that story from them of why they're here in the first place, why they're showing it to meetings, why it matters to them. I know for Kyle, Kyle, sir, who's on our board, is his why is that when he entered a room, it's his best friends.

It's the barbecues, right? I know for others, it's the advocacy. It's watching how NIAFA has kicked down doors and battled for its people, and that's their why, right? And I know everybody's why is a little bit different, and so helping people remember their why and reconnecting with it, I think it's a great way to refine that motivation. And the dedication, I mean, I think that comes from staying the course, from understanding the long-term goals and then building the milestones along the way. Right? Like there are many things I want in my personal and professional life, and I can only be motivated about them when I'm excited about the idea, but I can be dedicated about them when I create small milestone goals that are going to help me feel like I'm still in the course, and that helps me cut out the noise, that helps me stay connected with what I want to do and how we want to get there. My wife's going to work at the Pentagon. That is our long-term goal for her career. We want her to help draft policy so that she can make the Air Force a better place for the people behind her. Okay, so right now we're in Indiana, we're kind of bogged down.

Man, she's working 14-hour days, some days, some days, she's working 14 days straight, and it gets hard, but understanding, okay, we did this now we're going to do this and look at where we're at, and that long term goal doesn't seem so far off, and we're going to remain dedicated to this path, because we're doing the small things along the way, and we're taking stock in those wins, and that's how we're going to remain on the path, and that's how I done it. I don't know if that works for everyone, but that's been very successful for our family.

Chris Gandy 22:47 

Interesting. You're very grounded. My observation is that you're very grounded, and that helps kind of stick to the principles and the basics of, kind of your why. But also, Josh, I'll say, I wanted to be in the Air Force. And I remember going to, I'll tell a quick story. I wanted to be in the Air Force. You know, when I graduated from college, I didn't think I was actually going to play basketball anymore, because just didn't think so. So I had already pretty much signed up to go to the Air Force, right? And they were like, you're going to be, here's what you're going to do, you're going to see the world, right? And I asked the question along the way, in like, our third interview, because you go through the interview process or whatever, and I remember asking the question. I said, I just have one question. How long is it? What do I need to do? I gave an example of how I accomplish things in sports and how I was able to really work hard. I worked everyone, work ethic, blah, blah.

And then I asked the question, when will I get the ply of one of those Tom Cruise jets? And they were like, likely never. And I go, well, what do you mean? I got 2020, I like, studied 20. Oh, you got a perfect vision. You have to be able to do well on the math test, all the things, right? And then they told me, they said, not because of that. They said it simply because that's a few people, but you kind of like, that's prefabricated. Most of that stuff. You really can't be over. I think they said five, seven or something like that. And they were like, that's tight, no custom jet, most of the pilots. So I said, you know what they said? Though, you could fly one of those big, one of those big ones, the aircraft carriers and those, and you could do those.

But Josh, my point in saying that was, I think every kid has a fascination with I'm just speaking of the Air Force, right? And you're flying airplanes and like, oh, that's. kind of the cool thing. What I did, I can speak to it myself and the people that don't want to go on Saturday, right? Because I know if I've studied this, or at least enough to be dangerous, don't me. But I believe, like, in midair, like you guys have to be going like a certain speed, and you have to be like, so close that literally, there's like, a thing that's one end to the other. And, like, you have to be able to connect it into, like this, like, guiding system. Like, dude, that's insane. Like, do you know what people would pay to actually get the opportunity to actually see it? And so I think because you guys are in it, the other people, they take advantage of the fact, I've seen it yet, 1,000 times, just a Saturday. Got all those other things. But if you were to call me Josh and say, Gandy. I don't care if I'm halfway across the country. I'm flying back. I'm like, Josh, when we are going, what time do I need to be there? Man? Like, I'm here. Like, I want to see it happen. And it just goes to show that we have a tendency to take advantage of things that we take for granted, you know, those, those things that are special, those things that are unique, those things that, what's taken for granted for you, for me, may be a once in a lifetime dream or gift, and I think we as members have an opportunity to do something very similar.

