Why Gruntwork Matters

Business of Insurance Podcast

LEADERS UNDERSTAND THE VALUE OF HARD WORK WITH JESSICA PRUITT

EP 31 - Jessica Pruitt president of Lebanon Insurance agency. She was recruited from a fast food restaurant, worked her way through different departments and is now owns the insurance agency.

Jessica discusses the work she did over the years that she thinks positioned her for being the right person to run the agency. Her office is located in a part of Virginia that is somewhat old school, so she had to deal with prospects and clients wanting to speak to a man. Some finally agreed to work with her and some took their business elsewhere. She’s persevered and grown the business as a woman and is beginning to make a name for herself in her community.

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF INSURANCE PROFESSIONALS

This podcast was recorded at the regional conference for International Association of Insurance Professionals. For those of you that have been around for awhile, you might know it as NAIW, but they did a rebranding a few years ago to open it to both men and women. I had to privilege to interview several of the attendees of the conference. Watch for those conversations in future episodes.

The most impressive benefit for being part of this organization is their focus on leadership training. Personally, that in itself is worth the investment of this organization. Most of our leaders don’t get trained, they just end up in the role. To be an effective leader, there are some important skills that you need to develop, and IAIP has a program for building leadership.

IAIP offers a training unique to insurance professionals, both on the agency and company side, so if you are not familiar with them, check them out. Their national conference is in Las Vegas June 6-8th OF 2019. I’ll link to their website in the show notes, but I really think it’s worthwhile to investigate. I wouldn’t look at this as a networking event, although I believe that meeting with your peers in the industry is an added benefit, but the training and the leadership component, is invaluable.

CHECK OUT IAIP CONFERENCE HERE

If you like what you hear in this podcast. Please share with a friend or coworker!

This is one of many episodes you’ll hear from the International Association of Insurance Professionals regional conference in March of 2019.

ABOUT THE REGIONAL CONFERENCE

I mentioned that I found that conference by accident. I was doing some research on insurance speaking opportunities and the IAIP regional conference showed up. Ironically, I was planning a weekend vacation to the beach for my birthday and discovered the conference 4 days before I was scheduled to leave. I reached out to the conference organizers, said I’d be in the area and asked if I could interview some of their guests. The members were so accommodating. We did our recordings in a penthouse suite overlooking the ocean. If you are familiar with Ocean City MD, we were at The Dunes Hotel. One side was The Ocean the other side was the bay, and Jolly Rogers. I haven't been to Jolly Rogers since my kids were very young and had no idea how big the park was. Seeing it from the top floor of The Dunes Hotel was super special. I’ll include a few pictures in the show notes at The Business of Insurance .com

You’ll hear a variety of stories in upcoming episodes of women pioneers in the insurance industry. I know that you’ll find them inspiring. Technology is changing the way we do business but when you hear some of the stories from those who have been around awhile, the slow changes might make more sense to those of you newer to the business of Insurance!

THE BUSINESS OF INSURANCE FACEBOOK GROUP

One last note, I’ve started a FB group called The Business of Insurance. Its will be a group for running your agency from leadership to sales, marketing to management and everything in between.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE BUSINESS OF INSURANCE FACEBOOK GROUP

If you are more of a LinkedIn user thaN FB, don’t worry, that group will be live shortly.

ABOUT OUR GUEST – JESSICA PRUITT

Jessica Pruitt is the owner of Lebanon Insurance Agency. Connect with her on:

• Her website
• LinkedIn
• Facebook

ABOUT THE HOST

This episode of the Business of Insurance is produced and hosted by Debbie DeChambeau, CIC, AAI, CPIA. Debbie is an insurance agent with an extensive business and marketing background. Her focus is helping insurance professionals be more successful. She is the co-author of Renewable Referrals and hosts two other podcasts Business In Real Life and Divorce Exposed. Connect with Debbie on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram. Coming soon. Single and Over Sixty and Seniors We Love