Communication

In most cases, life insurance planning is a dynamic event. As your life evolves, your needs change; the make up of your insurance should also change as your needs change. You should check with your advisor once in a while to figure out how your finances can be better put to work for you, if not to just have a coffee and catch up with him or her.

For me as an agent, i hope that i will have plenty of opportunities to catch up with my clients and friends. it's a joy to see them change, grow up, settle down over the years, and i'm sad to say that i've not put as much attention on each individual person as i should have. i hope to be more of a friend than an advisor to them, and sometimes it's a little hard when people tend to associate you with the Repo Man - only shows up when he comes to collect.

I'm trying my best to change my habits: i used to be a hi-and-bye girl. i have many friends in many places, and i used to believe that if the relationship was strong (i.e. the rapport you have when you're together), the less you'd actually need to meet up.

what's the point in finding out what each other had for lunch, whether your boss shouted at you today, whether you're going to the bird park next week, when you can meet up once in a while and catch up on the major events like i had a kid, i got married, i changed my job?

obviously, that way of thinking is WRONG WRONG WRONG

i've learnt from this audio book i've been listening to (How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie) is that everyone is their most important person to themselves and sometimes, speaking to people and listening (see paying close attention) to what they have to say is the only way to let them know that you DO think they are important, even if it is just the little things like lunch, boss, outings.

as much as i feel the need to talk to them about insurance, unfortunately that automatically links the sale of products which does govern my salary; i don't want my friends to think i only show up when i want something - which is what they tend to do when you don't keep in touch often enough. more importantly is that they are protected - they are important and they should make sure that they have taken steps to protect this "self worth". that should be the mantra of every agent in the agency and again, I hope that through this simple blog, i'm able to portray that about myself, whether or not it leads to a sale.

be protected everyone!
Jessica