In this landmark episode, we flip the script as podcast host John P. Bryson takes the guest seat. John offers an insightful peek behind the curtain as he delves into his experiences over the course of the podcast's journey.
In a twist for the 100th episode of the Portfolio Intelligence podcast, the roles are reversed as Justin Clarke, CRPC, senior vice president, takes over duties to interview the series’ regular host, John Bryson, head of investment consulting.
Since the podcast’s inception in 2020, John has been steering listeners through a myriad of market and investment views through insightful conversations with industry experts and investment veterans from across Manulife John Hancock’s multimanager network.
In this celebratory episode, John reflects on the podcast's beginnings during a volatile market period, its evolution, and the pivotal topics and guests that have shaped its growth into a vital resource for advisors.
00;00;03;24 - 00;00;44;00
Justin
Hello, and welcome to Portfolio Intelligence podcast. You might be wondering who's behind the mic since it's not your usual host. I'm Justin Clarke, senior vice president, director of sales execution, and I've taken over the mic for a very special reason. We've hit 100 episodes.
Joining me is John Bryson, head of investment consulting at Manulife John Hancock Investments, and he's the familiar voice you've come to know and love as your podcast host. Today, we're flipping the script. Instead of John asking the questions, he's in the hot seat. We're pulling back the curtain to hear from the person who's been guiding us through market insights, investment strategies, and more for nearly 100 episodes. John, thanks for being here and congratulations on this milestone.
00;00;44;05 - 00;00;50;18
John
Hey, thanks, Justin. I'm really excited and kind of nervous. This is a different seat for me, but I'm really happy to be here.
00;00;50;20 - 00;00;53;15
Justin
Yeah. Now, now you know how everybody else feels, right?
00;00;53;18 - 00;00;54;14
John
Yeah, exactly.
00;00;54;14 - 00;01;04;03
Justin
So, let's start with the origin of the story. What inspired you to start this podcast? And what was your vision and goal when you recorded the very first one back in 2020?
00;01;04;06 - 00;02;34;27
John
Yeah. So, you may remember back in 2020, there was a lot going on. We were a lot of volatility in the markets right before or the beginning of COVID is when we actually started this. Markets were all over the place. I think in general, what we're always trying to do, and you know this, at Manulife John Hancock Investments, is to help advisors—help them build better outcomes for their client portfolios and their business.
And when we're sitting around the home office, we're talking to investment professionals, we're talking to managers, and we're getting these great insights. And we're like, hey, how do we get this out more effectively? We do a ton of stuff—webinars, viewpoints, all that stuff. But, you know, could we do something that's timely, kind of more hard-hitting, and get this information out, whether it be around asset allocation, portfolio construction, what's going on in the markets, and how advisors can take advantage of that? You know, can we do that? And we said, yeah let's give a podcast a try.
You know, so we wanted it to be lively. We wanted it to be free flowing. We didn't want a lot of jargon. You know, we wanted to get to the insights really quick but make it usable for the end users and actionable. And that's what we went after. And honestly, I think we achieved it. We probably had some misses along the way, but overall, I'm really proud of how far we've come.
I'm hearing from many people that it's a go-to resource to get market insights. You know, a ton of advisors love it. Feel it's part brain fuel, part inspiration, but it's always kind of focused on what they need the most. So, we're really proud of it.
00;02;34;27 - 00;02;49;21
Justin
Totally agree with you. It's been amazing to see how the podcast has grown into something that, as you mentioned, advisors generally rely on.
Speaking on that, let's dig a little bit deeper into the setup a bit for the listeners who are new here. What kind of guests and topics do we usually bring to the show?
00;02;49;21 - 00;04;28;10
John
Yeah, like I said, we wanted to help advisors build better outcomes for their clients and their business. We looked around at a lot of the different podcasts that were out there from asset managers, and naturally, they were investment related. You know, what's going on in the markets, what's going on in the economy, what type of investment ideas and themes are happening that advisors can take advantage of. And we have tons of that, you know, we definitely wanted to bring that to the marketplace.
We saw some were kind of complicated and didn't get to the point. So, we wanted to get quicker to the point and really make it impactful. But we also saw there was a gap. You know, it's more to running a financial advisor's business than just getting the investments right. It's: how do you grow your business? How do you help your clients achieve certain goals? They're getting asked a ton of different questions. Can we help them with that? And we said, yeah, we definitely can. We've got great practice management expertise here. How do we bring that to the forefront and kind of give people a teaser so they can know what's important and where they can get more?
So, we've brought folks from the college planning space. We've brought industry experts around Medicare and Social Security and the CARES Act when it launched. We've talked behavioral finance, we've talked women, wealth, and wisdom, and how to work with those types of clients. So, you name it.
And then we obviously brought a lot of internal experts from Manulife John Hancock, and other thought leaders from the asset managers we partner with to bring a bunch of different ideas. So, it's really broad in scope, but we try to make it impactful and quick. The podcasts usually don't go longer than 15 minutes because we know people don't have a lot of time nowadays. So that's where we try to focus—make it really powerful and impactful.
00;04;28;10 - 00;04;45;04
Justin
They finish their cup of coffee in the time it's finished, so I love that. That's great.
You've had some incredible guests and covered a ton of ground. I'm curious, how has hosting the podcast changed the way that you think about the advisor-client relationship or even the investment profession as a whole?
