Brian John Mayeu has been investing himself since he was a student at St. John Fisher University, where he decided to become a financial planner. That was nearly 25 years ago. Brian remembers how those first five years were the hardest.
Between 72% and 90% of new financial advisors fail or leave the field within their first three to five years, industry surveys show. Building a client base is a long-term time investment. “I looked young; I was young,” Brian remembers. “For me, getting credentialed early was going to be the differentiator." He did it at an unrivaled pace. “I asked, ‘How do I provide a high level of service, have the intellectual capacity and the designations to prove it to really get us going?’”
Today, Pittsford-based Mayeu Financial Group has 11 employees serving a niche of customers.
“When we get folks who are closer to retirement, they appreciate what we do, and recognize the benefits of our processes,” Brian says. “We thrive by creating memorable experiences for each client. This has been a game changer over the years, leading to long-term relationships and building our business from client referrals."
In 2015, Brian and Chief Financial Officer Dana Mayeu launched a food drive, matching a turkey for food every client donated. The first year, they fed 15 families, doubling to 30 families the next year. By 2019, Dana told her husband, “We can do more.”
The couple launched The Bountiful Table Inc., a non-profit that now raises $20,000 to $30,000 a year for local food pantries, feeding thousands of families.
Brian says this was part of his dream when he started 25 years ago. “I knew if I was going to have the financial suffering of making no money, there was going to be rewards in the end if I did good work, and took care of people.”
"That honestly has been a game changer over the years, investing in knowing who we are.”