I think we take advantage of all the things that we know and all the things that advocacy does, and all the things like we take advantage of that, and we say, oh, of course, it's good we do those things, but to a layman person who has no idea what that is. I think we have an opportunity to really give them a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and a gift to do something pretty cool, similar to if Josh ever calls, listen, Josh, boom. Listen, you want to call me? Say, Gandy, I can get you up there on a Saturday. I'm there. I'm in Illinois, right down the street.

Suzanne Carawan 27:03 

Right, right down the street.

Chris Gandy 27:04 

Not that I could get clearance Suzanne, but.

Joshua Herrington-Vickers 27:09 

Yeah, no, I think you raise a great, great point is we can kind of take advantage of all that we have. This is something that I really want to empower at least NAIFA Indiana, to be doing is doing better discoveries with our members, because NAIFA has so much on the shelf for them. We have so much behind us to support our members, to help build and launch careers, to help empower each other, to help do so much for them. But sometimes it's all there, and it's hard to remember all the pieces, all the things that we can do, right? And so my challenge to my other members, is, let's do greater discoveries with our new members. Let's learn about them better. Let's learn about their practice. We do great discoveries with our clients, right? We do great discoveries in our day to day, and we know that discovery is how we find the true need and how we can provide true value, and we need to take that same model and bring it to our fellow members. Because we are a member-to-member organization, we are driving value for each other. And so if we can do better discoveries with each other, and we can have a great understanding of what's on the shelf behind us, we can take things off the shelf as they apply. I needed great mentorship.

I needed someone to help me move forward, help me see what I'm not seeing, and help me bring more value. And so NAIFA brought that to me. I know many people need different things, but NAIFA has it all. We are the One Stop, powerhouse where we come. You need marketing support, NAIFA can help you know Life Happens. You need a better understanding of concepts and models, I guarantee you that the minds that are in NAIFA probably wrote the book on what you're trying to learn about, and they can help you. And NAIFA is a group of people, like-minded individuals, that want to make the industry better and want to make each other better. And we can tie each other in and help each other in a great way. We just sometimes forget and take for granted all that we have because we've been here. But I think if we do better discoveries, we can truly, truly bring back NAIFA to where it once was and help it shine again.

Chris Gandy 29:12 

Yeah, Josh, you mentioned the fact that the greatness, right, of just almost the moment, right? When you're accomplishing, you just remind me of something when you're able to accomplish something that very, very, very, very few get an opportunity to do. We overlook just some of the awe behind it, right? And we've got an amazing opportunity, not only just Indiana, but the united the nation right to collectively help the good of everyone around us, and then help our communities right through the work in which we do. So, Josh, you mentioned where kind of you started your career. Share with us a little bit about your career. Now, your practice, what you're doing, and then ultimately your future, where do you see yourself and down the road?

Joshua Herrington-Vickers 30:13 

Absolutely So yeah, I came in, worked for Ryan for a bit. He helped me build out of brokerage, and I got to partner with a bunch of great advisors to be able to help empower their practice. And then now here at The Pacific Bridge Companies, we're doing that again. And so my current charge and title is director of us brokerage. But when you're at The Pacific Bridge Companies, you truly operate with the spirit of ohana. And so where things are needed, you step up and help. And so I get to assist with amazing cases that the Japanese division is bringing right? I get to assist on amazing things that others are doing. And so I really adopt this idea of no nexus, no problem, right? Where we really want to bridge financial planning and make it a global idea. We want to remove borders from planning and bring access to those who currently don't have it. And that's really where Stephen is empowered to drive lasting and meaningful change to the industry, is to globalize financial planning.

And so I'm just super excited to be able to help fulfill that mission by helping other advisors see the opportunities that they might have had to have stayed said no to before. My mind has been kind of blown every day that I've been here. It's such a wonderful team to be a part of. And as a brokerage guy, right? You talk to tons of advisors every day, and then you get tons of scenarios thrown at you, and then I'm learning some of the things that they're doing here that is different than elsewhere. And I'm like, in my head, I'm racking, oh man, I said no to an opportunity that we probably could have done. And so it's just such an amazing team to be on, where the ideas and the collaborative spirit that flows forth is just opening opportunities that I would never would have been able to chase down before.

