3 minute read
From Your Young Agents Director
Perpetuating Our Industry
For those of you that don't know me, I have pretty much grown up in this industry. From my time on the carrier side at Infinity, Indiana and Safeco to my current role as a principal at an agency – I have seen a little bit of everything. And through all that time I've learned that this is a great industry that we must protect and perpetuate. Insurors of Tennessee is certainly helping us protect it – but how do we perpetuate it? I think that starts with our Young Agents program.
For decades now, we have tried to develop future leaders in this industry by offering programs and networking for insurance professionals under 40 years of age. You can see the results of that work in the names and faces on our Board and in our agencies' leadership. After 9/11, some of that focus slipped and we had a development gap. Luckily, over the past 10-12 years we've had volunteer leaders who have recommitted to the program and helped us build a strong and engaged group. Now it is my turn to help solidify our participation over this decade.
Goals for 2021
One of my goals is to help bring in agents on the "younger" end of our spectrum. We have quite a few involved members who will turn 40 over the next 2-3 years, so we want to continue our recruiting. To do that, I have asked our committee members to reach out individually to quality targets for involvement. I have already started making those calls and I hope to do a lot more over the course of the year.
My next goal is to develop a stronger relationship between those who already involved as well as our Board and other Association leaders. To help accomplish this, we are planning on bringing back our Young Agents Conference event. Although still in the planning stages, we are considering hosting it in July somewhere in the Smoky Mountains area. The scheduling will coincide with our 3rd Quarter Board of Directors meeting, so that these agents (and potentially their families) can get to know some of the current Association leadership. Many of my "mentors" and those that have given me solid advice over my career have been leaders within Insurors. I think getting our new generation of agents in from of some of these leaders will be an extremely valuable opportunity.
I also understand that professional development needs to be a key piece of any function we do for Young Agents. With that in mind, I have worked with Daniel, Abby and Nick on our staff to put together an idea for "workshops" at this event. We intend for these workshops to be led by some of the marquee thought leaders in our industry. That is why we are reaching out to some of the "influencers" that host insurancerelated podcasts to put together a function we are calling Podcast Row.
These podcasters will not only be recording their shows from our event, but also interviewing each other, our attendees – maybe even you! In addition, they will lead our workshops and discuss topics like sales, marketing, agency workflows and data. I think this will be some very beneficial time for our attendees, and I'm excited to hear from these presenters.
Please Get Involved
Do you have a Young Agent at your agency that isn't involved already? Are you a Young Agent that would be interested? Please reach out to me if you'd like more info at derek@grahamandcook.com or call our Insurors staff for more details. We'd love to have you involved in this program.
When I was working on the company side, I sometimes felt like I was "missing out" on the camaraderie that agents had at Insurors events. Now that I am an agent, I really see what I was missing. Don't make the mistake of missing out on that yourself! If you don't "know anyone" or feel like you would be more comfortable if someone talked to you about the program first – contact us! I promise we'll welcome you.
With your help we can truly perpetuate the future and success of our industry. u
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