Page 9 - Shaw Wall of Honor

Three Strategies
In the two decades since I started my career in insurance, a lot has changed for women in our industry; some things, unfortunately, are still a work in progress. This is not an article or a statement about how women must unite against the men or that we are victims, but an article about how I have learned to overcome some of the challenges I have faced in my career so far.
In 2017, I excitedly went to a women in insurance event to meet some of my colleagues and instead found a group of women whining and wining. Although I do enjoy a tasty Zinfandel, I was not about to sit around and indulge in too much of either; instead, I headed home fired up about creating something different for women—and even men—to help empower women and encourage us to take risks that we too often do not take. In 2017, I started WIISE,
Women In Insurance Sharing Empowerment, together with Heather McDougall (COO). We have helped several carriers start their own group for women, put together retreats, and spoke across the country. Through all this, there have been three strategies that I have worked on to overcome challenges professionally. P.S. Men, these strategies could help you too!
Menefactors: a man who is a benefactor in the life and career of a woman
Men have played in crucial role in where I am today. The three men who have greatly shaped my career and my life are my dad, Richard; my husband Jason; and my “business dad,” Ken Walters. My dad always encouraged me to go for things that others were too afraid to or that no woman had ever done before. He and my mom believed that I could do great things if I just put my whole self into it. He was my first menefactor, who always extended his heart and hand to lift me up throughout my childhood and still today. In 2002, I met Jason, who would later become my husband, who
WRITTEN BY
DAWNYEL SMINK
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