Happy pumpkin spice season! I know this post is a littlelater in the month than usual. Last month, I had reportedthat my father was inhospice and a few short days after the post went to press, I headedback home to Missouri once again and was with him and my immediatefamily when he took his last breath. Many of you have reachedout to me during this time and I am grateful. It really isamazing how we have built such a fantastic community of rock starwomen here at BenefitPro who are all about supporting eachother. This month, I'm excited to continue our second yearwith stories from Christina and Rosemary, who bring a combinedtotal of over 40 years of experience to the table and are alwayslooking to put their clients first!

ChristinaKing, C&A Benefits Group

Through long-term clientrelationships, my company has been referred into severalassociations that have endorsed us and chosen to partner withC&A to offer employee benefit strategies to theirmembers. This has allowed us to expand our footprint on anational level. We have spent very little money on marketingthrough the years, because all of our growth has come fromreferrals. I'm very proud of this because it tells me we mustbe doing something right! The second accomplishment I'm extremelyproud of is the development of our team. Everyone is crossedtrained in multiple departments and takes ownership of theirclients and roles. “Above and Beyond. That's what we do” isnot just our tag line, it's our service model. I also thinkmy staff takes pride in the fact that I don't have to be involvedin a lot of “things” anymore. It's a great place to be!

RosemaryManning Hughes, EPIC Brokers & Consultants

“In the past 12 months, I have enjoyed working with clients ofvarying sizes, from the small (60 employees) to much larger(several thousand employees). They also represent multipleindustries, such as professional services, manufacturing firms andtech firms. We address business issues using benefits and perks asa tool.

I am most proud of finding affordable health and welfare optionsfor companies that are not as attractive to carriers, such as thosewith historically low enrollment, high risk industries, andcompanies growing so fast that it is difficult to assess therisk. It has challenged me to learn about non-traditionalproducts and firms and to spend time discussing the individualcases with underwriters, sales and service people at thecarriers. Presenting the results to employees in openenrollment meetings and seeing the impact of a solid benefitspackage is just a great feeling.

As always, if you know of great women in the field who areworking hard to make this this industry event better, send me anemail introduction to [email protected]. I'd loveto connect!