00;04;45;07 - 00;06;06;19
John
Yeah, it is fascinating as I talk to more and more people about what advisors are interested in, and currently, it is so broad. It is so broad, and beyond just the investment part of it, they have so many challenges. And it makes me think not only about what I am worried about outside of the working day, but also about what I need to think about in the future. So, one of the ones that I talk about a lot—and I'll probably dig into more—is the college planning part, right? Advisors are helping individuals with real-world needs, whether it's related specifically to their investment goals, or tangents, or even further afar from that. So, they have to know so many things. I appreciate the advisor's role so much more than I did when I was just worrying about the alpha and the beta of a portfolio. So, that's probably what I've learned.
And I've also learned it's about trust and confidence. You know, we can't all figure out everything. You need a trusted resource that you can rely on. I find that I get that from the different asset managers I talk to. And I think that's so important in the advisor role with their clients—to have trust, to have confidence—because these are important decisions you want to get right. You do need patience in this job. There's a lot of distractions, but if you're confident in your decisions for the long term, things work out.
00;06;06;19 - 00;06;26;03
Justin
This next question you can file under kind of 'who's your best child' or 'who's your favorite child?' So, we know you're on the hot seat though, so we expect you to answer it.
You've had some pretty insightful guests on this show, and I know you've heard a ton of great ideas. So, I've got to ask, has there been a piece of advice or a moment that really stuck out with you personally?
00;06;26;05 - 00;08;52;18
John
Well, I'll give you the kind of moments that stuck out, and I'll give you a couple of life lessons along the way.
I had no idea how many people were really interested in elections. Meaning we can read the newspapers, but people have specific questions and are looking for help and guidance on how to build their portfolio for elections and where we're going. So that was Part 1.
Part 2: I had no idea how interested people were in college savings and admissions for college. We've had admission coaches on a number of times, and we get great traction with those. I learned a ton because what I went through to get into college versus what my kids have gone through is completely different. I got a sneak peek by working in this role and talking to the college counselor. So that was personally fantastic.
The last one is you really realize, when you're talking to these investment professionals, how many rocks they flip over to get an additional piece of information that you're not going to get out of the research you can do through reading newspapers, following your favorite podcast—unless it's this one—or doing research online. The investment professionals spend their day in and day out flipping over more rocks to get more and more insights as to what's happening.
A couple of insights: talking to David Cohen at Boston Partners—his background was as an energy analyst—and when we were going into COVID, I remember him talking about how cheap oil was and how big the opportunity was and how people were actually renting storage spaces and buying barrels of oil because it was such an opportunity. That just blew me away—not that he was doing that, but his market insights around what was going on in that space were so incredible. And he was saying there's a big opportunity for us in energy, and they took advantage of it. That was incredible.
Michael Scanlon was talking about the diabetes and weight loss drugs well in advance of them hitting the marketplace. So that was like, 'I don't know what this is. Tell me more,' type of conversation. So, a ton of that I've learned along the way.
The bigger picture one is probably—you need patience. You know, we always want to get the answers right away. Sometimes you have to wait, so that was really critical…in investing, you need to be patient because sometimes it takes longer to play out than you want it to. So maybe I'll just stop there, Jason, Justin, because I have a ton of different learnings I got along the way.
00;08;52;21 - 00;09;07;01
Justin
Very insightful, and I think some more might be popping out in this next question. Looking back over the last 100 episodes, which guest or topic do you feel had the biggest impact on how advisors support their clients?
00;09;07;01 - 00;09;49;09
John
Without a doubt, Emily Roland and Matt Miskin. So, Emily Roland and Matt Miskin have created the Market Intelligence piece. It's a quarterly piece that they update advisors with what's going on in the markets. We have them on almost every month, and every single time they're a huge hit. They've given great advice. They've given timely topics, context, how you address this in a portfolio, but they've also been very good about—focus on the long term, you know, balance risks and returns in a portfolio because that's what's important over the long term, and be patient. So, without a doubt, they have had the biggest impact on the advisors and listeners to the podcast.
00;09;49;09 - 00;09;59;29
Justin
Dynamic duo. I love it, Matt and Emily.
As you look forward, as you look ahead for the next 100 episodes, what topics, trends, or goals are you most excited to explore?
00;10;00;02 - 00;10;51;13
John
Yeah, great question. You know, looking ahead, I'm really excited to dig into some of the bigger industry trends that are shaping where we're heading. So, for example, AI and portfolio management, we're excited to have an idea on that one to bring it to the marketplace. We continue to educate our audiences on alternatives and the impact that they can have on portfolios. So, we're going to do more of that.
And I'm interested in kind of keeping an eye on how advisors' practices are evolving. You know, we do know that technology will have an impact on advisors' practices. We want to stay in front of that and help them take the best technology out there and implement it to make their practices more efficient. And we're always kind of keeping an eye out across our network for new ideas and fresh voices, whether it be from ManulifeJohn Hancock, or all the other different asset managers we partner with. So, we're super excited for the ideas that we get to learn from them.
00;10;51;13 - 00;11;19;10
Justin
Well, it sounds like there's no shortage of ideas. I can't wait to see where you take it, John, over the next 100 episodes. Folks, if you want to learn more, as always, please subscribe to the Portfolio Intelligence podcast. You can find it on Apple Podcasts or on our website. You can also find viewpoints, all things investing, great business-building ideas, and much, much more. Everyone, thank you for listening, and we hope you enjoyed the show.
00;11;21;14 - 00;12;03;04
John
This podcast is being brought to you by John Hancock Investment Management Distributors, LLC, member FINRA, SIPC. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speaker, are subject to change as market and other conditions warrant, and do not constitute investment advice or a recommendation regarding any specific product or security. There is no guarantee that any investment strategy discussed will be successful or achieve any particular level of results. Any economic or market performance information is historical and is not indicative of future results and no forecasts are guaranteed. Investing involves risks, including the potential loss of principal