Krystal Hampton

I attribute my success to being absolutely, positively tenacious. There was a moment when I was moving from working as a lender to being a teacher in South Korea around 2011, and my federal background check had to be apostilled at the Department of State in Washington, D.C. At that time, I was back in my home state of South Carolina, and they lost my package in the Department of State. So I had to drive all the way up to Washington, D.C., which was an 8-9 hour drive. I sat in the Department of State back when you could sit in the Department of State and you didn't have to get an appointment, and I sat there for almost 8 hours while they were looking for my specific package for them to apostille that date and time, so that I would have all of the documents that I needed to get my working visa in South Korea. That tenacity has carried me through my career.

The best career advice I ever received came from my history professor when I was in college. At that time, I was working at an ice cream shop and going to school at once, and my grades were starting to suffer. My mentor sat me down one day and said he was concerned because my attendance and grades were getting lower. He told me I would have to hunker down and start studying, and that I had to choose - I had to either choose my working life or I had to choose my college life. He said I couldn't do both. That advice helped me understand the importance of focus and prioritization, and it's something that has stayed with me throughout my career.

My advice to young women entering the insurance industry, especially in Medicare enrollment, is that there is never a stupid question. If you have a question, ask, because there's never a stupid question. Always try to do your best in everything you do. When it comes to making a policy sale, always do it from the customer's point of view - think about how they would want to be treated. And definitely get involved in a community network. Form good collaborations with people that do the exact same thing that you do in various different states. You're not an island, so definitely network with others in the field.

The biggest challenges in my field as an insurance agent or broker right now are really tied to the temperature of the country. A lot of us in accident and health insurance are kind of looked at as being devils or demons incarnate, working for the devil. We have to work around that because there are certain people that we speak to in the public that think that we are scammers, that we are trying to pull one over on the community, and we're not. We try to help people as best as we possibly can, but we can't reach everyone. The second big challenge has to do with my specification in Medicare enrollment - there are certain carriers and certain carrier accounts that are being non-commissionable. A lot of my colleagues are upset at that because they used to write a lot of these policies in different service areas across the country, and now they're not being commissionable. They're worried about being made redundant, not understanding that the carriers we work for put out new policies for us to promote to make the overutilization thin, and we have the opportunity to cross-sell into other insurance products. The opportunities are that the insurance carriers are telling us to promote ancillary products - they're telling us to speak about dental policies, vision policies, hospital indemnity policies with our clients. There are other opportunities in final expense, which is life insurance, and other policies we can sell in the life insurance arena, like annuities, that a lot of my colleagues are looking to do as well.

The most important value to me in my work and personal life is to always be honest. It's not just for reputation, but it's also about how would you want to be treated, you know? Would you want someone to not tell the truth to you? That's the principle I live by - treating others the way I would want to be treated, with honesty at the core of everything I do.