Strategic Networking

Building strong professional relationships within and beyond the digital insurance sector can open doors to new opportunities and enhance visibility.


Transcription:

Marissa Buckley (00:08):
Here, I want to take a moment really to acknowledge women in insurance leadership and digital insurance. So I'm not sure if all of you're aware of this or not, but a while ago I wrote an article about women in insurance leadership and how it came about, and it started with two women that went to a conference, an insurance conference, and they were the only two women in the room and one of them was Holly Groza, which some of you may know who's part of Horizon and digital insurance. So when they saw that, they decided, you know what? We can't have this. We need more women in the industry. And they recommended to start women in insurance leadership. They were turned down, but they pushed forward and here we are today, which I think is so amazing. So thank you Patty Harmon and everybody at Digital Insurance for this great event.

(00:54):
I've been coming to Wills since 2017 and have built some really amazing friendships and a really wonderful, strong support system as part of coming to just this event. So I encourage you to really get out there and network with everyone here because it's unlike any relationship that you'll have in your career. So when I first started networking, I met people like Jackie Morales and Deb Smallwood who are industry thought leaders that working for a competitor company at times throughout my career and insurance said, yeah, we're competitors, but let's partner up. I can help you and you can help me. So it's been amazing in terms of the value that it's brought to my career. So thank you to all of the connections out there and I look forward to meeting everybody else and building even more connections. So I want to elaborate a little bit more on the women that are up here.

(01:51):
So first time that we met as part of this session and what we learned is that we all have highly technical backgrounds. We're all women in insurance leadership and next honorees, woo-hoo. And I talk about the value of that because it's been instrumental in my career. So I worked for a carrier for 15 years, IRA Ziff, who's an executive recruiter, he found me on LinkedIn, looked at my background, we had a conversation and he said, have you ever heard of fractional services? You need to own your own value. So I pivoted and transitioned to serve small and medium sized insurance companies and MGAs, but also startup companies as a fractional CMO with my business partner, Debbie McGonigal. And now we spent the last year building a service to help women specifically and executive positions and founders to build a personal brand positioning and content strategy to systemize that content.

(02:51):
So that's real easy for me to do because I am super impressed with the women in this industry. And I'll start with Bethany. So Bethany works at American Family, she oversees data, she's in the Data Science and Analytics ab at American Family Insurance. Started her career in American Family. She's the mother of two twin girls that are four years old. And if you do the math, she was taking care of infants during Covid. So really, and I talked to her this morning over breakfast and she said, I do it again. I'm like, you go, that's awesome. I had one and I was like, I can't do it. But it was great. She very strong, powerful women up here. And then we have Laurna Castillo, who is with CSAA. She started her career there as an Actuarial Scientist analyst for that company and is now overseeing product.

(03:48):
So transitioning from different areas of the business, but really with a highly technical background in actuarial science being one of the most highly intelligent fields and insurance is quite remarkable. And then Catherine Myers, who has 30 years in technology experience. She started as a Software Engineer with UnitedHealthcare and now oversees the engineering team at reThought Flood, and then was expanded in her responsibilities, still overseeing engineering, but now as a Chief Operating Officer for the company. So great to be on this stage with them and to meet them and forge invaluable relationships. I'll be in touch and making sure that happens. All right, so we're here to talk about strategic networking. So 15 years working for a regional homeowner's insurance company. I undervalued the importance of strategic networking. I was overseeing front end innovation, so I would go to conferences and I would evaluate tech companies and things like that, but I didn't think about building, intentionally building my network within the insurance industry as part of attending those conferences. I do think that set me back a bit, but then I accelerated that a lot changing in my career. So I really want to emphasize and encourage you to push through your comfort zones, step out there and as Ira taught me, be unapologetic about what you're great at when you're communicating to other people here in the industry to build those relationships. So I'm going to start with Catherine, and we're going to talk about strategic networking. Can you share a personal story where strategic networking has had a big impact on your career?

