HappyChristmahanakwanzika!  Can't believe we are closing outanother year.  Who's ready for a break?  I knowmy office is. We are in the final days of open enrollment and wehave been slammed this year.  The holidays will be alittle different for my family as they are the first round with myfather no longer here, so I have been on a mission to “find thejoy” where I can.  One of the ways I have definitely foundthe joy this year is by meeting so many wonderful rock star womenin our industry from around the country and sharing their inspiringstories with you.  To close out the year, I'm very happyto share the news of Cristy, Michelle, Heidi, who have taken onmajor initiatives this year with their companies and are sharingsome strategies with us this month!

Cristy Gupton, Founder & President, CustomBenefits Solutions

“Looking back on 2018, I've cometo realize that I've changed.  I've stopped selling andI've started solving problems.  The year started out byholding a large forum in my town about the opioid crisis. What transpired after that is something I wouldn't havepredicted.  I was asked to speak at about half a dozenregional/national conferences on what brokers and advisors ought todo to address the opioid crisis with their clients.  Istill stand by my personal thoughts on how I should address it withmy clients: 'To simultaneously reduce both supply and demand foropioids through smart plan design and employeeeducation.'  Hopefully, with collaboration between myself,my clients and the vendors we work with, we will engage employeesmore closely and rethink the faults of status quo healthcare.  I believe a bright future is in store for anyorganization that strives to constantly challenge the statusquo.”

Michelle Pedigo, Head of Field Management – South Region,MassMutual

“One of my professional focusesover the last 12 months has been what we have deemed the ProGrowthmovement.  With over 50 percent of America's wealth nowcontrolled by women, according to Bank of Montreal's WealthInstitute, our focus has been on attracting more female advisors,and providing support for our current female advisors to evolveinto even stronger sales leaders.

We took a three-pronged approach to this movement:

1. Virtual Women's Regional Advisory Boards — meet monthly and aredesigned to give women a louder and more confident voice in ourdistribution system. The boards also focus on best practices foradvisor practice development.
2. Women's Sales Forum — an annual meeting for female advisors andsales leaders to come together to share best practices for theirpractice development.
3. General Agent Study Group — a focus group of self-selectedgeneral agents who focus on evolving their local cultures toembrace inclusion for women.

These collective efforts have combined to change theconversation so that women are recognized as significantcontributors to our overall economy and our future success infinancial services.”

Heidi Rasmussen, Co-Founder & COO, freshbenies

“In the past 12 months, I've overseen some large IT projects:launched an updated app, an updated website, a new CRM,artificial intelligence and automation (moving from Excelspreadsheets to proprietary systems that house data and automateinternal processes). Let's just say the learnings have been rich!Here's my top four:

1. This process has forced me to poke into every area of mycompany to ensure the systems truly fit our needs. It can bepainful to see where processes have gone off the rails, but I nowthink of it as a healthy cleaning process.
2. I must fight for a best-in-class customer experience. Justbecause I know how a system “should work,” doesn't mean it's easyto get all constituents on the same page.
3. It's necessary to bring my team along with me. Training a teamto take over my role as leader is imperative, so that I can extractmyself on major launches in the future.
4. After the launch, there's a strong pull for people to revert tothe old way. I'm improving at the “trust but verify” concept. Itrust that everyone is using the new systems correctly but verifyoften to ensure it's happening.”

Happy holidays to all of you, and as always, if you know ofgreat women in the field who are working hard to make this thisindustry even better, send me an email introduction at [email protected].I'd loveto connect!