
The Greatest Gift: What Fatherhood Means to Brandon Noonan
For Brandon Noonan, Pinnacle’s Manager of Client Services, fatherhood has opened up doors to new experiences, sentiments, meanings and responsibilities — but one essential, priceless attribute stands out among them all.
“I think being a parent truly teaches you empathy on a level you couldn’t have possibly understood before … at least, I certainly didn’t,” he says. “I think it allows me to operate in such a way where I’m always coming from the right place, and with a more appropriate urgency that’s driven by empathy.”
As a father of two young daughters, it’s in empathy that Brandon’s priorities are clear: his girls come before anything and everything else. “I think it’s done a great job of showing me what’s important. Of course work is important, but my girls are more important. They’re the most important. I think being a parent truly teaches you empathy on a level you couldn’t have possibly understood before.”
Spending quality time together is essential to Brandon in the father-daughter moments he shares with Fallon, his eldest daughter.
“It’s all special,” he shares. “She’s my best friend. We love doing everything together. I love to fish, and she now loves to fish, and seeing her out there doing it by herself and loving nature and animals, and getting joy out of the things I got joy out of as a kid, is always something that strikes a special chord with me.”
It’s in these moments and experiences that Brandon approaches each of his client relationships with the same care and devotion he gives to his family.
“I try to understand everything that’s important to (clients) and make it my own personal feelings. To be totally aligned on any/all goals, fears, opportunities and obstacles, and operate in the exact way I think they would operate in a given situation,” he explains.
“Essentially to be an extension of them just helping to do things they might not be able to get to.”
On the work front, Brandon fosters a culture of collaboration and support among his team through open communication, mutual understanding and a shared commitment to helping others achieve their goals. “Help and be helped, care and be cared for,” is a motto he lives by each day, driven by the same empathic pulse gleaned from becoming a father.
“It doesn’t matter who starts it,” he says. “The best and most valued relationships come from places where you put it out there and it comes back to you.” At Pinnacle, Brandon has found an employer that shares his values and approach. “Money/revenue simply isn’t most important to us. We define success as making sure the right outcome happens between a prospective employer and an individual.”
On Father’s Day and every day, Brandon’s message to fathers juggling the demands of parenthood and a career is simple. “Go hug your kids. Go hold them. Feel the strength and happiness it gives you. When something with work goes wrong, go find them. Call them. Whatever it is, and they will take the bad away. It’s instant if you let it be; the best medicine I’ve seen.”
He continues: “At the end of the day, for many of us, they’re the ‘why,’ so try to always be aware of that and keep the first things first.”