Catherine Myers (05:34):
Absolutely. It's in my current role. So I've known my boss and CEO Corey for decades, and I've worked for him. This is the fifth time I've worked with him. Throughout my career, I've had multiple different industries, multiple different roles, and in pauses I've been able to lean on a network and that network has been very, very valuable in this most recent transition. Corey actually came and talked to me I would say a couple years before I was ready to move and I wasn't able to help him at the time. I took some time off when my oldest graduated from high school and went back into looking at the workforce and it wasn't as easy to get back in even after a couple of months. So all the networking that I had done, all the stuff that you plan for with your networking, things sometimes fall through.

(06:27):
I happened to call back with Corey and I said, Hey, I know I couldn't help you back then. However, do you need any help right now? And he turned around and within the next week I was working at this amazing company that I'm at now. And with that I've been able to grow even within the career at Rethought Flood and been able to take on some extremely challenging new roles, new areas, and I am the best place I've ever been at. So yeah, it was definitely networking, keeping in touch with him over the past 20 plus years that landed me where I feel like I'm going to be forever.

Marissa Buckley (07:08):
I posted about each of these women when we had our prep meeting and what Catherine was talking about is too, which was really valuable for me, is networking when you don't need it. Just such a valuable lesson with that. And now she's got a fantastic position with a wonderfully innovative company that's first to market with the type of flood insurance that they're bringing to consumers. Awesome. Laurna, what about you?

Laurna Castillo (07:34):
Yeah, so in my current role, I'm responsible for the profitable growth of our products and as many of the people in the insurance industry now working with regulators and figuring out how you can do that within the regulatory framework for each state is a large part of that. So I have a story where our CEO at the time was looking to meet with the commissioner of a department of insurance, a really, really difficult state. There's a couple of them, but you're probably, yes, which one. And his approach was to meet with the commissioner and really just pull forward all the things that we needed from the Department of Insurance. We are one of the largest carriers in this state. We are the largest carrier of property insurance in this state. And at this time, we were experiencing and not timely enough rate approvals. And so his approach was to go, Hey, we're really leaning into the market.

(08:34):
Why aren't you approving our rate in time? And he came back and the story was the commissioner was on his phone for five minutes listening and then got up and left the room. And so I was thinking about that interaction and then there was just really a reaction of, oh, this was, they're impossible to work with. There's no way we can get them to do what we want them to do. And so I met with our chief legal officer at the time and said, maybe we can take a slightly different approach rather than going into the room and saying, this is what I need from you at times when we need it, let's get ahead of the kiv and say, let's just meet with them and ask what do you need from us? How can we help you as a department of insurance? Oh, you personally as the commissioner. So we set out a plan to really build this relationship and this network across department, this specific department of insurance, and met with them when we didn't need anything. And it was a pretty cool meeting because I was a little nervous that I was going to get up and walk out the room in the first five minutes again. But we made a connection, actually, this is kind of a silly thing, but he was wearing a pair of shoes that I'd just bought my son and I complimented his shoes

(09:46):
And from there he kind of picked up and we had a friendly conversation and it was actually mostly personal and not about work, but just that connection and the fact that I wasn't going there asking him of anything, and I was just trying to make that personal connection actually led to additional meetings down the road. And actually at times, them proactively talking to us about, Hey, CSAA, you guys are important to the department. We know that. How can we help? And we were able to get a lot of our rate approvals through on a much faster because of that network and those relationships that we built at times when we didn't really need it, it wasn't critical.

Marissa Buckley (10:21):
Malcolm Gladwell wrote this book called Blink where somebody can create a perception of you within a few seconds of meeting you before you even open your mouth. When you think about what Laurna just said, you've got somebody who is used to somebody coming up with an agenda, hi, nice to meet you, and I'm going to give you my pitch. Not really take the time to get to know somebody. So the fact that you did that, now what Laurna did is you may have had a perception of me in the first three seconds, but I like your shoes. And she totally probably changed that with him. Right. Bethany, what about you? A personal story where strategic networking has had a big impact?

Bethany Jansen (11:02):
Yeah, I'd say strategic networking has had the most profound impact in my career, in my current position and team. So I've been with my carrier for eight and a half years now, and I've kind of watched our executives move up, down and sideways across the business. So I decided that was what I was going to do myself. I prefer to not move down as I have two young children than I have to pay for school for, but move across the area. And at the time when I had my twins, I was working in our sales function as chief of staff to our west region, SVP, and I started building a personal board of directors at that time. So a little bit different than just having a mentor. I had kind of three roles within that board of directors. I sought out mentors, so people that I was a little bit more friendly with coaches, so people that would amp me up to go for things and then sponsor.

