Bound & Determined℠ with Meg McKeen

Alyssa Gambone joins host Meg McKeen for a candid conversation about her experience navigating her actuarial career in the insurance industry as a trans woman. 

Alyssa Gambone has spent her entire 25-year career in the insurance industry with the last 19 years spent at Electric Insurance responsible for the reserving of the company.  She currently lives in Salem, MA with her wife and 2 children.

• Connect with Alyssa Gambone on LinkedIn
• Catch up on Meg's conversation with Amy C. Waninger on Bound & Determined 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!

Katie Tomaszewski joins host Meg McKeen for a candid conversation about sobriety. How does changing our relationship with alcohol influence our relationships with others - and ourselves? 

Katie is the founder of Deep Line Health Company and is a dedicated holistic health advocate who empowers individuals worldwide to achieve their well-being goals. With 15 years of experience, she fosters wellness journeys and community through virtual coaching, workshops, and DryNamics – a 90-day sobriety challenge that Katie founded in 2018. 

• If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, please call 1-800-662-HELP to reach the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s national Helpline, a free, confidential, 24/7, 365-day-a-year treatment referral and information service for individuals and families facing mental and/or substance use disorders.
• Learn more about A DryNamic January 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!

Tracy Cotton joins host Meg McKeen to answer her own question: “How do you navigate a season of waiting?” When your default mode has been striving for the next thing or adventure or experience, striving for deeper relationships with those we love - and ourselves - can be its own adventure. In this heart-filling conversation between friends, Tracy shares more about a new relationship in her life and her decision to explore an alcohol-free lifestyle.

Tracy Cotton is a long-time insurance industry enthusiast who has spent her career reinventing herself. Her current role at Starr-Mathews as self-named Executive Client Manager utilizes her broad base of business insurance experience to provide a concierge type role for the agency. Beyond the daily grind, her adventurous spirit led her to complete a personal #50for50 bucket list challenge in 2019, more subsequent bucket list items, and she recently developed a coaching program on building a better bucket list to encourage others.

• Connect with Tracy Cotton on LinkedIn
• Follow Tracy’s alcohol-free journey on Instagram
• Learn more about Tracy’s Build A Better Bucket List program 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!

As the owner of multiple high-impact businesses and an insurance professional with over 15 years of experience, Reghan Brandt has seen many changes and shifts in the industry. In this episode, Reghan joins host Meg McKeen to discuss the future of insurance and what it means for young professionals growing their careers in the industry. Reghan also shares her belief in the importance of interpersonal relationships and the advice she would give to her younger self. 

Reghan Brandt is founder and CEO of LRP, The Loss Run Pros; co-founder and president of Columbia Pacific Finance (CPF); and host of The Insurance Chatter podcast, a show that discusses market trends, insurtech tools and recruiting in the industry.

• Connect with Reghan Brandt on LinkedIn
• Listen to Reghan’s podcast The Insurance Chatter
• Learn more about BrokerTech Ventures
• Learn more about Columbia Pacific Finance Co
• Learn more about The Loss Run Pros
• Learn more about K2 Insurance Services
• Listen to Meg’s conversation with Nikki Brandt on Bound & Determined

This season, your questions will be shaping the conversations Meg will have with the smart and inspiring guests she invites on the show. Have a question you’d like to ask? Head on over here to submit it.

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!

Melanie Parsons, the owner of Parsons’ Insurance Agency, joins host Meg McKeen to share more about her journey in the insurance industry. Melanie and Meg discuss navigating negativity - and the impact creating a positive corporate culture can have - and they also delve into the topic of financial awareness for women. Through Melanie’s stories, tune in to be inspired by this story of determination and perseverance.

Melanie’s insurance career began in 1984 as a part-time CSR.  In 1996, she started Parsons’ Insurance, an independent, multi-line agency in Viborg, South Dakota.  Today, Melanie’s job description includes owner, advisor, and rainmaker. 

• Learn more about the Parsons’ Insurance Agency
• To work with Meg to create an impactful experience for the women in your organization, get started here.

This season, your questions will be shaping the conversations Meg will have with the smart and inspiring guests she invites on the show. Have a question you’d like to ask? Head on over here to submit it.

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!

Misha Bleymaier-Farrish opens up to host Meg McKeen about her unique career path - and pivots - and finding fulfillment in the ebbs and flows of life. We honor the importance of celebrating achievements, the concept of "shiny objects" in entrepreneurship, and the outdated notion that work *must* make you miserable. Misha is an inspiring entrepreneur and author and you'll be glad you slowed to listen to this conversation!

Misha’s life motto is GSD – “Get sh*t done,” and she shows up living that philosophy every day to every situation. Author, entrepreneur, speaker, technology strategist, wife and mother, Misha wears many hats. As founder of GSD Factor she shares her passion and life motto with her podcast listeners, coaching/mentoring clients, and now her readers of The GSD Factor.

