Pathways with Amber Stitt
🎙️ Get ready for Pathways with Amber Stitt, your go-to podcast for financial insights and motivation to take action today! 💪💰
Are you feeling overwhelmed when it comes to planning for your financial future? Don't worry, you're not alone. Many individuals and small businesses struggle with creating a solid game plan to protect themselves and their loved ones. That's where we come in.
Join me as we dive into our core framework, "Pathways to Peak Performance," where we'll tackle each of the 5 steps to bring you closer to success in every episode. Through education and motivation, our podcast is designed to inspire anyone to achieve success and resilience, no matter the obstacles they face in life.
And that's not all! We've also got the Physician's Edition, specially curated for medical professionals and small business owners who need help with their insurance planning. This bonus series is tailored to address the unique challenges and goals of these individuals.
Don't miss out on valuable insights, expert tips, and empowering stories that will empower you to take control of your financial future. Tune in to Pathways with Amber Stitt now and unlock the keys to a brighter, more secure tomorrow! 🎧💡💼
Pathways with Amber Stitt
The Art & Science of Success in Finance: Identify Top Talent with George Grombacher
We can't wait for you to meet George Grombacher, a driven advisor, podcaster, author, speaker, and former athlete, who’s built success through sheer determination—and learned the hard way that there’s both an art and a science to thriving in the financial services industry. 💡
In this episode, George gets candid about what really drives top performers, the surprising power of personality profiles, and why true accountability is the ultimate act of leadership.
Whether you’re building a career in financial services, or searching for your own “go muscle,” this conversation is packed with practical wisdom and real talk from the trenches.
Let’s talk about habits, self-management, hiring the ideal candidate, and creating meaningful success—on your own terms. 🚀
📽️ To watch this episode: https://youtu.be/DkP-5agmfBg
🔗 To connect with George Grombacher:
📲 Goerge's Website: https://moneyalignmentacademy.com
📲 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgegrombacher
📲 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/glgrombacher
#financialwellness #pathwayswithamberstitt #amberstitt #naifae3 #georgegrombacher #financialadvice #mentorship #moneyalignmentacademy
📻 Thank you for tuning in to Pathways!
🔗 Connect with Amber on Social Media:
📲 Be sure to visit Amber's website:
🎬 And remember, let's take action today!!!
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George Grombacher [00:00:00]:
You develop an appreciation for the reality that there's an art and a science to the business, but then there's also an art and a science to who's going to be successful in the business. And I developed an appreciation for personality profiles and getting into, "This is how this human being is wired."
George Grombacher [00:00:14]:
And for the first probably couple years of my management career, I just disregarded that assessment as something I had to do, but didn't appreciate, or respect what it was actually telling us.
Amber Stitt [00:00:24]:
Hello and welcome to Pathways e3, a special edition of Pathways with Amber stitt. The Pathways e3 podcasts were recorded with special guests who were attending and collaborating at the NAIFA e3 conference in Newport Beach, California in September 2025. Let's join the conversation.
Amber Stitt [00:00:44]:
All right, so we are live at NAIFA e3 and I am so lucky to grab George before he jets off from the conference today. So welcome George, to the podcast.
George Grombacher [00:00:53]:
Thanks for having me in beautiful Southern California.
Amber Stitt [00:00:55]:
I know. So where are you heading off to next?
George Grombacher [00:00:57]:
Back to Phoenix for me.
Amber Stitt [00:00:59]:
I know, I saw that. I'm in Cave Creek, and you're close.
George Grombacher [00:01:02]:
Yeah, I love Cave Creek.
Amber Stitt [00:01:04]:
You like the desert landscaping?
George Grombacher [00:01:06]:
I just, I think it's so...it's like stepping back in time, or it's like you're off the grid, but not too far off the grid.
Amber Stitt [00:01:12]:
Sometimes we talk about moving away from that, but it does feel a little more quiet, a little more pokey up there. But that's all right.
George Grombacher [00:01:18]:
Totally. Except when all the bikers are rolling through. That's neither here, nor there.
Amber Stitt [00:01:22]:
I kind of like that though. It's kind of fun.