Chris Gandy 32:12 

So talk to me about your path with NAIFA. Are you raising your hand? Are you helping? Are you on committees and boards, and share with us a little bit about your path in NAIFA, and then ultimately, kind of where you're taking that.

Joshua Herrington-Vickers 32:29 

So I started on the Communications Committee, and we built out our online presence, our social media, try to get more involved, try to reach and engage with our members in a more deliberate and effective way. And I'll also sit here and tell you that social media is awesome, email is great, but that phone tree is still super important. We are a member-to-member organization, so I'm always beating the drum of hey, call your people. But this year, I was asked to join the board for NAIFA, Indiana, so I'm super excited to be on the board, and then now I'm also going to be chairing the Communications Committee. Chris Bart house is phenomenal, and he's really graciously allowed me to take the reins and run forward, and I'm super excited to have him on my team to champion me and help me and help me learn some lessons along the way. And I'm excited to work with them and bring some fresh ideas. Our board's gotten a lot younger this year, a lot more yachts are stepping up to bring ideas and to bring kind of the passion and motivation and youthful spirit to our team. And so our goal there is really to re-energize and bring in new blood and grow membership is our biggest task right now.

Chris Gandy 33:47 

So they collectively, that's for all of us, right? Suzanne, right? Suzanne, shaking her head, absolutely. Membership. Membership, membership. Suzanne, your world, I've been asking a lot of questions. So, yeah, I'm fascinated by, I'm fascinated by the Air Force thing. I don't care if you were fired.

Suzanne Carawan 34:05 

Yeah, listen, I didn't know that about you.

Chris Gandy 34:07 

Fascinated by that, because I've seen, I mean, it's one of those things that, as a child, you like, gosh, if I could ever do that. But I am curious, what was the hardest thing Josh about going through the military for you. I mean, everybody's experience is different. What was the hardest thing for you going through the military?

Joshua Herrington-Vickers 34:38 

It's one of the largest brotherhood organizations, and yet you can feel incredibly lonely at times. And I think that the mental toughness to kind of push through when your wife is deployed, when you're deployed and you're not seeing your family. I worked in the missile field, and so you'd go out for like five days at a time, and you'd be away from home. And so one of the toughest challenges for me was navigating through loneliness, staying committed to what we're doing and why, and being able to kind of process through that.

And I think that it, I see a lot of parallels in our industry now, especially post-COVID, it can be a lonely place, a lot of us now work from home, right? A lot of us can work behind the screen. We can get locked in on what we're doing, and I could come back to it always comes back to NAIFA, but NAIFA brings me brotherhood and allows me to be less lonely and have a place where I can have peer to peer interaction. I'm in Indiana, but my office is in California. I might go back once a month, but there's still three weeks where I might not interact with another person in our space. And so NAIFA helped drive through that loneliness for me.

Chris Gandy 35:50 

I always thought that there was a unique parallel. I always thought that everyone in the military should come into financial services because it's way easier than the work they were doing with their mind and body and the work they were doing before. I have always said that there's, there's some unique parallels between the two that make this business fairly easy, because they're able to overcome the obstacles. And think it's part of, it's just part of the mission, right? I've always said that, but in my time, and I want to hear your thoughts on it is we recruited, we went out and we recruited some advice. And I'm thinking about people that come to the industry, went out and recruited some advisors. And part of the challenge was they had extreme PTSD, right? And I mean, to the point where we were, like, worried about the people, like, they would go have apartments, and they would like, stay on the floor of the apartment, like they were in the field. And I was like, Are you okay, right?

