Randy Rondberg did not start his career in finance. Before he ever built a retirement plan, he ran an Italian restaurant. That experience, more than any spreadsheet or credential, shaped the way he approaches retirement planning today at Nations First Financial in Mesa, Arizona.
Rondberg opened and operated the restaurant in the mid-1980s. The work taught him lessons that no finance textbook covers. He learned about hard work, communication, leadership, and teamwork. Most of all, he learned how to take care of people and how to build relationships that last. When he moved into financial services, he did not leave those lessons behind. As he puts it, he swapped out the product but kept the service the same.
Why Relationships Sit at the Center of the Work
That restaurant-shaped philosophy explains a lot about how Nations First Financial operates. Rondberg built the firm around relationships rather than transactions. Clients are treated the way he once treated regulars who walked through his restaurant door, with attention, care, and a sense that someone was genuinely looking out for them.
The approach lines up with what retirees say they want. Survey data from YouGov found that trust ranks as the top factor Americans weigh when choosing a financial advisor, ahead of cost, reputation, and past performance. For a firm whose growth comes mostly from referrals, that finding is not a surprise. Families who work with Rondberg’s team send their friends and relatives, which happens only when trust is already in place.
Rondberg serves clients across Arizona, typically between the ages of 55 and 75, who hold 401(k)s, IRAs, or other savings and want a plan built around their own goals. The firm designs personalized retirement income strategies, handles annuity planning, offers life insurance solutions, and coordinates tax planning through an in-house CPA firm. Every one of those services runs through the same filter Rondberg learned decades ago. Understand the person first.
The Year the Business Almost Ended
The story that defines Rondberg is not the founding. It is the near collapse.
Around 2008, several things went wrong at once. Rondberg was going through a divorce. At the same time, two business partners decided to leave, and they took clients with them. The firm he had built came close to closing. Many people in that position would have filed for bankruptcy and walked away.
Rondberg did not. Instead, he took inventory of the people still in his life who wanted to help him keep going. He reconnected with his values and his mission, and he started rebuilding from there. He worked his way out without filing bankruptcy, held the company together, and kept the doors open. The firm operates in strong condition today because he chose to fight through that period rather than give up.
What the Rebuild Revealed
The recovery worked because Rondberg returned to first principles. He did not chase a new gimmick or reinvent the business into something unrecognizable. He stayed true to who he was and to the processes and values that got him started in the first place. He rebuilt the practice essentially from scratch, one relationship at a time.
That resilience carries a lesson Rondberg now shares with younger people who want to build something of their own. His advice is simple. Find your one thing, master it, and stick with it. He credits distraction as the enemy of good work. Every time a person veers off their focus, he says, they pull energy away from the thing they do best. For Rondberg, that one thing has always been taking care of people and helping them plan for retirement.
Carrying the Mission Forward
The values that pulled the firm through 2008 still guide it. Rondberg leads a family practice that now includes his son Daniel, and the two continue to grow the business while holding onto the principles that built it. The firm runs educational workshops and client appreciation events in the Mesa community, and it recently launched Liberty Learns Money, a financial literacy program aimed at children.
Rondberg’s throughline is easy to trace. From an Italian restaurant to a retirement planning practice, the product changed but the mission never did. He set out to take care of people, and more than 25 years later, that mission still drives the work.
To learn more about Randy Rondberg and his approach to retirement planning, visit nationsfirstfin.com.