Connect with Misha on LinkedIn here. 

• Grab your copy of The GSD Factor: The Power of Being Confident and Igniting Your Professional and Personal Empowerment here
• Listen to Meg’s conversation with Misha on the GSD Factor Podcast here

This season, your questions will be shaping the conversations Meg will have with the smart and inspiring guests she invites on the show. Have a question you’d like to ask? Head on over here to submit it.

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!

This Mental Health Awareness Month, listen in for a heartfelt conversation between host Meg McKeen and guest Marissa Rutkowski as they talk about creating space for mental health discussions in the workplace, how it feels - literally - to consciously blur the line between “work” and “life,” and boundaries. Can we even have a conversation on this podcast without talking about ‘em?

If you or someone you know are struggling or in crisis, call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org to reach the resources available by SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration)

Marissa Rutkowski, CIC, CRM, is an accomplished relationship manager, blending skills acquired across 25 years in the Chicago insurance market and 10+ years insurance technology product management. A connector who works in the spaces between disparate teams, Marissa is a Certified Mental Health First Aider with deep interest in reducing stigma of mental and physical disabilities, through open dialogue and community safe spaces.

Connect with Marissa on LinkedIn here. 

This season, your questions will be shaping the conversations Meg will have with the smart and inspiring guests she invites on the show. Have a question you’d like to ask? Head on over here to submit it.

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!

Lemons and lemonade. Messes and missions. Blah, blah, blah. Alas, when will there be enough lessons for this life? In this episode, Saya Hillman joins host Meg McKeen to discuss the power of curiosity - and list making - in times of uncertainty, how to make doing different, seemingly disparate things make sense in your life and career, and so many of those a-ha moments that happen when we're living our Life of Yes℠.

Called “Accessible Oprah,” Saya Hillman has been blissfully self-employed since 2004 via her lifestyle business Mac & Cheese Productions℠ which brings joy to "adulting" and creates life ease and fulfillment through building connection: to others, to opportunities, and to self. Saya was one of Brazen Careerist’s Top Twenty Young Professionals to Watch, has been featured in Forbes and The New York Times, and is a TEDx speaker. She’s married to someone she met at one of her own events and has had a hand in countless others’ life leaps and lifestyle design.

Connect with Saya here: 

• http://instagram.com/sayahillman
• https://www.facebook.com/macncheeseproductions
• https://www.tiktok.com/@sayahillman

Go down the rabbit hole with Saya Hillman’s Mac & Cheese Productions

Two of Saya’s (many) offerings mentioned: 

Life of Yes℠ Sleepaway Camp - it’s the final one!

The infamous Adulting Kit

You can read Saya’s memorial tribute to her mother here

This season, your questions will be shaping the conversations Meg will have with the smart and inspiring guests she invites on the show. Have a question you’d like to ask? Head on over here to submit it.

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!

Does a trailblazer even know she's a trailblazer? In this episode, Dr. Michelle Morkert joins host Meg McKeen for a candid chat about what makes a trailblazer, the realities we face as we navigate the systems we are part of, and what taking courageous action feels like. We also dig deep and share more about our inner critics - and what it feels like to hang out for longer than we might like in the messy middle of life.

Dr. Michelle Morkert is a women's leadership coach and strategist for trailblazing women leaders.  She is on a mission to help them develop the confidence to show up, stand up, and speak up in any room. Learn more about the ways Dr. Michelle can support you here. 

Connect with Dr. Michelle on LinkedIn here.

Additional resources for you that we mentioned in this episode: 

• Read Playing Big by Tara Mohr
• Get to know Reverend Parris from The Crucible

This season, your questions will be shaping the conversations Meg will have with the smart and inspiring guests she invites on the show. Have a question you’d like to ask? Head on over here to submit it.

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!

On the brink of burnout, Renee Bruns made the thoughtful decision to leave her corporate role and embark on a year-long travel adventure. In this episode, Renee joins host Meg McKeen to share the "why" that fueled her decision and the way she's navigated her own relationship with risk in her travels - and life. Renee also shares two key lessons shes learned this past year and what's up next for her. 

In May 2022, Renee Bruns left her executive role at a Fortune 500 on a mission to see the world and reshape her views of humanity. After a life of living with an undiagnosed physical disability that has caused her to use a wheelchair full-time, she set out to find her place in this world. Through her travels to 117 countries and all 7 continents, she has become a Guinness World Record Holder and has been featured on numerous media sites.

Renee has spent months reflecting and learning to live authentically, something she is passionate about and hopes to help others achieve as well. She will be on sabbatical until May 2023, when she hopes to announce her future plans to help others live to their fullest.

Connect with Renee on LinkedIn here.

This season, your questions will be shaping the conversations Meg will have with the smart and inspiring guests she invites on the show. Have a question you’d like to ask? Head on over here to submit it.

To learn more about this podcast, and the work Meg McKeen does to support insurance professionals, visitAdjunct 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!