And I couldn't quite connect with them to get them back to kind of the space, it's super sad that you know, super talented and capable people that didn't get the help necessary to be able to re-engage or level, set back into the everyday work life, right? So, how did you do it? How did you, like you mentioned the loneliness part. How did you transition? Because people ask me that about sports all the time. How did you transition from sports to financial services, and so you can get that same juice, right? That same kind of, out of it that you got so you don't go through that psychological dip where it feels like the world is against you. I just want your opinion on it, because I think it's important that we understand that, a lot of people go through a lot of things, and we recruit people into this business and without giving them all the tools they need, yes, teaching them insurance and annuities and things like that, or things they need, but at the end of the day, how can we better support understanding kind of just your perspective may help us understand how to support others who come into our industry, who have a background in the military that we could help them kind of overcome some of the stuff going on in their head and in their mind and some of the stuff they've seen quite frankly.

Joshua Herrington-Vickers 38:31 

No, and honestly, we're going to get real, real here. Chris, I had a PTSD diagnosis myself. Therapy was life-changing and transformative for me. I had an amazing therapist, Rebecca, who really invested in me and we put in the work. And she went out and learned about EMDR, which is a type of therapy that really works well, at least worked very well for me, with my trauma and my PTSD, and we work through it like you got to keep going. Sometimes it's darkest before dawn, and it gets rough. But if someone is struggling, therapy is an absolute game changer and lifesaver. If you are a veteran, the VA has resources military one source is there as well. There's a lot of resources available to you. You can always reach out to me and I'll help connect you with those resources. But for me, the therapy was so, so important bridging that gap.

I've had other friends that have done other modalities of therapy, but almost every one that has successfully transitioned from the military and kind of been able to make peace with their service and be able to look back on it with a sense of peace, has gone through some form of therapy, or at least gotten a coach, someone that has bridged that gap before, someone that can help them walk through that storm, and someone has seen the other side. And so for me, right? Like, I always go to mentorship, right? Like I would go to therapy like it was the gym. We're going to work out, right? We're going to work on physical health, mental health, both kind of go hand in hand. So we're going to come in here, we're going to work out for 60 minutes, and we go back out in the world. So when I take calls with Anne and we work on mentorship, I'm working out for an hour.

We're gonna figure that. We're gonna dive deep. I'm gonna get uncomfortable. She's gonna call me on my stuff, right? And sometimes she has to, but having people who have made it through before and are willing to coach and walk with you, I think makes all the difference. But you raise a great point. And I think you mentioned something about some of your volunteer work is in that space as well.

Chris Gandy 40:47 

Yeah, therapy is like mental push-ups, every type of muscle, right? And at the end of the day, we have to be vulnerable enough, right, and honest with ourselves, right? So really look in the mirror and understand that we all have flaws and that we have to be willing to work on those things. I think having the opportunity to discuss just some of those things with you are super important. You're a NAIFA member, you're young, you're excited about bringing Indiana back to glory days. You're super excited about Indiana football, which is, I think it's a unique opportunity. Neat time, right? It is 1111, and Indiana's in the top 10. I mean, so, yeah, Suzanne, we may not see this time anymore. So Joshua, next week, it might be different, unique opportunity to enjoy it. And what is it? The Hoosiers, that's right, the Hoosiers, they're doing a great job. So, Suzanne, do you have anything else for Joshua, before we speed off to the lightning round, you did mention Susanna over, I feel over. I did hear, hear hustle, some conversation you guys were having about an eagle or something, and that I was just saying, can you guys share a little bit of that? Or what?

Suzanne Carawan 42:16 

Just fun facts that came up, conversationally this week, with which is, one is that Veterans Day, you know, really came out of World War 1, and then it became a federal holiday years later, etc. But it kind of started there. But then the other piece, we started thinking about the fact that we were talking about how our belief is that the Americana stuff, and it's going to be a big swing towards all sorts of America, all things Americana, very soon. And in doing that, we started talking about home decor and eagles, and how people used to adorn their houses with eagles all the time. And if you remember going through small towns, especially, you see it all the time, like houses were built in the 30s, 40s, 50s, etc. Well, come to find out, the we've looked it up, and the actual meaning of putting an eagle over your door frame was to tell your neighbors that you were actually debt free, and you had freedom from debt. So it actually has a nice financial tie in which, who knew, right?

