Starting the New Year With My Why

If I’ve heard it once in the entrepreneurial world, I’ve heard it a thousand times – you need to communicate why you do what you do. I’ve also heard you shouldn't blog about yourself.

But here I am.

Talking about myself and telling you my “Why?”

My background story is pretty short. I completed my Bachelor of Business degree, knowing I wanted to do something in business. When I graduated, my first job was a product ambassador – kind of like the food samplers in grocery stores. There were a few products I demonstrated and vividly remember thinking” I would NEVER buy this, how the heck am I supposed to convince others to buy it?”  That’s when I knew I had the wrong job.

So I started searching for something else. I wanted to find a product or service that I 100% believed in to the point where I would buy it myself.

Luckily, I didn’t have to look too far. My father is a financial planner. He has a practice that encompasses not only financial goals, but life goals too, emphasizing a holistic approach. At a very basic level, the products that are sold to achieve these goals are insurance and investments.

I thought to myself that investments had to be easy to sell. The concept of putting away some money and at some point in the future having a good likelihood of being worth more than what you put away should be a no-brainer.

Insurance on the other hand, I thought would be really tough to sell. How can I show people the value of spending a few dollars now to have protection against the worst things that could possibly happen to you – the things no one ever wants to think about, let alone have a conversation about!

Then it happened.

My worst nightmare and my why. A young client passed away only three months after purchasing life insurance from me, leaving behind a grieving widow.

It was at this time I saw the positive impact a life insurance policy can have on a family. I’d only really had two conversations with them about their future and life goals and in our second meeting we put a life insurance policy in force, and as a result, I literally saved someone’s financial life.

When he passed away, she didn’t have to go find a new job right away, she didn’t have to worry about a “budget” for his celebration of life, she didn’t have to worry about the next mortgage payment and this allowed her to focus her energy on her emotional recovery from such a tragic event.

That’s my why.