Bound & Determined℠ with Meg McKeen

Megan Bock joins host Meg McKeen to share more about her experience following a traumatic injury in early 2023. Through the sharing of her story, Megan reminds us that changing the way we're showing up in the world shouldn't have to require a significant life change. Together we talk through the fallacy of multi-tasking, the not always great influence of technology (specifically our phones) on our lives and relationships, and the power in knowing you're replaceable at work.

Megan Bock, CPCU, ARM, is the Chief Operating Officer of Federato, the leading provider of AI-driven "RiskOps" software in insurance. Megan is a dynamic executive leader with deep domain expertise, having spent 20 years in the Commercial Property & Casualty insurance space.  Prior to joining Federato, Megan was founder and CEO of Boundless Consulting, and previous roles included Senior Vice President P&C Underwriting, QBE Group; Second Vice President, Travelers Middle Market and various underwriting leadership roles at Liberty Mutual Group.

• Connect with Megan Bock on LinkedIn here.
• Listen to Meg's past conversation with Megan here.
• Listen to Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel here.
• Learn more about the workshops Meg facilitates for underwriting teams here.
• Would you like Meg to answer your question on a future episode of the podcast? Submit it here.

To learn more about this podcast, and the work Meg McKeen does to support insurance professionals, visit Adjunct Advisors. To receive To Taking the Risk, the monthly newsletter Meg curates, including updates on her #digitalnomad adventures, subscribe here.

Love the podcast? To show your support, consider leaving a positive review here, sharing this episode with a friend, or making a financial contribution here. Thank you for listening!

In this solo episode, host Meg McKeen puts on her sales + leadership coach hat and responds to listener questions, digging deep into topics like career paths, setbacks, and the scary - and heart-filling - world of entrepreneurship. Would you like Meg to answer your question on a future episode of the podcast? Submit it here: https://www.adjunctadvisors.com/question. 

Meg McKeen, CIC, is the principal consultant of Adjunct Advisors LLC, a consultancy she founded in 2018 with the simple belief that we can and must do more to support the individuals who choose a career in insurance. Her work for more than 25 years in the industry spans roles in underwriting, leadership, and sales, and fuels her work as a consultant today, in which Meg holds space, at the crossroads of personal and professional development, for insurance professionals as they grow their sales and leadership acumen and for organizations as they navigate cultural change. 

A graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University, with roots in Chicago, Meg is currently a digital nomad, in the midst of a thoughtful travel adventure. When she’s not supporting insurance professionals, you can find Meg putting the “practice” into yoga practice, searching for the best vegan bakery, or cheering on her favorite independent musicians.  

• Listen to Meg's past conversation with Nicole Corey here.
• Listen to Dr. Alexandra Solomon's podcast, Reimagining Love, on the topic of self-compassion here.
• Would you like Meg to answer your question on a future episode of the podcast? Submit it here.

To learn more about this podcast, and the work Meg McKeen does to support insurance professionals, visit Adjunct Advisors. To receive To Taking the Risk, the monthly newsletter Meg curates, including updates on her #digitalnomad adventures, subscribe here.

Love the podcast? To show your support, consider leaving a positive review here, sharing this episode with a friend, or making a financial contribution here. Thank you for listening!

Heather Blevins joins host Meg McKeen for a heartfelt conversation about mentorship. We talk about the hesitations we may feel to ask for mentorship - and the boundaries (you know we love 'em) we may need to set when mentoring requires bandwidth we just don't have. Together we chat about the importance of exposure to new perspectives - and roles - in the insurance industry as so many of us take steps to find alignment between our work and lives.

Heather Blevins is a passionate, creative, problem-solving maverick who loves to prove that her wild ideas work. She loves sunsets, getting lost when she travels, and the power jolt she gets from capturing the stories that dance in her head. A 20-year veteran in the insurance industry, she’s hung out in most of the operational corners of the ecosystem, but her current niche (day job) is strategic underwriting project management-y stuff. She claimed the title of Insurance Rebel on a whim because she wanted to explore the platform formerly known as Twitter, and somehow that title stuck. Years later, she is still exploring, creating, speaking, and writing as an insurance thought leader.  Heather also learns more every single day in her role as an adjunct professor to next generation insurance professionals attending Illinois State University.  

• Connect with Heather on LinkedIn

To learn more about this podcast, and the work Meg McKeen does to support insurance professionals, visit Adjunct Advisors. To receive To Taking the Risk, the monthly newsletter Meg curates, including updates on her #digitalnomad adventures, subscribe here.