So you could say, like, you've paid off your mortgage, and when you did that, you got the eagle, and you put it atop the door, and all your neighbors knew you had the freedom from debt. And that was like, a very American homeowner dream to get there. It was just a fun fact that kind of tied all in with everything we're doing financially and with Veterans Day and whatnot. And then I'll say thank you for your service, Joshua, and with your wife as well, and all of our NAIFA members, including shout out to Ryan Penny, who is in multiple branches of the military, and definitely did his time, as did all of his family members. And for those NAIFA members who are a veteran, we want to know who you are and honor you. We have a special page that's now in the member portal listing all of our veterans praising you 365 days a year for all that you've done for us and for our freedom. But yes, thank you very much, Joshua, we're very excited. I'm excited you're going to be extension to the national membership committee. You know that's coming. You're already on it. You're already on my list. So, consider yourself in.

Joshua Herrington-Vickers 44:02 

I just want to say quickly, it was an absolute honor to serve, and I got a lot more out of it than I was ever able to put in.

Chris Gandy 44:22 

That was the easiest rolling enrolling session ever, right there. I like that. I like the fact, yeah, and that's just coming like you're on it, yep. So it's an assumed close, Josh, that's what that's called. It's called the assume close, unless you tell her, no, then it's a yes.

Joshua Herrington-Vickers 44:39 

Oh no. I've learned Suzanne's text. He says, What are you doing Monday at noon? I said, Whatever Suzanne tells me. And so, yeah, Suzanne says, I got to be there. I'm gonna be there.

Suzanne Carawan 44:48 

Best answer ever, loved it. It was like, Oh, I loved it.

Chris Gandy 44:53 

We appreciate you being here. We appreciate you being open and honest with NAIFA nation. We are on all platforms. If you haven't heard Advisor Today, please Google it. Look it up. We're on Spotify. We're on Apple Music. We're on some of everywhere, I think YouTube. Suzanne.

Suzanne Carawan 45:10 

Yeah, we're on YouTube too. Yes, we are. Yes, we are.

Chris Gandy 45:14 

With that being said, Suzanne, let's go to the lightning round show.

Suzanne Carawan 45:17 

Let's do it. Yeah, let's do it.

Chris Gandy 45:19 

All right, so Joshua, have you watched any of them? I'm not gonna put you on the spot, but have you watched any Advisors Today podcast? If you have not, it's okay. But basically, long as we're gonna ask you a series of questions, those questions, I just want you to be yourself. That's it. Super simple. Okay, don't overthink it, Josh, whatever comes to mind, that's what you say, right? So, really easy, Josh, what's your favorite food?

Joshua Herrington-Vickers 45:42

Lasagna.

Chris Gandy 45:43 

Lasagna. What do you miss most about California?

Joshua Herrington-Vickers 45:47 

The produce.

Chris Gandy 45:48 

You say the produce, what kind of produce? Anything specific?

Joshua Herrington-Vickers 45:51 

Oh, green peppers, that just stay fresh.

Chris Gandy 45:57 

Interesting. Josh, who would you say has been a mentor to you in the business that has kind of changed your life?

Joshua Herrington-Vickers 46:09 

Ryan Penny.

Chris Gandy 46:10 

Ryan Penny, okay, why Ryan Penny?

Joshua Herrington-Vickers 46:14 

Ryan has fostered my growth every step of the way. He's pushed me to be uncomfortable. He's pushed me to do that next step and to grow. And he's been there with me and taken me under his wing. And also he's kind of pulled me back from the ledge a couple times too. So when we talk about wanting to walk through with someone who's been there, Ryan's done that for me a lot.

Chris Gandy 46:35 

Your proudest moment in the financial services industry so far?

Joshua Herrington-Vickers 46:43 

That's tough. There's a lot of great moments, but I think that, and it's the first time that my staff messaged me and said, oh, just had a really tough call, because we did client services as well. A wife called in looking for her husband's policy. But we had it, we wrote it, and I got to tell my wife that night, like, oh, I remember this case. I was on the application team, and we did it. I'd gone to brokerage, but it was just knowing that, like, we protected someone's family, and we were a part of that process, and I kind of been chasing that high ever since, right, like, there's no greater feeling than actually being able to deliver and experience your purpose, right?