(12:03):
So having someone that would mention my name in a room where I'm not for that opportunity. And I had been with my boss for three years at that point, and I loved her to death. I would follow her to the ends of the earth, but I wanted to challenge myself. And there was a posting for head of ai and I thought, you know what? Men apply for something they feel 10% qualified for where we as women wait until we're about 90, 95 and I'm just going to think like a man and I'm going to go for it. And I leaned on my personal board of directors. I sent them the job description, what my pitch book and brag book were, and they helped me kind of craft how I was going to sell myself for this position. And ultimately they were looking for someone with a little bit more experience in ai.

(12:54):
And at the time I didn't have it, but that VP was like, you know what? I really want to work with you. Let's figure something out. And then I learned how to play hardball and I created the position that I'm in now. My team did not have that, and my personal board of directors really helped me with that. I had individuals that were within our HR function that brought in, here's where your compensation would look, here are our philosophy and the rules on how many steps you can jump. I leaned on head of a few of our lines of business on how I could in the position I was looking to create, bring them in. Our agency distribution function is still about 50% of our total written premium, and that is where my passion still lies. So I wanted to make sure I was going to represent them in anything that we were doing as a whole enterprise. And I went to my now boss when we started this process and said, Hey, I want to work for you. You want me to work with you? Let's figure something out. And we went back and forth on what that position was going to be and that's what brought me here. And so I'm super thankful for being able to network strategically, curate my people on my board that helped advocate for me, push for me and mention me in the room when I wasn't there.

Marissa Buckley (14:21):
So I think it would be kind of cool if we all started building our own personal board, and you could start here really, it's just like maybe we meet once a month or something like that. And especially with somebody who doesn't know you because it's not just a board for you, but there's a tremendous amount of shared value that comes with that. I also want to say thank you to Bethany for mentioning, you know what, and being so authentic to say I didn't get that job, but then there was another job that was created for me. There was another woman up here, Amy, I believe from Chubb Insurance who said, oh yeah, I failed at that, or I wasn't so great at that. It's just that kind of conversation is really, really important. And I hope that we all more often talk about that as I failed at that, but that makes me awesome. Okay. I've learned a lot. So now if we've got this personal board of directors or the people that you have in your network, what are some of the things that you do to nurture those relationships over time? So Catherine, reaching out to the person eight years later, that wasn't eight years of silence that took place with that. So I'll start with Laurna on that. So what are some of the things that you do to strengthen relationships over time?

Laurna Castillo (15:37):
Yeah, one of the things with relationships is you're not necessarily seeing them every day or maybe even every week or month. It might be somebody that you see once a year, and oftentimes if you don't engage often and properly, then it might feel like a chore, right? Like, oh, I have to think about this person and how can I help them? So the way I approach networking and relationships and how we can get them to persist, there was this speaker named Patrick Galvin. He has a book called The Connectors Way, which I'm a huge fan of. It's really, really great to take a lot of my personal network and strategies from there. But in it, he talks about how you don't need to be the most interesting person in the room. You need to be the most interested person in the room.

(16:25):
If you're prepping and being like, oh, how can I show up? What do I need to say? How can I make my pitch? And everybody does that. Nobody's going to have an appropriate networking event being the most interested, asking people about themselves, what they do, how can I help you? That really is the more powerful way to create these long stands in relationships. And it's not just on the business side too, it's also on the personal side. In fact, I often find that the personal side, the shoe story is oftentimes a little bit more powerful and memorable. Obviously you have to also talk about business, but having that kind of social side and being the most interested, constantly check up on your network, how are you doing? How are the kids? Is there anything I can help you with? Is one strategy that I have found a lot of success with having those long standing relationships.

Marissa Buckley (17:14):
That's so great. Thank you. Make it personal. Business is personal, right? Catherine, what about you? How did you maintain that relationship for eight years, get where you are?

