Her Story
About Machell
I've been with my company for 20 years - this very week marks that anniversary - and I've been in my current field for about 13 of those years. When I started as a new college grad, I never envisioned growing a career here. That sounds odd, I know, but I had been working in the real estate field and always thought I would go back. Some of my proudest moments are just watching the span of a career over 20 years and the way I've been supported and developed and allowed to grow into a wonderful leadership role, elevating my career in a number of different areas within the same company. My journey started in marketing, moved into project management, and then I was exposed to a number of departments within the financial services world, which led me into the insurance industry. For the past 6 years, I've served as Vice President, Director of Insurance Operations. Every day is a little bit different, with some of the same themes. Some days are very much strategic planning, strategic initiatives, and growth for our agency and our operations unit. On the other side, sometimes it's just the day-to-day people part of the business - staffing, recruiting, hiring, capacity models, dealing with any issues related to process improvements or efficiencies. It's a little bit of everything, as well as facilitating and helping HR, accounting, and some of our other corporate departments. I'm in a business to support and educate consumers, which is a people-generated business that brings significant challenges to the table, but thoughtfulness is what helps us work through that.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Machell
01What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I ever received came from a lady I worked and sold real estate with early in my career. As I was leaving her agency to take another job, she said, 'Don't get stuck behind a desk. You have such a talent for that. I need you to believe in yourself and to move. Make sure that you're getting promoted and you're taking on bigger roles.' I'll never forget her saying that to me, and looking back now, I can see why she said those things to me. That comment has stayed with me throughout my entire career journey.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
A lot of times I see a confidence issue with young women, and I can understand that, having been a young woman growing a career myself. I try to help them recognize that early, and it's more of believe in yourself, right? You don't know everything right now, and you will not, so take the opportunity to learn. Take the opportunities that we'll give you to develop. Understand your strengths, don't be afraid of your weaknesses, because we can work through some of those. But I think a lot of it is believe in yourself, and number two, make sure that all the reasons why you are staying in a career or in a role are for the reasons why you want to be there. That will make them lasting for you. What is your heart leading you to do? So that they understand, yeah, you can chase different things through the course of your career, but what is it that you're truly looking for outside of monetary things? I think it's a confidence thing, and then just understanding what you want when it comes to growing a career.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Post-COVID, work from home has been a huge industry fight, if you will. We are still challenged by that a little bit - 100% remote work versus in-office work. We're bringing AI into the conversation right now, which I think is on everybody's plate. I don't know that it's a challenge yet, but it's definitely a fearful discussion when you have that openly with employees. What they hear is, 'I'm losing my job,' which that's not the conversation. So I think right now that's a very interesting conversation that we're having. And then I think, you know, I'm in a business to support and educate consumers. That's a people-generated business, which at times brings significant challenge to the table, but thoughtfulness is what helps us work through that.
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