George Grombacher [00:01:23]:
100%.
Amber Stitt [00:01:24]:
All right, so as I was saying to you pre-production, there's so many things you have done in your lifetime, I can't bring it all up at this juncture, so we're going to share about you in the description box. But on that note, really, your tenure is most recently advisory, podcasting, authorship, speaking. You just left the main stage, but also former athlete. So we're talking high production, top performer. Was it always in your DNA, your blood apparently, to be like that?
George Grombacher [00:01:51]:
And it's always kind of an embarrassing thing to think about it like that. But 100%, yes, I think I have the "go gene".
Amber Stitt [00:01:58]:
Okay.
George Grombacher [00:01:59]:
And just wired to be a self-starter and somebody who is pretty driven. So yeah.
Amber Stitt [00:02:04]:
So that kind of leads me to the next thing. I think that you're helping a lot of people with all the different avenues, different platforms. Are you able to see the "go gene"? Does everybody have that? Can it be learned? What do you think about that in general?
George Grombacher [00:02:18]:
I think that "go gene" is an awesome term, but as I thought about it, it's more of a "go muscle". And I do believe that we all have that "go muscle". Some of us don't realize that we have it, or we know that we have it and we don't care, or we neglect it because you know how muscles go - if you use them, it gets stronger and if you don't, then it gets weaker. So need to work it out and exercise it and strengthen it and sing to it and whatever it takes.
Amber Stitt [00:02:42]:
So you're saying there's no excuses. I mean there really is an option and really the world, it's whatever you want it to be. So we've talked with other people and other guests today. You know, we're in this financial industry, the industry, but outside of compliance, I don't think there's a lot of rules. If you really want to go get something, you can build it. So can you talk about what did you see younger that really kind of drove you to be top level, MDRT, other awards that you've received in this industry?
George Grombacher [00:03:07]:
I think I've...well, I know sort of that "go gene" conversation. I've always been blessed with single-minded determination. So I focus on something, I decide I want it, I know how to focus on it. I know how to work hard, I know how to be disciplined and to keep going until I get the thing that I want, or some form or fashion close to it. So that's just something that I've always been extremely driven to be successful and to get whatever it is that I want.
Amber Stitt [00:03:31]:
Now is that how you met your wife? Did you have to persuade and work really hard, or was it easy?
George Grombacher [00:03:36]:
Well, I think that it was pretty easy for me. It was probably a really hard decision for her.
Amber Stitt [00:03:40]:
But what? No. Okay, so I just kind of threw you a curveball. But after training lots of professionals though, is there something that you can extract and pull out when you're like, "Oh, that person's, they're not going to do it?" Is there common telltale signs that other leaders can look for to be like either it's not that you don't want to invest time with them, but if you are investing time, you got to pull the plug. We got to maybe get them out.
George Grombacher [00:04:04]:
That's maybe one of the most important conversations that we can have with ourselves and certainly when we're trying to mentor, bring somebody into the business that we can have. So I spent 7 years in production. And then I went into management. You know how the story goes is you're successful in sales and then they want you to go into management. And I didn't know anything about management. I didn't know how to recruit anybody. I didn't know how to hire, or interview. I certainly didn't know how to manage or train.
George Grombacher [00:04:27]:
But yeah, "George, you go get them." And so at first it was just sort of doing, and you're going on feel. And then you develop an appreciation. Maybe you develop an appreciation for the reality that there's an art and a science to the business, but then there's also an art and a science to who's going to be successful in the business. And I developed an appreciation for personality profiles and getting into, "This is how this human being is wired."
George Grombacher [00:04:49]:
And for the first probably couple years of my management career, I just disregarded that assessment as something I had to do but didn't appreciate, or respect what it was actually telling us.
George Grombacher [00:05:00]:
So I can have a great conversation with somebody and they can sort of indicate and say all the right things, but when the rubber meets the road, are they going to be happy doing this? And that's where that personality profile will help to say this person's well-suited for this career, or they're not. And it needs to be selection. I think that when you make a wrong decision about hiring somebody, it's really bad for me as the manager. It's really bad for my firm. But it's also really bad for the individual because they're just not going to be happy, or successful. So we need to take advantage of and lean on and rely on everything available and understanding the science. And however smart scientists develop those profiles, I think it's pretty incredible.