Catherine Myers (17:24):
It is definitely personal. I think the most beneficial networking relationships that I have, there's also a personal tend to it. I know I've met their kids, I've met their family. There's things that we find that are intriguing and in commonalities. One of my first jobs I interviewed for someone, they didn't want to interview me. They were like, I am not interested. There's really nothing here for you. He found out that I went to school in Japan for a year about the same time that he did, and he is like, I just want to meet her and find out if she saw the same places that I did met with them, we got along great. They found a job for me. So it's just finding those neat connections and then making sure that you enhance them. In fact, I just saw him with a reunion about last weekend. And so it is just having that personal connection that also helps you enhance your business connections.

Marissa Buckley (18:21):
And just made me think of this is that you can amplify those personal stories about yourself by publishing frequently and consistently in LinkedIn. It's such a powerful tool. And I want to say too is a lot of people are apprehensive about using LinkedIn because it's the common way of thinking, oh, my employer's just going to think I'm active in looking, and then they're going to change their perception of me, which is really not true actually. You can help your organization grow and recruit new talent that we so desperately need through the wonderful use of LinkedIn. So Bethany, how about you with nurturing those relationships?

Bethany Jansen (19:01):
Yeah, so I liked what Laurna said about being the most interested person in the room. So for me, I am transparent to a fault. I am who I am at home, which is the same person that my team gets at work. And what I really pride myself on is being chronically curious. That is one of my taglines within my pitch book. And when I meet people and when I am talking to my personal board of directors or I serve on boards for others and I mentor others as well, is I really want that personal relationship. That's what I go to first. When people ask me about my kids, I light up, we all light up about something and I want to know what makes that person tick. And that's a way to kind of nurture the relationship as you move apart or together across organizations or even in the industry or across the industry.

(19:59):
So I like to kind of just have personal check-ins with anyone that I work with. I like to spend a lot of time talking about their personal lives or how they're feeling. One of the questions I always ask at the end of any conversation I have with anyone is what can I do for you to make your job easier? Or how do I take you from surviving to thriving? Especially right now, the industry feels a little bit of a pinch. We are recession proof, but we're not necessarily inflation proof, which is why we're seeing a lot of restructures, organizational changes going on, and that is pretty stressful to a lot of people within my network. So how can we help each other still thrive in this changing environment?

Marissa Buckley (20:47):
Wonderful, thank you. I also want to say too is think of other ways that you can build relationships. So back when I met Jackie and she said, we're competitors, but come on over, let's help each other out. I always wanted to have my own women's retreat, so I invited her and a couple other women to go to the Keys in the dead of summer and enjoy ourselves and get to know each other. And when I called each of them, Jackie asked me first, she said, are you happy? And I was blown away by that because I was like, no, I'm not happy where I was. And she's like, me neither. And this was a long time ago. So we really bonded over that and I thought, I'm going to ask her if she'll go. And she did. And then we asked two other women and they were like, yes, I'm not happy either.

(21:35):
I need to go. So we did have a great bonding moment. So thinking differently outside of just connecting at conferences, these relationships are so invaluable. And then that ended up leading to a women's retreat with 15 women that are all senior level leadership. And we spent five days together in a house and a few of you are here, which was really amazing. And I can still look at them today and say, even if you don't talk to me and too much, if you're not that good at maintaining those long-term relationships, I will stop what I'm doing to help you. It's like those people that you network with when you went to Harvard, right by your side for life. Wonderful. So now that we're so great about talking about the mistakes that we've made or how we want to advise other people how to avoid mistakes, what are some of the mistakes that you think people should, that are common, that people could avoid to build a healthy and strong strategic network? And I'll start with Bethany.

Bethany Jansen (22:35):
Yeah. I think some of the mistakes I've made early in my career when I was looking for mentors was I wasn't being consistent in how I maintained that relationship. I felt like in looking back, I was kind of using that person to get myself somewhere and I wasn't thinking about how I could be useful to them, how we could help each other, you can mentor, you can do reverse mentoring, and we all have something to learn from one another. And I think that was one of the mistakes I made early on was just being like, oh, I'm going to target this person because I like their title and that's going to get me to some other position. And it wasn't like I like them because of their skills, their abilities, their emotional intelligence, things that they bring to the table. And I would just meet with them maybe once a quarter and it felt very structured, not as personal.

