Awkward Insurance

Awkward Insurance will be back in January but in the meantime be sure to check out our previous episodes, Join the Facebook Community, and check out all of our other insurance & risk management content! 

Focusing exclusively on risk management and insurance professional development, the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance provides a practical advantage at every career stage, positioning our participants and their clients for confidence and success.

Voices in the episode in order of appearance:

• Josh Paskewicz, Talent Acquisition Manager at Hylant
• Allison Garcia, Talent Acquisition Leader at Hylant
• Kevin Ray, Vice President of Learning & Development at Erie Insurance Group
• Meaghen Paterson, District Sales Manager at Erie Insurance Group
• Will Kegg, Insurance & Risk Management Student at University of Cincinnati, GIS Chapter President
• Benjamin J. Kegg, Information Technology Student at University of Cincinnati, Executive GIS Member
• Mary Jo Zimmer, User Experience Manager at Erie Insurance Group
• Lee’a Thigpen, Information Technology Supervisor & IT Intern Program Lead at Erie Insurance Group

Learn More!

• https://www.gammaiotasigma.org/
• https://www.gammaiotasigma.org/sustaining-partners

Focusing exclusively on risk management and insurance professional development, the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance provides a practical advantage at every career stage, positioning our participants and their clients for confidence and success.

Speakers In this Episode In Order:

• Marguerite Tortorello, Managing Director of Insurance Careers Movement and President of Tortorello Communications Company
• Kyle Steele, PL Product Management Supervisor at COUNTRY Financial®
• Scott Fleming, MBA, CPCU, Multiline Claims Manager at Erie Insurance Group
• Y’llon Harron, Small Business Underwriter Leader at Westfield
• Nonya McNiel, CIC, CPIA, District Sales Manager at Erie Insurance Group

Focusing exclusively on risk management and insurance professional development, the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance provides a practical advantage at every career stage, positioning our participants and their clients for confidence and success.

• Leah Robinson, CIC, CRM, AINS, CAWC is a Commercial Lines Agent at the My Member Insurance Agency in Saginaw, MI. Considering herself a generalist, Leah enjoys working with clients ranging from cannabis cultivators to contractors, and everything in between. Leah has been on the Big I Michigan Young Agents Committee since 2018 and is currently the Past-Chair until August 31, 2023. In September 2022 Leah was named Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America’s National Young Agent of the Year. Leah first became a student of the insurance industry in the fall of 2012 as a senior in high school taking dual enrollment classes with Olivet College. She later graduated Summa Cum Laude from Olivet College in 2016 with her bachelor’s degree, dual majoring in Insurance & Risk Management and Financial Planning.

My Member Insurance: https://www.mymemberinsurance.com

Speakers In this episode (in order):

• Dustyne Bryant, CIC, CISR, Personal Lines Academic Director at The National Alliance For Insurance Education & Research
• Mac Leberman, Media Producer for The National Alliance For Insurance Education & Research
• Leah Robinson, AINS, CAWC, CIC, CRM Producer at My Member Insurance Agency; Former Chairperson of Michigan Young Agents Association
• Paul Martin, CPCU Director of Academy Content at The National Alliance For Insurance Education & Research
• Tom Humphreys, CPCU, CLU, ChFC, CIC Director of Risk Management and Insurance Center at Olivet College
• Ethan Gross, CEO of Globe Midwest Adjusters International
• Alec Richmond, CIC, Account Executive at The Richmond Agency; current Chairperson for Michigan Young Agents Association
• Joanna Dresden, CISR Elite, Hartland Insurance Agency
• Caryn Bedford, SPHR, CPC, Chief Learning and Talend Officer at Big I Michigan
• Cathy Baldwin, CIC, Director of Marking and Communication at J.M. Wilson
• Jordan Burns, Owner/CEO of Beyond Insurance Group

Focusing exclusively on risk management and insurance professional development, the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance provides a practical advantage at every career stage, positioning our participants and their clients for confidence and success.

