Office Profile

After being part of Northwestern Mutual Financial Network and spending almost two decades in increasing leadership roles, Dwaan Black was appointed Managing Partner in Atlanta effective July 1, 2007 with the mission of bringing others to the career that he loves.

Taking a chance in the real world
As a senior at the University of Tennessee, Dwaan was ready to go out into the real world. He just wasn't sure where to start. His fraternity adviser told him to speak to Northwestern Mutual Financial Network. He hesitated, thinking the career sounded all wrong for him, but he visited the district network office and met Joe Teague, CLU, now Managing Partner of The Teague Financial Group in Tampa, Fla. "It was a great connection and I thought, I just need to give this a try and see if it goes anywhere," Dwaan said. That was almost 20 years ago.

After spending a year as an intern, moving to a full-time representative was the next logical step. "I certainly didn't want to go work for somebody in a corporate environment after I'd been exposed to this career opportunity and these people," Dwaan said. "Plus, Joe believed in me and really wasn't going to take no for an answer when he started recruiting me full time."

More importantly, coming into the internship, Dwaan did not realize the true value of the products that he offered and the flexibility they can provide. "The deeper I got into Northwestern Mutual, the more amazed I was at the company." Dwaan felt like he needed to share his experience, so he went back to the college campus as a college unit director. "I wanted to introduce other future business leaders to the great career I used to not know existed, but now have a great passion for."

That passion for leading others led him to a successful managing director role with The Pruett Financial Group in Knoxville, Tenn., in 1995. "Running a large multi-site district network office with a very strong sales operation has prepared me well to go into a larger market and do that on a larger level." That includes not only growing a mass of traditional financial representatives, but also building specialist programs to support them.

"Atlanta has the people and the businesses that need all the things that we can offer them. Our problem is never going to be need. It is going to be, can we deliver?" And Dwaan feels the Atlanta office can do just that—deliver. "I'm most looking forward to building new relationships in what I consider to be a wonderful marketplace. In my opinion, Atlanta is second to none. I was told 'This marketplace is like deep water—you're never going to be able to touch the bottom.' I'm very excited to try to build an office that attempts to touch the bottom in that marketplace."

To meet the ever-growing needs of the marketplace, Dwaan is focused on identifying and growing a self-perpetuating leadership team of people who want to grow, be in leadership and become managing directors and managing partners. "To do the job we need to do in Atlanta, we need to identify leaders early in their career that have those natural tendencies and then we just open the doors so they can walk through them."

Loss leads to recognizing value of family, planning for future
Black brings a believable and honest truth to every client he meets about the importance of planning for the future. One month before his high school graduation, he lost his mother to breast cancer when she was only 45 years old. "At that point, I was able to see firsthand that life isn't always a bed of roses. It's hard to argue with me about the value of planning for uncertainty and contingencies."

The experience also made Dwaan quickly realize how important family is to him. Atlanta and the state of Georgia hold many deep family roots, another reason why Dwaan is thrilled to have the opportunity there. "This seemed like the best opportunity for me to become managing partner and maintain my focus on family."

At the right time for the right reasons
Dwaan Black plans on passing down what he has learned to newer financial representatives. "The message of this career, in my opinion, is that you can have anything you want but you've got to be willing to work very hard and you've got to be willing to create a high level of personal self-discipline."

Dwaan and his wife, Ellen, have three children, William, Brantly and Robert. Dwaan enjoys spending time with Ellen and his kids, playing golf and exercising. He also enjoys reading books on personal development.

This Network Office has been active since 1975.

District Network Offices:

The Callaway Black Group - East Cobb
678-370-0111
3939 Roswell Rd Ste 240
Marietta, GA 30062-6285
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