(23:36):
And so what I did was I really kind of changed that, especially as I became a mother and realized that we can all help each other. And what I needed to do was just be more present in those mentor relationships or those board relationships and not just be using them and not just have, here's my agenda, three things real quick. See you in three months, wanted more of like, tell me about what you just did. What was a vacation you went on? How are the kids? How's the house selling, going? Things like that. So that was one of my mistakes, definitely learned from it, and now I carry that forward.

Marissa Buckley (24:18):
Wonderful. Laurna?

Laurna Castillo (24:20):
Yeah, my going to be pretty similar. The common theme is around this kind of, not just what's in it for me is also what's in it for you and more of that emotional connection with people. For me, when I think about investing in myself and network and versus investing in my business and how I operate every day, I noticed that there was some kind of synergies and I was putting a lot of effort into the business side of things and I'm like, Hey, maybe this will work on the personal side too. One example of that is my team, in addition to state product management, also leads our agent engagement strategy. And with agent engagement, we're all like, okay, we have this awesome product, it's competitive, it has all these features, let's give the agents those talking points and we will be awesome. And that's not enough.

(25:10):
Then we're like, okay, well what about some money, some incentive programs? Maybe that will also help. That also wasn't enough. It wasn't until we had a third dimension that we really got a lot of traction. So the strategy that we have right now is engage in agents', hearts, minds, and motivation. So hearts, minds and motivation. So everything that I do in my personal life, I also think, okay, I need to do three of those. It's not only with network and it's not only the minds piece, which I think people go to first. What's in it for me? Like, oh, why should you want to have a relationship with me? It's also the motivation, right? People might think that, oh yeah, you're great, but then never thinking about you again. So what motivates them to think about you in those situations? And then the hearts piece, so you feel good about having that relationship. You know why that relationship is healthy for both of you guys and you're motivated to capitalize and lean into it. So once I figured out those three things and I started analyzing my relationships to see do I have those few things in place personally, that's when I started to get a little bit more traction in my personal network and Zoom.

Marissa Buckley (26:19):
Thank you. And I think just combining both of them is that you can come to an event like this and network and build really valuable relationships, but stop and think about where you want to be. Define your purpose. Why do you exist? Why are you here? Your mission, how are you going to get there? And what does the world look like when you've achieved that? When you know where you're headed, whether it's just a year from now or the next phase in your career, then get really strategic and intentional about building those relationships on a regular basis. Catherine, what about you?

Catherine Myers (26:52):
Definitely being able to balance what you need and how you can help others. The other thing is burning bridges. Be careful which bridges you burn or which bridges you damage because you won't realize until later in life that bridge is actually going to bring you to a place that you want to be at. And that's one of the things that I've really, really concentrated on is just if I didn't have a good experience or I'm like, ah, there wasn't anything in there for me, a lot of those relationships come back and bring you to places you never thought you'd be.

Marissa Buckley (27:29):
That's really a great answer. Thank you. Because you do, you'll meet people that maybe you really just don't align with or connect with. Don't leave those relationships just hanging out there. Bring a reason around that of why maybe there isn't such a strong relationship or otherwise. People will make up things in their minds. We all do it about what they think is going on and what happened, but

Catherine Myers (27:55):
Or you don't know enough. You just met them, you don't know enough and you don't understand everything that they've come to the table with that day. They may have woken up and something horrible happened that day, they may not have shown up with their authentic self. And so being able to give other people opportunities or if you get introductions, I've had people that say, Hey, will you meet with so-and-So, and I'm like, I don't have time, but I will because I know that I was that person looking for connections before and it's that type of that network that you need to be able to facilitate and nurture.

Marissa Buckley (28:30):
Wonderful, thank you. So let's talk about what advice we would give to women who are just starting to build their network. So it could have been in a situation like me where you're in the industry for 15 years and you're like, oh, I need a network. Get out there and get some value here. So let's start with you Catherine. What advice would you give to someone who's just starting to build that

Catherine Myers (28:58):
Definitely go out there outside of your comfort zone? One of my mentors early in life said the key to success is to be comfortable outside of your comfort zone. And that includes the networking piece of it and going out there and meeting people that you don't think you need to know or in industries or in areas or people who are asking questions that you don't think matter at this moment in time because eventually those connections come back. It's a small universe and it's a small world in the insurance industry and it will come back.