Do you want to continue upskilling?  Check out our Insurance Bootcamp Series!

• Tabitha  Richardson is the National Learning & Development Manager for Business Insurance at Marsh & McLennan Agency. As an L&D Manager, Tabitha is responsible for supporting national initiatives through colleague and carrier/vendor training with a focus on the Business Insurance division. She helps to develop and instruct continuous training on key risk management and technology solutions including introductory, intermediate, and advanced topics throughout the enterprise. 
  She started her insurance career as a Liability & Personal Injury Protection Adjuster. Tabitha’s commercial experience includes working in non-profit institutions, entertainment, healthcare staffing, and construction industries on the middle market to large size accounts. 
  Tabitha recently earned a Master of Science in Risk & Insurance from Butler University. She also holds a B.A. in Psychology from The University of North Texas in Denton Texas. Tabitha has the CIC, CRM, CRIS, CISR & ACSR designations as well as several insurance licenses. 
  Tabitha is very involved in various insurance associations and strongly supports advancing her local school system; she has been instrumental in promoting the Invest Program where she partnered with local high schools and insurance associations to encourage future careers in the insurance profession. She currently serves as an Advisory Board Member at H. Grady Spruce High School in Dallas.
• Noelle Codispoti has been deeply committed to the diversification of the insurance industry talent pipeline, bringing the Global Dive In Festival to North America in 2016 at the GIS Annual Conference and pioneering ground-breaking initiatives like the GammaSAID Council, a student-led group fostering understanding and solutions around DEI. Prior to joining The National Alliance, Codispoti spent 10 years at the helm of Gamma Iota Sigma. There, she conceived and led a successful growth strategy resulting in a 400+% increase in student membership and double the active chapters. An accomplished leader in the early talent space, Codispoti will develop and implement the national growth strategy and comprehensive program supports to ensure student success. In pursuing key goals of expanding program reach and engaging an under-represented demographic to bolster a richly diverse talent pipeline, particular focus will be placed on the student experience to improve delivery; and developing meaningful partnerships to further support students with early industry networks and career opportunities.

Focusing exclusively on risk management and insurance professional development, the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance provides a practical advantage at every career stage, positioning our participants and their clients for confidence and success.

• Joe Hollier- As 16-year, independent insurance agent veteran, Joe Hollier has learned and seen firsthand the importance of building a community around your business and your brand. Although much of his insurance career has been based in P&C sales and risk management, he has for the last five years strategized on building a new kind of value-driven community for agents. An ecosystem that would celebrate the engagement and provide unique peer and client experiences that do not currently exist in the industry. Unwilling to let this dream go, in 2021 Joe found two like-minded partners and moved forward with launching NIFTY. Coupled with significant advances in virtual reality platforms and web3 technology, NIFTY has been able to quickly establish itself as a community platform that helps insurance agents transition from web2 to web3, or more simply stated - from today's internet to tomorrow's internet. Joe is married to his amazing wife Jenae and has four children: Vivienne 18, Joe 11, Emy Bea 5 and Harry 2. They currently reside in Mandeville, LA, just north of Greater New Orleans.
• Heath Shearon- A 2nd Generation insurance Professional, with nearly 20 years of experience in the industry in sales and marketing. Heath’s experience is incredibly versatile. He has been an agency owner, marketing rep, producer, and podcast host. Heath has a love and passion for the insurance industry and for people and for helping agents and the like to find their voice, their unique value proposition, to find their own brand, to be the best professional that they can be, and to be successful.

Insurance Town Podcast

Nifty 

Focusing exclusively on risk management and insurance professional development, the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance provides a practical advantage at every career stage, positioning our participants and their clients for confidence and success.

