In this super-packed episode of Agency Freedom Podcast, James talks with five outstanding female agency principals from across the country. They cover a wide variety of topics and provide valuable insight and perspective on the state of the industry and how we can better foster growth in our teams and agencies.
A special thanks to Vonda Copeland, Ciara Gravier, Whitney Ricci, Teresa Kitchens, and Ngozi Nnaji for joining us on this episode.
Episode Highlights:
- Vonda, Ciara, Whitney, Teresa, and Ngozi share their background stories and what they love about the industry. (4:08)
- Vonda explains why she sees the female representation in the industry as a mother figure in terms of how they treat the business. (13:07)
- Ciara shares that as she grows, being more maternal is the challenge she aims to overcome. (17:54)
- Ngozi believes that having a female agency owner is the best of both worlds because of their resilience, power, influence, and sensitivity. (21:38)
- Ngozi believes that the industry needs to see that female owners are out there and bringing success to the industry. (26:04)
- Teresa explains that women also can take the mission and the vision out into the world. (34:38)
- Ciara talks about CSRs in the industry, who are predominantly women, and showing them the opportunity of ownership and the possibility of becoming independent agents. (38:34)
- Vonda, Ciara, Whitney, Teresa, and Ngozi share their take on a tagline, "Insurance is Female." (44:07)
- Vonda and Teresa talk about how the female population goes about the word "we" in a healthy way. (53:36)
- Ngozi believes that labels matter for people to recognize and appreciate and allow people to create awareness. (1:01:42)
- Ngozi shares how she productively engages her clients. (1:13:15)
- Ciara explains how she engages her clients, most of whom speak Spanish. (1:17:18)
Key Quotes:
- "We've got to get to the fact that we want to be accepted as that “we”, you know when we're talking, we want to be a part of that. And not, you know, that we're still trying to fight to get into this industry." - Vonda Copeland
- “I think it's the opportunity to show the world that we have it all…the resilience, the power, the influence, the sensitivity that's needed." - Ngozi Nnaji
- "The women are the ones that are running your business. You get to go golf and all of your CSR’s are the ones that are running and making you your money. So I feel like as an agency owner, we need to highlight the career paths that they could have." - Ciara Gravier
Resources Mentioned:
- Vonda Copeland LinkedIn
- Ciara Gravier LinkedIn
- Whitney Ricci LinkedIn
- Teresa Kitchens LinkedIn
- Ngozi Nnaji LinkedIn
- Sterlings Insurance
- The Bunker Insurance & Risk Management
- Copeland Insurance Agency
- Ricci Insurance Group