Marissa Buckley (29:30):
That's so important. And just like we talked about at the table too, which is you do have to set healthy boundaries for yourself. So when I pivoted and became a fractional executive, I was introducing me to a lot of great startup InsureTech companies that I was learning about their technologies. But some of them, a lot of them are early stage. And because I've got insurance background and knowledge and property casualty, a lot of founders will call me and ask me, could you help me with understanding a few things? And it was taking so much of my time. I loved it so much and I was so passionate about it because it's like, wow, I'm early in on this relationship and on this technology and they're young and they're excited and passionate, and I realized my own business was suffering because I was spending so much time doing that. So I really had to qualify who I needed to talk to and tell and do a little bit of that early stage. So it's great to be able to acknowledge protecting your energy and where you spend that time as well. Bethany, what about you? Advice for women that are just building their network?

Bethany Jansen (30:39):
So when I think of that question, I think of what I would want to tell myself or my daughters about being in this industry or growing their professional network in general. And being in insurance. It is stale mail and pale. And one of the things I wanted to do was change that. I was very fortunate where I had a great female leader, but being intentional about how you view yourself and you view others, where are my opportunities to grow and learn? And then finding that within someone else has really been beneficial and using that for the network. And speaking of small worlds, we were on this intro call about a week and a half ago. It turns out Catherine and I both are in the Minneapolis area. We were both going to be on the same flight here. And so we were like, Hey, let's meet in real life.

(31:36):
I'm a huge in-person, person. I think that's the sales side of me. We are in the relationship business ultimately is what insurance is. And so we met and that was great. And now Laurna, I can reach out to her and everyone else here, but being intentional and knowing where your opportunities are for growth or where maybe you fall a little short is what I would be giving advice to any of the women I work with regardless of if they're just entering the workforce, if they're entering the industry themselves or if they've been in it a while, let's all take a step back. Where can we grow? And then how are you going to grow in that way?

Marissa Buckley (32:21):
You said the term stale, male and pale. So I went around and counted, and I just want to say thank you to the seven men that are in the room. Thank you so much for being here. Bring your friends. Laurna, what about you for the advice?

Laurna Castillo (32:40):
The intentionality is key. I also think that for myself, I was an actuary and introvert by nature, so networking especially early on in my career was difficult. And I would look at other counterparts, male, female, and with more experience and say, how do they do that without immediately needing a nap? And so as I think back to then, I think I was putting a little bit too much stress on myself to do what other people were doing versus saying, okay, what does network look like for me? And so it was a little bit like, oh, I can't do that. I'm just going to give up or it's too hard and I'm just going to focus on excelling in my work. So I think being intentional and proactive, but then starting small, you don't have to create this big network in the first year in your career. Maybe just start having a conversation and those little decisions, maybe you're at a conference or you're at an all hands for your company. Maybe you have just one little thing, which is I'm going to have a conversation of a coffee with someone I don't know. And it can be a 10 minute conversation and then you can be like, okay, I'm not going to network for the rest of the day. That's fine. So don't try to boil the ocean, don't let perfection get in the way of progress as you're to build your net way.

Marissa Buckley (33:56):
Absolutely. So I want to also say that be present frequently on LinkedIn, even if you feel like, oh, I don't know what to say. Or I'm a senior level executive working for a big insurance company and I can't say certain things. Challenge your belief on that because you can. There are things that you can say that you can share. And by doing that, it has been amazing the number of people that have reached out to me that I've built relationships with. I don't have a website. I've never had to reach out and drum up business because I am present on LinkedIn. People see it and they understand, they get an understanding of my expertise and they just reach out. It's the most powerful thing I think you can do in your career right now is to say, you know what? For the rest of this year, I'm going to be amazing on LinkedIn because there are opportunities out there that you'll be creating for yourself that you never would've been able to do if you weren't on LinkedIn. Well, thank you so much for this time and if you have any questions, we're not going to have a q and a, but if you do, please reach out to us and ask and connect. I would love that. So thank you so much.