Marie Matterazzo

I attribute my success to the advice my dad gave me when I was very young: sometimes it's better to have 4 quarters than 100 pennies. When we're coming up in our careers, it's like school - you want to be popular and be with the in-crowd. But as I've gotten older, I've learned it's more important to build healthy relationships. If that means scaling back but having more meaningful relationships, that's what matters. I also believe that every single person works in customer service - I'm in customer service, you're in customer service. We're all in the people business. I tell my team all the time: kill them with kindness, go above and beyond. What separates you, especially if you're in a competitive environment, is being the best at what you can do, because then no one can take that away from you.

The best advice I got was from my dad when I was very, very young. He told me that sometimes it's better to have 4 quarters than 100 pennies. I do a ton of networking and I also mentor young junior women in how to build a network and how to network. When we're coming up in our careers, it's the same as school - you want to be popular, you want to be with the in-crowd and that sort of thing. But as I've gotten older, I've realized it's more important to build healthy relationships. So if that means scaling back but having more meaningful relationships, I would say that's probably one of the best pieces of advice I've received. Another piece of advice I like to give to people is that every single person works in customer service. We think of customer service as a waiter or a waitress or a cashier, but I'm in customer service, you're in customer service. We're all in the people business. I say this to my team all the time: kill them with kindness, go above and beyond. What separates you, especially if you're in a competitive environment, is being the best at what you can do, because then no one can take that away from you.

I think the biggest challenges right now for us from an insurance perspective is that we are dealing with a soft market, which is creating somewhat of a frenzy. Other challenges include lack of support - and when I say support, not that the company doesn't support, but we need additional resources and additional staff. I also see a lack of patience with everybody, and this is not just in insurance. I talk to a lot of people in different disciplines, and they're all in the same boat. We're in customer service and we want to provide the best, but everybody wants everything yesterday. Things that normally would have more lead time - there's just not enough time, and everything is a frenzy. I would say that's a big challenge for everybody, brokers and carriers. Couple that with lack of support in the private client space. This is a very niche type of insurance. When you're trying to bring people in, you can't just hire insurance people off the street. It's a lot of risk management. You're dealing with wealthy individuals, you're dealing with referral sources, so sometimes you're dealing with gatekeepers, not necessarily the client. It's getting the right people, which is why I think education and mentorship is very important.

I would definitely say I'm really big into mentorship, so preparing the next generation. I think that's something that's really important for us, and we have a responsibility to that. I tend to nurture training, building, teaching, and educating our young folks on building relationships and the importance of building relationships. Education is key, along with the normal values like honesty, integrity, and ethical business. I love helping people, so just being a resource. I've been called a mother hen many times. I believe that every single person works in customer service - we're all in the people business. I tell my team all the time to kill them with kindness and go above and beyond. What separates you, especially if you're in a competitive environment, is being the best at what you can do, because then no one can take that away from you.