It's personal: A Q&A with Colleen Blum

Colleen Blum is vice president at Combs & Company, a fast-paced, innovative insurance brokerage that works to take the confusion out of insurance and evolve to meet the changing needs of employees and clients.

Paul Wilson: How did you get your start in the benefits industry?

I got a cosmetology license when I was still in high school and started doing hair when I was 16 years old. I thought that was what I was going to do for the rest of my life, but I started to think I didn't want to be standing behind a chair when I'm 60 years old. It's fun when you're younger, but it changes when you think about getting older and having kids.

Between appointments, I would send out resumes. They only had a few lines, since I didn't have any corporate experience and that's what I was interested in. I sent out 200 to 300 resumes. Eventually, an insurance brokerage out on Long Island emailed me and set up an interview for an account executive position where I would be handling renewals and answering people's questions. It was kind of like being thrown to the wolves and I just had to figure it out on my own. I didn't know the first thing about the industry, given where I was coming from.

Growing up, my dad was a police officer, so we always had the best benefits without thinking about them or having to understand them. I had to learn this whole new language. I Googled everything and listened in to other people talking at the office.

When people came into the salon, within a few minutes they were telling you everything going on in their life; it's a very personal connection. It's the same thing on the benefits side; we work with a lot of small businesses, mom-and-pop shops, so you're talking to them about their new grandchild or their wins and losses throughout their year. It's personal. Maybe an employee can't get pregnant. Where can the benefits help and when can they not? At the end of the day, it's just dealing with people. That's why I love it.

PW: How did you move to your current position?

At a certain point, I realized I loved what I was doing but needed a change. I went to Google again. I knew I wanted to stay local and small. I typed in "successful women in insurance" and Susan L. Combs came up. Her story popped out at me. She seemed down to earth, she was in New York City and she seemed like a bad-ass.

I was 23 at the time and didn't know what I was doing, so I emailed her and said, "I'm looking for a mentor or somebody to talk to. Just looking for any advice or insight you could share." I didn't think she would respond.

Lo and behold, I got an email back asking if I'd like to meet. We met for lunch and she asked if I was interested in coming to the city and seeing how it went. Five years later, I'm the vice president, so I think that leap of faith has paid off well.

Colleen Blum

PW: What's it like being a younger female broker in this industry?

Luckily, I work with Susan, who is an amazing mentor. I've learned a lot from the way she goes about her business and conducts herself in the industry. Yes, we're females in a male-dominated industry, but you have to own who you are. Don't change or try to be something you're not. I think things are changing and everyone has a voice now. It's very empowering. If we can gather the women in this industry and light fires and support each other, we can change the industry.

A lot of our clients are women, too. There are a ton of women who are entrepreneurs who are just killing it. They often tell us they feel so much more comfortable sitting down and talking to us.

PW: Can you talk a bit about your clients and the niche you've found?

Many of my clients are in the smaller group space or individuals trying to launch as entrepreneurs. Some are tech companies, some are bakeries, and we have a lot of companies who are coming over from the Netherlands. It's interesting, because it's not a specific industry, but it's a lot of entrepreneurs. They might start with one employee at the beginning of the year and have 20 or more by December.

One area where we shine is helping individuals and groups understand that transition. "You want to break off from your corporate job and start a business? Give us a call when your COBRA expires and we'll talk about your individual plan and then help you as you start to hire employees." It's fun because we can be creative about how we design those packages.

PW: What was it like to transition to ACA consulting?

Here in New York, the vast majority of carriers don't pay brokers to work with individuals. So whether they are actresses, models or entrepreneurs, we have clients who are in a phase where they're transitioning into a more corporate job or maybe they're going out on their own or trying to hit it big on Broadway; we had to think of a way to help them but get compensated at the same time. Charging consulting fees is a great solution because we can take the time to truly help them figure out what plans they need.

In the first few years, people were just going onto the New York SHOP exchange and choosing based on the carrier's name and the price. They often found out the hard way that it wasn't the best solution for them. We are able to walk them through the pros and cons of each option on the individual market and charge a consulting fee. This has been a game-changer for not only us, but our clients.

PW: That's a perfect example of how advisors will always find a way to help clients, no matter what.

Yes, I agree completely. There will always be a place for advisors because we're the ones who help people understand and digest what's going on. No matter what happens politically or with the future of insurance and health care, there's always going to be a need for education. The ACA was this big scary thing and yet we've found a way to make it work. Whatever changes down the line, we're going to find a way to bring value to clients and help educate them about the changes.

PW: What's your favorite thing about your job?

The people. Seeing them have that "aha" moment where they finally understand the benefits because of something we've explained. Insurance isn't something people are excited to talk about. So I love getting to know people on a different level and then being able to tie the insurance conversation into their specific business or lifestyle. We experience all different types of personalities each day. Who will they be in 10 years? It's interesting being a broker in New York because your client today might make it big tomorrow and you helped them out. That's really exciting. Celebrity or not, everyone's going through the same issues.

PW: Where do you look for inspiration?

I love to listen to motivational podcasts. We walk everywhere here, including to our appointments, so I pop in my headphones on the way to the next meeting to get reignited. Some of my favorites are Gary Vee, Oprah, Ed Mylett and Tony Robbins. Sometimes, you just need a kick in the butt to get you going and help you stop feeling sorry for yourself.

PW: What advice do you have for young people in this industry? And how can the industry continue to attract new blood?

My sisters are entering the corporate world and I tell them, "You need to be your own advocate." You have to teach yourself and push yourself to the next level. Hopefully people have family and friends who will offer support. My grandfather was in insurance, and when he used to talk business at the dinner table, my eyes would roll back in my head. I had no interest in it. Then I fell into the industry and had to teach myself, and that made me excited because it impacts people's lives. I was going to help people through their exciting and difficult times. I think that's really an attractive thing about this industry.

We do a lot of social media marketing to appeal to the younger generation, because that's who's going to be opening new businesses and needing our help. They want to change the world, so we need to get on board and change it with them. Change their perception about what insurance means. Learn their interests and then tie that into what we do.

PW: Finish this sentence: The key to success in this industry going forward is…

Never stop teaching yourself (or Google everything).

Read more from our Face of Change series:

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Paul Wilson is the editor-in-chief of BenefitsPRO Magazine and BenefitsPRO.com. He has covered the insurance industry for more than a decade, including stints at Retirement Advisor Magazine and ProducersWeb.