Maria Mayer

I really attribute my success to just hard work - showing up and doing what you say you're gonna do, and doing hard things sometimes. I was raised where you get up and you go to the place that pays you to go there, and you're there on time, and you do what you're tasked with once you get there. I think that's something that's kind of missing today - people don't always want to show up or have a boatload of excuses why they can't do something, and I've just always been a person that if I'm tasked with doing something, I'm gonna do it. I've always tried to be a really good resource, and in this industry, you make the connections and you build the rapport. People think you get somewhere on your talents and your skills, and that's true, but we always forget about the networking piece and people remembering you. So I think those things coupled - trying to be rememberable, making sure people know what I'm about in the workplace and my personal life, really nose to the grindstone, and being open to learning. Being open to take constructive criticism and apply it, and not take it personally, has also been something to drive me forward.

The advice that I would give to young women entering this industry is get your foot in the door and learn as much as you can from people who know the business. Be a sponge. When I started 25 years ago, the office that I started in wanted us to wear high heels and pantyhose, but young ladies today aren't wearing pantyhose - times have changed. Just get in there and be confident, do not be afraid to be smart, because I feel like in a lot of industries, especially male-driven industries like this one, we as women get in and we're afraid to show that we know our stuff. My advice would just be get in, get your foot in the door, take in everything that you can take in, and do not be afraid to be bold and be where you want to be.

I feel like some of the biggest challenges in the insurance industry right now is that we've got a ton of really experienced adjusters who are getting ready to retire, and I don't think young people are exactly excited about insurance. That's a big succession planning issue for the industry as a whole, because AI is really creeping into every single industry, but with insurance, you still have to have that human component. When your car gets crashed, you don't want somebody to say send me pictures and I'll send you a check - you want somebody to say I'm so sorry this happened to you, I'm here to help you, I'm here to answer questions. Since the internet and all of that technology, I think we've really lost sight of actual communication. On the opportunities side, I think there's great opportunities because there are so many different things you can do within the insurance industry. I just think it could be open for anybody - you've got the technological side of it, you've got the legal side of it, you've got the fiduciary and underwriting side of it, so the industry as a whole is open wide. But there's kind of this negative connotation when you tell somebody you work in insurance because insurance is the bad guy - insurance denies things. As soon as people hear that word, their brain thinks of all the bad scenarios that everybody in their life has ever told them about insurance. Most people only have one or two claims during the life of their policy, so when you get a chance to help somebody and make a good impression, it's paramount that that's done.

I would say one of the most important values would be integrity, and I view integrity as it's what you do when nobody's looking. People are really great when they have eyes on them or they know they're being monitored, but it's what people do when they think nobody's looking. In insurance, we always say if it's not in the file, it didn't happen, right? For me, it's always been I do what I say I'm going to do within the parameters that I can do it, but I am always going to follow through, I'm going to do what I said I'm going to do. To me, I think if you're a person that doesn't have integrity, you could have a billion other qualities, but if integrity's not one of them, then I'm not sure if I want to be in your circle.