Joshua D Mellberg is the President and CEO of Secure Income Management, where he leads a firm focused on tech-driven, client-first financial planning. With more than two decades of experience, he has built a career around clarity, adaptability, and growth in the financial services industry.
Mellberg’s journey began at Western Michigan University’s Haworth College of Business, where he studied before earning his Life and Health license immediately after graduation. He started helping clients right away and quickly developed a passion for teaching people how to better understand their options. “It wasn’t just about products—it was about giving people confidence in their future,” he has said.
In 2005, Mellberg founded J.D. Mellberg Financial. Over the next 15 years, he grew the firm into a national player, earning seven straight appearances on the Inc. 5000 list. In 2020, he completed a successful majority sale of the company, marking a turning point in his career.
Soon after, Joshua D Mellberg launched Secure Income Management. Under his leadership, SIM earned Inc. 5000 recognition in both 2024 and 2025, showing its rapid momentum. He has also hosted programming on Arizona PBS and frequently speaks on annuities and retirement income strategies, reinforcing his long-time commitment to financial education.
Based in Tucson, Arizona, Mellberg lives with his wife and son. He has been a member of YPO Scottsdale since 2014 and continues to focus on building firms that combine innovation with a client-first approach.
Q&A:
Q: What does a typical day look like for you, and how do you make it productive?
I start early. Most mornings, I’m at my desk by 6:30 a.m. The first hour is for thinking, not reacting—no email, no meetings. I use that time to review priorities and sketch out what I want to accomplish that day. Later, when the meetings start, I already know what matters. Productivity for me is about planning before the chaos hits.
Q: How do you bring new ideas to life in your business?
I’ve learned to watch what clients are already doing. At J.D. Mellberg Financial, I noticed many clients asking the same questions about income planning. Instead of giving one-off answers, we built training programs and tools to address those concerns at scale. At Secure Income Management, I apply the same logic. If clients or advisors are improvising workarounds, it’s a signal that the industry isn’t meeting their needs.
Q: What’s one trend in your industry that excites you?
The integration of technology into planning. For years, financial services relied heavily on paper, complex jargon, and long meetings. Now, with better tools, clients can understand scenarios instantly. It’s exciting because clarity creates trust, and trust drives results.
Q: What’s one habit that helps you be productive?
I protect time for thinking. It’s easy to confuse being busy with being effective. Blocking out even 30 minutes of quiet each day forces me to slow down, process, and make better decisions.
Q: If you could give advice to your younger self, what would it be?
Hire sooner. In the early years of J.D. Mellberg Financial, I tried to do too much myself. Once I started building a team and trusting others, the company grew much faster.
Q: Tell us something you believe that almost nobody agrees with you on.
I believe failure is often under-rated in business planning. People try to avoid it at all costs. I see it differently. At SIM, we sometimes run small pilot programs that we expect might fail. We learn faster that way and avoid bigger mistakes down the road.
Q: What’s one thing you do repeatedly that you recommend others try?
I write down lessons from big decisions. Whether it went well or not, I’ll take 15 minutes to capture what happened, why I chose that path, and what I’d do differently. Over time, this builds a personal playbook.
Q: When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?
I step outside. In Tucson, I’ll take a short walk even if it’s 110 degrees. Changing the environment clears my head and resets my focus.
Q: What’s one strategy that helped you grow your businesses?
At J.D. Mellberg Financial, training advisors was the multiplier. Instead of trying to personally meet every client, I invested in creating a system to teach advisors how to deliver consistent, client-first advice. That scaled the business and built long-term trust.
Q: What’s one failure in your career, and how did you overcome it?
Early on, I underestimated how much capital growth requires. We hit a point where demand outpaced our infrastructure. It forced us to pause and rebuild processes. The lesson was clear: don’t just chase growth, prepare for it.
Q: Do you have a business idea you’d share with readers?
Yes—someone should build a simple “financial health score” tool, similar to a credit score. People want a clear number that reflects their progress. The data exists, but it hasn’t been packaged in a way that’s simple and widely trusted.
Q: What’s a tool or software that helps you stay productive?
I rely on project management tools to track priorities across teams. It keeps everyone accountable and ensures we’re not just working hard but working in sync.
Q: What’s the best $100 you’ve spent recently?
A set of high-quality notebooks. I still prefer writing by hand when mapping out new ideas. It slows me down just enough to think clearly.
Q: Do you have a favorite book or podcast that has shaped how you think?
One book I revisit often is The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker. It reminds me that leadership is about making the right decisions, not doing everything yourself.
Q: What’s a movie or series you enjoyed recently, and why?
I watched The Bear. It’s about running a restaurant, but the themes of chaos, leadership, and building a team under pressure felt familiar. Running a growing company isn’t that different from running a busy kitchen.
Key Learnings
- Success requires protecting time for thinking, not just reacting.
- Watching client behavior often reveals the best opportunities for innovation.
- Failure can be useful when managed intentionally through small tests.
- Writing down lessons from decisions builds a personal playbook for the future.
- Scaling a business often depends more on training and systems than on individual effort.