If you start in the Greater Cleveland area and head south on I-71 then hook right just north of Columbus onto SR-36, and if you’re able to resist the tasty deep-fat seduction of Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, you’ll find yourself at the threshold of Ohio Wesleyan University in 2 hours or less.
This is where our story begins.
Here, a young Joe Randazzo was busy 1) barely resisting the trappings of college life (made more difficult by gifted, baseball Joe) and 2) accidentally growing into his future. Before long he would migrate back north to make the commute to University Circle for two years at John Carroll University (JCU) then three and a half years at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law (CM Law). Details aside, it all rounds to just about eight years of academic and semi real-life learning.
Meanwhile, the family life insurance company was keeping tabs. But joining mom and dad in business is rarely a young man's ideal. Still, one thing leads to another. This is poignantly illustrated in 1980’s gamey, albeit beloved cult mainstream hit, "Caddyshack." That is to say, that spending your summers toting for the well-to-do can lead to more than simply dissipated adventures. As Joe caddied his way through college summers, he learned that lesson by stumbling upon a network of helpful contacts, one of whom handed him a course-altering invitation. That internship led to a full-time gig which geared his focus at CM Law and steered him back into the orbit of his very own mom-and-pop shop.
Joe’s post-adolescent mind couldn’t have imagined what lay ahead. That he would be at the helm of said family business, by now much more than a life insurance company. That he would share the joy of parenting what-would-amount-to five children with the girl he met way back at JCU. And that gifted, baseball Joe would leave the campus party well behind and pick up coaching kids’ teams in his hometown of Hudson Ohio.
This coaching thing is no small detail, but perhaps more at the heart of FNA’s success. It's been said that the best a good coach can do is take you where you can’t take yourself. This is us, our mission, our principio guida (as Joe’s nonna would say). Like a good coach, we surround you with decades of experience, a staff of highly-skilled professionals, a trained supportive culture, and a system designed to help you get to where you want to be. It’s the best we can do: to simply take you where you can't take yourself.