Amber Stitt [00:05:37]:
Do you mind sharing which assessments you've used?
George Grombacher [00:05:39]:
Yeah. So I worked with New York Life and Massmutual during my management career and they both used some version of. It was called the "POP", but it was all developed by the Self Management Group which was out of Canada. And I went all in. I got the opportunity to meet Bob McCarty at a training session and the light bulb went on. And if I hadn't met him and spent the hour and 1/2 that I did, I don't know that I would have had the career that I had.
Amber Stitt [00:06:02]:
Interesting.
George Grombacher [00:06:03]:
It's wild.
Amber Stitt [00:06:04]:
They did team leadership and you went to meet for executive training?
George Grombacher [00:06:07]:
It was just for management. So people that were going into management, they sent them off to Dallas and you're there for a week and they try to teach you as much as they possibly can. It just so happened that he was at that one.
Amber Stitt [00:06:17]:
Oh, nice.
George Grombacher [00:06:18]:
I just can't say enough about understanding what it takes to be a self manager and that term and leaning into it and embracing it, my personal life, my professional life, and also for my kids, just really everything.
Amber Stitt [00:06:29]:
Yeah. I've studied Gallup and we've done the Kolbe, and it's one of those things. There's a certain way people tick. It's almost even like you can hire someone without a college degree and they could be amazing. You can teach some of the skills that they might not know, yet, but if you understand how they work, you put them in the right spot...I think the leadership is part of the process, but I don't know that sometimes we'll learn it. I've seen leaders do it with our group and then just kind of throw it out the door and they don't continue reinvesting in it. Have you seen that happen?
George Grombacher [00:06:58]:
It's so superhuman, right? It's just the most human thing in the world when something's working, we stop doing it, or we're told to do something. And I just don't get it. And it just doesn't connect. It's so critically important. They also have this thing called the performance equation, which you can take the personality profile and plug it directly into it and have a conversation with the candidate. So the performance equation is talent, habits, and opportunity. So the opportunity piece is, do you see yourself as a financial advisor and do you see yourself as a financial advisor with our firm? The talent piece is, do I have the intellect to figure this out and am I trainable to be able to grasp this stuff? The habit piece, that's your habits of attitude and effort.
George Grombacher [00:07:34]:
And I'm responsible for a part of the fit. I'm responsible for part of the training. The candidates 100% responsible for their own thinking, attitude, and effort. And if they're not capable of doing that, well, I'm certainly not capable of controlling, or helping another human being to manage their own habits and attitude. And if you're a fan of sports, John Wooden had his whole pyramid of success and its industriousness and enthusiasm, I think. So it's attitude and effort.
Amber Stitt [00:08:01]:
We've talked a bit on the podcast today about legacy and then pulling in new talent for our industry. I think that everything you're saying makes it so important. I mean, I'm just thinking back when I was younger working for my father's firm, or with my brother and father, but getting thrown in, "You're going to do this, and then we're going to take these licenses and these tests," and next thing you know, I'm supposed to manage money and be a financial planner and I'd book these clients and I had no problem getting the meeting. We sold disability insurance to physicians. So of course the natural progression would be they'd be more successful, have more money. Here we go.
Amber Stitt [00:08:32]:
And I'd be paralyzed in these meetings. I did not like financial planning, and I felt bad about myself. I think about all these juniors that go in and just get dropped into the business. What if they worked on the methods in the process like you guys had it? You can move them into the right position. I mean, I think that's got to be a core piece of bringing in this new talent to help see how do you let them excel. But they might need some time.
George Grombacher [00:08:53]:
It's so hard. The business is so hard for all the reasons you just described. I mean, if somebody's coming into the business and they're not already in the business, we're expecting them to do the same things that New York Life expected of me from a management perspective, and I'm so fond of saying that "Just do it," the Nike slogan, "Just do it." It's such a beautiful slogan for selling sneakers, but it's not great for the business.
