What’s the good news, ladies? April edition

Raise your hand if you got snow in April!  Seriously, it felt like we were April fooled when we got about 6 inches in NYC on the morning of April 2^nd!

I’m getting super excited to head to San Diego mid-month for the BenefitsPRO Broker Expo and looking forward to meeting some of the amazing women who have been featured this year in this series.  This month, I’m very excited to introduce you to my new friends, Megan, Deborah and Lucila!  These women are doing amazing things in the industry and I know you will feel inspired after reading about them!

Megan Chiarello, Grassetto Creative

“This has been such an exciting year for professional growth and development! As the National Vanguard Council Chair for NAHU, I worked with an amazing team to accelerate the VC Goes to College Program  playbook – an initiative to promote the value of industry internships and mentorship for long-term agency growth. Last July, I sat on my first industry panel and talked all things social selling at Workplace Benefits Mania. I shared success stories, campaign ideas and tips to leverage your personal brand for new business and client retention. I’m most proud of partnering with BenefitsPRO magazine to help launch a new column, “Face of Change,” because I’m passionate about sharing the stories of innovative advisors who are kicking butt and taking names! “

Deborah Ault, Ault International Medical Management

“I’ve had the pleasure of growing and developing an amazing team who has been very focused on growth. We defined it (then accomplished it) in a variety of ways, both professional and personal. Our team has grown both in terms of the number of team members, but also in the expertise of our team members. Based on advice from Nelson Griswold, we did a lot of work on systematizing our staff onboarding and staff advancement processes to ensure scalability.  Those efforts were critical to our success, and timely too, because we grew significantly in terms of new clients. Thanks to the forward-thinking and acting consultants and advisors who are disrupting the status quo in order to accomplish amazing things for their clients and the patients cared for by their health plans.  We have landed new clients every month for the past 12 consecutive months (which is somewhat unheard of in our industry – usually you get new clients in January and July, but we’ve been able to break out of that pattern) and we have a strong growth funnel for the upcoming 12+ months!

We have grown personally, as well, including one member of our team getting married, another team member embarking on a one-year sabbatical to do mission work in Croatia, two team members completing college degrees, and every team member completing advanced professional development, some of it leading to promotions.  The year ahead is already off to a great start with another team member planning a summer wedding. I’m very proud of the fine team of individuals who have banded together to fulfill a critical mission in revolutionizing the health care industry and all the amazing things they have accomplished for the patients in our care and the clients who have placed their trust in us. I am very much looking forward to replicating the amazing clinical and financial outcomes we’ve historically produced, just on a much grander scale. I couldn’t think of a better time to be in our industry!”

Lucila Williams, The Intentional Advisor

“I am really excited about a new concept that I put into place in 2018.  I believe in building our businesses with purpose, by which I mean having an impact on the world via the work that we do.  With that in mind, I have committed to having 100 percent of my 2018 speaking fees donated to financial literacy charities throughout the country.  I was able to partner with Midland National Life Insurance to do an advisor presentation and we gave $1,500 to The Young Americans Bank in Denver.  I hope that is just the beginning and that as The Intentional Advisor grows in reach, our impact on financial literacy grows as well!”

You all have been wonderful at introducing me to women all over the U.S., so keep them coming!  For those of you who haven’t made an intro and know of great women in the field who are working hard to make this this industry great, send me an introduction at scombs@combsandco.com. I’d love to connect!   Also, if you are going to be in Southern California in the next few weeksl, you should come to the BenefitsPro Broker Expo April 17-19 to meet me and a bunch of my colleagues who are making a difference in the industry!