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John Browning
CEO @ Guardian Rock Wealth - Financial & Retirement Planning | Financial Expert Speaker, Podcast Host & #1 Amazon Best Selling Author | Dad of 6
Professional Background
John Browning has dedicated over three decades of his professional life to demonstrating the profound impact financial management can have on individuals and businesses. With an extensive career primarily on Wall Street, John has accumulated a wealth of knowledge and experience in portfolio management and investment strategy. He spent 15 years refining his approach, ultimately leading him to the realization that his true calling lies in empowering others to craft fulfilling lives and financial futures. Today, he is a trusted financial advisor, assisting individuals, families, and businesses across the United States in navigating the complexities of finance and retirement planning.
Having held important roles such as Chief Executive Officer and Senior Vice President at Guardian Rock Wealth and Hennion & Walsh respectively, John brings a robust leadership background to his current role. He has been instrumental in developing comprehensive financial strategies that support clients in achieving their personal and financial goals. This diverse portfolio of leadership experience helps John connect deeply with his clients, providing them with the tools and confidence they need to manage their finances effectively.
Education and Achievements
John's educational background provides a solid foundation for his career in finance. He holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Finance from Northern Illinois University, where he honed his analytical skills and deepened his understanding of financial markets. His undergraduate degree, a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration with a focus on Finance and Management from Cedarville University, equipped him with essential business principles that guide his financial planning approach today.
Throughout his career, John has not only shaped successful financial strategies but has also demonstrated a commitment to ongoing learning and sharing knowledge with others. This is evident from his past role as the Podcast Host of 'Building Your Life' where he engaged listeners on important financial topics and life management strategies. He is passionate about imparting wisdom and insights that can help listeners make informed financial decisions.
Notable Roles and Contributions
In his pursuit of helping others build the financial futures they desire, John has taken on various prestigious roles. As the Senior Managing Director at Nuveen, he expanded his understanding of fund management within a reputable financial services company. His role as Portfolio Manager at PowerShares provided him with a nuanced perspective on investment opportunities, which greatly benefits his current clients today.
John's influence extends beyond individual financial counsel; he has served as an Investor and Board Member at organizations such as Home Helpers of Barrington and Inclusive Assistance Services. These roles signify his commitment to community impact and his belief in the importance of contributing positively to society through thoughtful investment. The breadth of John's experience as a Managing Director at both Incapital and Guggenheim Funds Distributors Inc. emphasizes his expertise and strategic thinking in financial structuring and investment execution.
His leadership roles have also included being the Executive Director at Van Kampen Funds, where he learned to balance the business of investment with a client-centric approach.
Commitment to Financial Education
John's approach to financial counseling is characterized by a deep commitment to education. He offers various resources that provide clients with insight into financial markets and their personal money management. Notable among these are:
- The Daily 5-Minute Market Update: A free resource providing essential market insights, designed to keep individuals informed about market developments and implications for their investment strategy.
- Monthly Market Outlook: This thorough analysis allows investors to understand broader market trends and adjust their strategies accordingly.
- Weekly Podcast: The 'Building a Life, Not (Just) a Portfolio Podcast' serves as a platform for him to discuss the interconnectedness of life and financial planning, highlighting that financial success should always align with personal values and life goals.
Personalized Financial Planning
In his current venture, John emphasizes a 'Done With You' approach to financial and retirement planning. This collaboration assures clients they are not alone in navigating their financial future. His commitment to helping clients avoid common investing mistakes—including unnecessary taxes and misconceptions about retirement—demonstrates his proactive approach to wealth management. Clients can engage with him for a complimentary session to explore how they can work together to build a secure financial future tailored to their unique circumstances.
Conclusion
In summary, John Browning's extensive background in finance, coupled with his passion for empowering individuals to achieve their personal and financial aspirations, makes him a unique presence in the financial advisory landscape. With an impressive array of qualifications and experiences, he stands out as a capable ally for anyone seeking to improve their financial well-being. John's ultimate goal is to help clients recognize and understand the significance of money as a tool to build the life they envision. By focusing on values-driven financial planning, he is redefining how individuals and families approach money management, one client at a time.
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Clay is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Clay centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Clay isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Clay instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Clay is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Clay can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.
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