• Tracy Leigh Cotton, CIC, CISR, CPIW- An insurance enthusiast for over 27 years, Tracy thrives on steering her career to new horizons through education and an open mind. She's been an underwriter, account manager, producer, team leader, consultant, marketer, and trainer. Her newest role is one that taps into all those former experiences as a tool kit to create better results for the middle market commercial clients she serves. Outside of work she enjoys pursuing adventures that build her faith, check off her perpetual bucket list, and support the local community where she lives in Chattanooga TN. 
• Ashley Fitzsimmons, CISR- Director of Professional Development, Ohio Insurance Agents Association, Inc. Known as the Beyonce of Insurance, Ashley has grown up in insurance. She has real-life experience on the agency side – for nearly the last decade. She has had to overcome the same daily struggles and has personally researched and implemented many tools and programs to help her family agency run more efficiently. Nine years spent as the fourth generation in a family agency located near Scranton, PA, obtaining her CISR designation, multiple speaking engagements across the country as well as being nominated for the 2018 National CSR of the year has given her the knowledge and experience to help other agents thrive instead of just survive.

Focusing exclusively on risk management and insurance professional development, the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance provides a practical advantage at every career stage, positioning our participants and their clients for confidence and success.

Legacy Insurance Partners

• Jonnie Anderson loves spending her days helping to protect people against the unknown. She brings her experience and insurance background together to help families get the coverage they need for their home and autos. She began her career as an independent insurance agent and has now started her own legacy as one of the owners of Legacy Insurance Partners. When Jonnie is not getting competitive rates for her clients, she is cooking, decorating, or being mommy to her two little boys.
• Olivia Hein Wouldn’t it be great if you understood the ins and outs of your home, auto, and life insurance coverage? As co-owner of Legacy Insurance Partners Olivia is passionate about helping her clients fully understand their insurance coverage. With the best policy for them and their families and adequate coverage, she provides peace of mind should anything happen. A Midwestern girl at heart, Olivia loves life here in the Rockies! When she’s not educating and helping her clients, you can find her spending time with friends, enjoying the Colorado outdoors, or planning her next destination trip!
• Natasha Pearl Hansen is a comedian as well as a tech and branding nerd. Her love of technology, partnerships and helping other business owners, led her to join the team at GloveBox a year ago where she works to help agents use new technology to fuel and grow their businesses.

Focusing exclusively on risk management and insurance professional development, the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance provides a practical advantage at every career stage, positioning our participants and their clients for confidence and success.

Kim Beach

A relentless marketer, Kim has worked in various sales and marketing occupations for over 30 years. The large majority of her career was spent in the television industry and, more recently, the insurance industry. She started Village Insurance in 2018 (from scratch) and currently supports more than 300 clients. Village Insurance is where her passion for empowering women in the insurance buying process all began.

Kim launched InsureWomen on March 8, 2021 (International Women’s Day) to fill a need for female insurance buyers who did not feel comfortable with the insurance buying process.  The mission of InsureWomen is to empower women in the insurance buying process to feel confident, educated, and treated with the respect and attention they deserve.  She is also creating a network of female agents across the country who have a passion for serving these female buyers.  She launched the InsureWomen “Founding Member” Campaign on March 8, 2022 and currently has 50 members.

Locally, Kim provides leadership to several groups including the Mariemont Area Chamber of Commerce, Mariemont Preservation Foundation and Route 50 LINK.  She recently ran for and won the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Man/Woman of the Year for Greater Cincinnati (2020).

As a competitive athlete, Kim has participated in three marathons and three triathlons.  She also enjoys teaching Spinning and riding outside.  As a major fan of rhyming, she is also a published poet in “Voices of Michigan”, Volumes II and III, with “The Maidens Voyage” and “The Mother Ship”.  Kim also captains a virtual sailboat, The Chit Chat, on a summer voyage to Mackinac Island each year with a crew of women.

Focusing exclusively on risk management and insurance professional development, the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance provides a practical advantage at every career stage, positioning our participants and their clients for confidence and success.