Amber Stitt [00:09:13]:
Or the client.
George Grombacher [00:09:14]:
"George, just go do it." "Well, I don't know how to do it, so I can't, therefore just do it. You need to give me the language and the scripting and the training and the resources." And that all demands that I, as a manager, or a firm, am committed to that process and that I can do it and that everybody is on the same team. Otherwise, I'm going to burn out as a manager if I don't have systems and processes. I'm trying to hit home runs and what we want, is to win every game 100 to 0. I don't want to have to pull a rabbit out of a hat, but all too often, that's what our business is.
Amber Stitt [00:09:49]:
Thank you for joining us on this episode of Pathways. Please consider giving us a "Like" and subscribing to the channel. Your support goes a long way towards helping us bring you more compelling content. Remember, let's take action together! Now, let's jump back into the conversation!
Amber Stitt [00:10:07]:
You talk about financial wellness. Can you talk about your company that helps to support that?
George Grombacher [00:10:12]:
Yeah, I mean, I heard about, I think financial wellness maybe back in 2015, or 16. I'm like, "Oh, it's super cool. Yeah, that's what I want to do is help people be financially well." And then all of a sudden it was just co-opted and everything was financial wellness. And all of a sudden my open enrollment meeting at my 401k is financial wellness. Even though it's just...
Amber Stitt [00:10:31]:
So, everything's like you just bought the car and you're seeing it everywhere. Is that what you mean?
George Grombacher [00:10:34]:
No, I mean like when all of a sudden something was ESG, now everything's an ESG fund, there's greenwash on everything. But I don't think we have a financial wellness problem. I think that we have a financial sickness problem.
Amber Stitt [00:10:44]:
Well, keep going. I want to know more about this.
George Grombacher [00:10:45]:
It just couldn't be more obvious to me. We don't need more financial wellness. We need triage. And what is the right term for it? You know when somebody is not able to stop living paycheck-to-paycheck, when we're up to our eyeballs in credit card debt making terrible decisions, it's not financial wellness. We are sick. We have a financial sickness and that demands an intervention and that needs to come in a lot of different forms. If it is financial literacy, which is what I know, and that can hopefully move to financial wellness, which is what I do.
George Grombacher [00:11:16]:
Because I can know lots of stuff. I can know that I'm supposed to spend less than I earn, but I don't do that.
George Grombacher [00:11:21]:
I spend everything, live paycheck-to-paycheck. I know that I'm supposed to not roll over my credit card balances, but I do. So it's bridging that gap, which again is superhuman. It's just such a basic human thing to do of I know I'm supposed to do something, but you know what? I'd rather go out for dinner tonight, or buy a ice coffee, or whatever.
Amber Stitt [00:11:38]:
Okay, so sounds like there's some accountability that we all need to be focusing on.
George Grombacher [00:11:43]:
True love. That's what accountability is.
Amber Stitt [00:11:45]:
Self-reflection.
George Grombacher [00:11:46]:
Accountability is true love.
George Grombacher [00:11:48]:
If I love somebody, then I'm going to give them whatever they need. And a lot of the time that's not necessarily a hug and a kiss. Could be a foot in the butt, or whatever. It could be a stern talking to, whatever. And that's with clients, and it's also with people that are coming into the business. It does nobody any good to languish and to stick around not making any money, going deeper into debt.
Amber Stitt [00:12:09]:
Well, and then do you also think mentorship/menteeship, allowing yourself to learn from others and then there's a reciprocation there. But you got to put the effort in. You are going to be out and meeting people, there's some follow-up there, but just do it. Well, there's a lot of opportunities, so people really have to maybe try a little harder, would you say?.
George Grombacher [00:12:25]:
I just closed my talk with a picture of Tom Brady.
George Grombacher [00:12:29]:
And it's "Let's effing go!" It's not, "I effing go." So it's "Let's go together." It's not just George does it, it's let's come together, let's give each other what we need. Let's support one another, whatever form that takes. Sometimes it is, "I just need a little pep talk." Sometimes it is, "Everything you're doing is wrong." Sometimes it's kind of in the middle, but 100%.