Love the podcast? To show your support, consider leaving a positive review here, sharing this episode with a friend, or making a financial contribution here. Thank you for listening!

Crista Walker joins host Meg McKeen for a conversation about squishy leadership topics like purpose – who has time for that? – the risk of admitting you have it all but maybe don’t want it all, and bad bosses. May you neither have one nor be one! Crista provides a modern definition of what it means to be a leader today - and some practical ideas for helping us to see ourselves as others might.   

Crista Walker, Vice President, Agent Engagement & Programs, took the path less traveled to arrive in the insurance industry and at her work home at Liberty Mutual/Safeco. This path included military service, founding a start-up, and working for two Bill Gates companies. Crista’s passion in leadership is to help build presence, authenticity, and a highly connected team. In her words, “I quite happily live on an island in the Puget Sound.”

• Connect with Crista on LinkedIn

To learn more about this podcast, and the work Meg McKeen does to support insurance professionals, visit Adjunct Advisors. To receive To Taking the Risk, the monthly newsletter Meg curates, including updates on her #digitalnomad adventures, subscribe here.

Love the podcast? To show your support, consider leaving a positive review here, sharing this episode with a friend, or making a financial contribution here. Thank you for listening!

Mary Clare McGraw joins host Meg McKeen for an honest conversation about mental health. MC shares about an early career pivot that allowed her to open her eyes and take an intentional look around - leading to her career in insurance and now, as an aligned entrepreneur. In her work as an operations coach for insurance agencies today, MC knows firsthand how confronting it can be to look at the way you've always done things - and how scary change can be. Our winding path includes conversation about fathers and their entrepreneurial daughters - and how being emotional and highly sensitive can be a gift. 

Mary Clare McGraw is an operations coach who focuses on helping independent insurance agencies take a mindful approach to streamlining their operations and improving how they utilize technology.  As a burnt-out insurance professional-turned- entrepreneur, MC is very open about her own struggles with mental health because while everyone's journey is different, she believes awareness can begin to break down stigma.

• Connect with Mary Clare on LinkedIn
• Learn more about the work Mary Clare is doing through MCJ Partners here
• Listen to Meg's conversation with Saya Hillman on the podcast here
• Check out Atomic Habits by James Clear here

To learn more about this podcast, and the work Meg McKeen does to support insurance professionals, visit Adjunct Advisors. To receive To Taking the Risk, the monthly newsletter Meg curates, including updates on her #digitalnomad adventures, subscribe here.

Love the podcast? To show your support, consider leaving a positive review here, sharing this episode with a friend, or making a financial contribution here. Thank you for listening!

Nicole Corey joins host Meg McKeen in this rich conversation about failure, freedom, and the power of choice. As curious travelers, we explore the notion of "home" - and what happens when we find ourselves ready - but maybe not quite - to change direction on our path. We talk about what happens in your work when you make the choice to change in your life - and fumble through our answers to the question "what is enough?" 

Nicole Corey is the owner of CA Work Comp Advocacy, through which she uses her values of communication, compassion, transparency, and collaboration to advocate for employers navigating the workers' compensation insurance system. Nicole lives in Santa Cruz, California, but is always asked "Where are you today?" because she travels often. Soccer, the beach, food and flowy skirts are a few of her favorite things, and she believes yoga is a way of life, not a form of exercise.

• Connect with Nicole Corey on LinkedIn
• Learn more about the work Nicole does through CA Work Comp Advocacy here
• And here's that recipe I mentioned: Flourless Chocolate Chip Chickpea Blondies

To learn more about this podcast, and the work Meg McKeen does to support insurance professionals, visit Adjunct Advisors. To receive To Taking the Risk, the monthly newsletter Meg curates, including updates on her #digitalnomad adventures, subscribe here.

Love the podcast? To show your support, consider leaving a positive review here, sharing this episode with a friend, or making a financial contribution here. Thank you for listening!

Amanda Boleyn joins host Meg McKeen to reflect on the power of the pause - and pivot - as you build your career and life, and, as a time management expert, Amanda shares her tips and tricks and hacks to help us make the most of the same 24 hours each day that we each have. We love to talk about boundary setting on the podcast and this episode delivers; if you're a people-pleaser or perfectionist, this one's for you!

Amanda Boleyn is a wife, mother, speaker, facilitator, business owner, and real estate investor. She founded and ran a digital platform from 2015-2021 called She Did It Her Way. The She Did It Her Way podcast grossed over 3 million downloads from across the globe. Today she teaches business owners how to invest their time and energy into right activities that will create massive results in their business.