Chris Gandy 47:26 

All right? Joshua, this one's a little bit hard. Okay, so I'm going to ask, I don't know if you eat cereal now, or used to eat it when you were a kid. Everybody used to have a little cereal. So I was asking this question to one of my couple of my friends, your favorite cereal growing up Josh?

Joshua Herrington-Vickers 47:41 

Cinnamon toast crunch. My dad used to eat it every single morning before he drove to work. And so, it's just different, and it's just special.

Chris Gandy 47:51 

Yep, Josh, you’ve got to eat it before it gets super soft. It tears your mouth up right before. And then once the Indian then you gotta eat it right in between, because I kind of a sweet spot. It's like, you got, like, you got like, two minutes to get it done, small window of opportunity, right? The little things, and then Josh, final thing for you is, well, two things, you could go back in time and have dinner with any historian, sports figure, past family member, anybody you want, or someone who's alive today, and you just want to pick their brain. Question, who would you invite to dinner and why?

Joshua Herrington-Vickers 48:35 

I'd really want to ask my great-grandfather. He was Army Air Corps. He's the reason I picked the Air Force over the army. They were really pitching me on driving a tank. But I heard a lot of great things about this man, and he died when I was two. So if I could learn more from him, and kind of know what was real and what was a tall tale that we just told each other, that'd be really great. Because one thing I used to hear the story that he was a pilot in the Army Air Corps, right? No, I pulled his records. He was a typist, but that's fine, right? We learned new things. So I'd love to know what was true and what was maybe, pumped up after he left to tell a young man a really cool story about his great-grandpa.

Chris Gandy 49:19 

Josh, I'll say, hopefully they tell the tales about the work we did, why we were here. That it's way bigger than the work we did, right? Hopefully we've inspired people enough that that becomes the case. So Josh NAIFA nation is listening; anything you would like to share with your colleagues, the young NAIFA members, the Yak members, the older members, the motivated or the dedicated, anything you would like to share to our NAIFA nation. We're all listening.

Joshua Herrington-Vickers 49:53 

We are a member-to-member organization. We are a member-driven and member-led organization. And that means that it takes us all. It's really easy to sit on the sidelines and be a fan of what NAIFA is doing, but you need to suit up, you need to get on the field, and you need to be involved. You have a lot to give, and you also have a lot to receive. And unless we engage and dive in with 10 toes deep, we're not going to be what we can be. And so I just ask that if you haven't engaged with the value of NAIFA in a while, if you've kind of been sitting back, if you've been on the sidelines, reach out and ask how you can be more involved. And we'd all be happy to help. NAIFA needs you, and we'd love to bring the value to you, and we know that you can bring value to us.

Chris Gandy 50:39 

Thank you so much Joshua. Suzanne, yes, follow Joshua there. Suzanne, anything before we close out?

Suzanne Carawan 50:51

I'm going to drop one little fun fact that neither of you knew, when I was at The Ohio State University as a freshman, I was enrolled in Army ROTC, and it's the biggest regret that I have that I did not stay with that and serve our country. One of my it's in the regret column, but yes, there you go. Add to it. Yeah. So I think I really love our veterans. Love it's just great.

Chris Gandy 51:14 

Well, Suzanne, you are a soldier of arms of NAIFA, and we are thankful for all your service in many ways, and so are all the people who are out there listening. So those who are out here listening, celebrate our veterans on Veterans Day, it is 1111. Joshua, thank you, one of our young leaders in Indiana, but goes back and forth to California. Suzanne, who works tirelessly on membership and all the initiatives. And thank all of you for listening to Advisor Today's podcast, where we give you back the voice of the advisors around the country, so that we can all collectively be better for our communities. Thank you for tuning in today. And as Josh said, there's the motivated and the dedicated, the motivation wanes. So check your motivation. And like Josh said, Put on your suit, it's time for us to go to work, and so we look forward to seeing you next time on Advisor Today. Have a great day.

Outro 52:18 

Thanks for joining us for NAIFA's Advisor Today podcast series, make sure to subscribe to get future episodes, and if you're interested in coming on the show, let us know.