What’s the good news, ladies?  Talking turkey

Turkey.  One word can stir up so many emotions and memories. Family and friends, funny sayings, or a feeling of patriotism (after all, it was rumored to be in the running for our national bird after Ben Franklin argued that the eagle was “a bird of bad moral character” that “does not get his living honestly” because it steals food from the fishing hawk and is “too lazy to fish for himself.”  In contrast, Franklin called the turkey “a much more respectable bird” and “a true original native of America.”

Whether you love it or hate it, there are times in our career that we need to quit a poor business practice “cold turkey” or have honest conversations with clients or staff and “talk turkey.”  The turkey can often serve as a lesson in some capacity in our lives.  

The three ladies featured this month have talked turkey with themselves and focused on growth and change this year by making shifts in their careers.  What honest conversations have you had with yourself this year?  Read below to see how Amanda, Lynne and Elsa have worked to get comfortable with the uncomfortable!

Amanda Foley, 3P Risk Strategies

“Biggest accomplishment this year? Getting comfortable with the uncomfortable! During thepandemic, I was operating in survival mode and craved organization and stability. So, at the beginning of the year, when presented with a partnership opportunity outside of our industry, my first thought was “push it to next year!” Then I remembered a Ginni Rometty quote: “You have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable because growth and comfort never coexist.” Growth and change are normal in my world, but never had I experienced so much change in a short period of time. Instead of being satisfied with surviving the last two years, I decided to embrace the uncomfortable. The new program has been wildly successful from a client satisfaction and financial standpoint, while reminding me that I love learning new things. Some strengths only reveal themselves in challenging times, so put yourself in growth situations and see how strong you are.”

Lynne Jackson, Regional Vice President, The Insurance Partners

“My entire 25-year career has been spent specializing in the executive disability insurance market.  I recently joined The Insurance Partners, where I am a resource for employee benefit consulting firms in the Pacific Northwest, Mid-Atlantic, Carolinas and Florida.  Being carrier agnostic allows me to have an independent voice and truly be consultative to the broker and the client.  My goal is to help firms use individual disability insurance, life insurance and long-term care to solve the financial planning needs for their clients.  From plan design and pre-sale, to implementation and administration, I strategically protect a client’s most important asset: their income!”

Elsa Glorioso, PeopleStrategy

“I joined PeopleStrategy in 2019, after they had recently acquired a technology/brokeragecompany called Checkpoint HR.  Unfortunately, the focus of the company at the time was specifically around developing their HRIS piece.  The “small brokerage” that came with the acquisition was completely underserved.  Since the acquisition in 2017, the brokerage had not written a piece of new business and it was slowly dissolving.  The folks that took on Checkpoint were fully focused on growing the technology and didn’t realize the golden egg that came with the purchase.  I was brought on to take over and lead channel partnerships, but after a careful analysis of the entire state of the organization, our former CEO, Randy Cooper, allowed me the opportunity to take on the agency.  I have grown the agency since 2020, adding 20+ new mid-market groups, and taking advantage of bundling the technology and benefit offering.  This provides our groups an all-in-one package and streamlines their daily HR needs. I have also worked on retaining our previous client base and ensure that all decisions being made are centered around the best options for their employees.  I tell all my groups, I am a nurse first, then a broker. Being a good human first will always lead to the best outcome.”

Know of any rockstar women in our industry who want to talk some turkey?  If you do, please help with this effort and shoot an email to scombs@combsandco.com, as I’d love to connect and bring them into my circle too to share their successes with our readers as well!