George Grombacher [00:12:51]:
I mean, one of the reasons agents or advisors fail is because they are unwilling to ask for help. And that's maybe they don't understand that it's available to them or they're too prideful, or they feel like the person who they're working with doesn't have time. But that's a real shame because every one of these companies, every one, they're spending so much money recruiting and bringing people in and training them. And to see them fail because they're not comfortable asking for help is a real shame.
Amber Stitt [00:13:15]:
Thanks for sharing all of that and I'm so sorry I missed that main stage, but we had podcasting going on, so next time. I know where you live, kind of, in Arizona.
George Grombacher [00:13:23]:
Yeah. Great.
Amber Stitt [00:13:24]:
Okay, so let's do a little blooper reel. Can you share a funny story where you thought you had it all figured out early in business? So this is for like the newbie. Is there something top of mind? You're just like, oh, like a client story, or maybe with management. Do you have any funnies?
George Grombacher [00:13:40]:
I mean, I'm sure that there are a million of them. I just remember going out on mortgage lead appointments...
Amber Stitt [00:13:48]:
Oh I, before '08, I was a Keller Williams, just trying to make it...
George Grombacher [00:13:52]:
Yeah, so I would buy $25 mortgage leads from a company called LeadCo and I would go wherever that took me. And there was a family. I walked into the house and it was just the strangest thing I'd ever encountered. This man must have weighed 500 pounds and he was wearing just a pair of tighty whities.
Amber Stitt [00:14:08]:
Oh, wonderful.
George Grombacher [00:14:10]:
It was wild. So, I mean, you find yourself in amazing places doing amazing things. And of course, this individual was the sickest human being on planet earth.
Amber Stitt [00:14:20]:
Oh. So can't even...
George Grombacher [00:14:22]:
No way he could have qualified to get in. Happy to drive 45 minutes to the middle of nowhere.
George Grombacher [00:14:27]:
To try to sell a term insurance policy that was going to be way more expensive than other term insurance policies, by the way. So good luck with that.
Amber Stitt [00:14:33]:
So you're welcome that I brought that back to your brain.
George Grombacher [00:14:35]:
And I love it.
Amber Stitt [00:14:36]:
Think about that on the way home.
George Grombacher [00:14:38]:
I'll never forget.
Amber Stitt [00:14:39]:
Good. All right, so we're going to wrap up, but is there any...I'm sure you shared it already on main stage for the listeners, is there an action item you want them to push pause, get off their phone, in the car, wherever, and do this? What do you want them to do?
George Grombacher [00:14:53]:
So I think that success in life comes down to how we allocate our most valuable resources. And that's time, energy, attention, and money. And they're valuable because they're scarce. I do not have an unlimited amount of any of those things. And whenever I say yes to one thing, I'm saying no to everything else. So we need to get really clear on what is my biggest priority. And what I talk about is you got to know what matters. And not everything can be the most important thing just by the virtue, or nature of what a priority is.
George Grombacher [00:15:20]:
You have to get really clear for your family, for your community, for your work, for your finances, for your wellbeing, your personal development, and your sense of peace of mind. What is the most important thing, and then understand what must be done in service of that thing and then allocate your resources to accordingly. So that is what I would say. Sit down, get a pen and paper out and think about what the most important things are to you. And then when you decide that, where's the evidence?
Amber Stitt [00:15:45]:
Okay.
George Grombacher [00:15:46]:
Is that showing up in your budget? Is it in your calendar? If it's not, then that's not important.
Amber Stitt [00:15:49]:
Yeah, I love it. Thank you. All right, thanks so much for being here today. I look forward to following you more and all the things that you do.
George Grombacher [00:15:58]:
Thanks for having me.
Amber Stitt [00:15:58]:
All right, thanks, George.
Amber Stitt [00:16:00]:
Thank you for joining us for this special edition of Pathways e3, recorded at the NAIFA e3 conference in Newport Beach, California. Join us for more insightful conversations with the experts and leaders of their industries. Until next time, keep taking action on your unique path!