• Connect with Amanda Boleyn on LinkedIn
• Learn more about the workshops Amanda facilitates here
• Catch up on Amanda's current podcast Attention Audit
• Learn more about Amanda's pivot as you listen to the last episode of Amanda's first podcast, She Did It Her Way

To learn more about this podcast, and the work Meg McKeen does to support insurance professionals, visit Adjunct Advisors. To receive To Taking the Risk, the monthly newsletter Meg curates, including updates on her #digitalnomad adventures, subscribe here.

Love the podcast? To show your support, consider leaving a positive review here, sharing this episode with a friend, or making a financial contribution here. Thank you for listening!

Liz Brock joins host Meg McKeen to share more about her decision to embrace her silver hair earlier this year. Together they reflect on some of the bogus advice Liz received earlier in her career the led her to start dying her hair - and the learning that has come from making a different choice today. Also on our minds? The (double) standard of beauty in our society - and how changing the color of our hair can create opportunity - not limit it.

Liz Brock is a 20 year veteran in the insurance industry, having spent the first 10 of those on the agency side of the business – before she switched teams and went over to the carrier side about 10 years ago. Home is in Kingwood, Texas, and Liz a is mom to 3 kids - and loves to play golf. 

• Connect with Liz Brock on LinkedIn
• Listen to Meg's solo Bound & Determined℠ episode, Silver Linings with Meg McKeen, where she shares more about her silver hair journey here
• Learn more about Women in America, the mentorship program Liz mentioned at the close of this episode, here

To learn more about this podcast, and the work Meg McKeen does to support insurance professionals, visit Adjunct Advisors. To receive To Taking the Risk, the monthly newsletter Meg curates, including updates on her #digitalnomad adventures, subscribe here.

Love the podcast? To show your support, consider leaving a positive review here, sharing this episode with a friend, or making a financial contribution here. Thank you for listening!

Jenn Urso joins host Meg McKeen for a heartfelt conversation about the professional pauses we both took before starting our own businesses, and the lessons learned since then that inform the work Jenn does to support rising leaders in the insurance industry today. Throughout this conversation, we explore the complex relationships we have with money, with self, and with our own relationship with work. 

Jenn Urso is a passionate leadership ambassador that develops the next generation of insurance and business leaders. Jenn believes leadership is an inside job- one that is personal and evolving beyond traditional best practices and methodologies. Through her work, Jenn helps rising leaders find their unique leadership identity and style bridging a leadership mindset and skillsets for empowered professional development in a changing work environment.  She works with individuals and teams. Jenn has been in business for over 20 years and in insurance since 2007. 

• Connect with Jenn Urso on LinkedIn
• Learn more about the work Jenn does here

To learn more about this podcast, and the work Meg McKeen does to support insurance professionals, visit Adjunct Advisors. To receive To Taking the Risk, the monthly newsletter Meg curates, including updates on her #digitalnomad adventures, subscribe here.

Love the podcast? To show your support, consider leaving a positive review here, sharing this episode with a friend, or making a financial contribution here. Thank you for listening!

Mercy Komar - the Cyber Diva - joins host Meg McKeen to share the wisdom she's gleaned from her more than 40 years working in the insurance industry as a CSR, agency principal, and producer. As this one will show you, Mercy doesn’t shrink in hard conversations and her passion for supporting women, as well as seniors, in the insurance industry, is strong and evident in the way she’s showing up in the industry today.

As a seasoned insurance advisor and risk manager with over 40 years of experience, Mercy Komar has helped countless businesses protect themselves against cybercrime. Cyber risk coverage is Mercy's specialty, and she takes pride in educating others on this growing threat to business. Mercy is also a contributor to local business journals and is widely recognized as a leading authority on insurance and risk management. As the founder of Komar Insurance Educators, Mercy is dedicated to providing education and training to insurance agents.

• Connect with Mercy Komar on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Meg's coaching support here
• Learn more about Work at Home Vintage Experts (WAHVE) here

To learn more about this podcast, and the work Meg McKeen does to support insurance professionals, visit Adjunct Advisors. To receive To Taking the Risk, the monthly newsletter Meg curates, including updates on her #digitalnomad adventures, subscribe here.

Love the podcast? To show your support, consider leaving a positive review here, sharing this episode with a friend, or making a financial contribution here. Thank you for listening!