Influential Woman · Financial Services

Meagan McKinnon

Office Manager, Northwestern Mutual

Saint Petersburg, FL

Her Story

About Meagan

I never thought I was going to get into financial services - I had planned on going into radiology. But when I moved from Virginia to Florida, my uncle, who had worked with Northwestern Mutual for 18 years, convinced me to just give it a shot. It was a new state, a new job, so I figured it couldn't hurt to try. I got into it, and it's just absolutely fascinating. I've been working with Northwestern Mutual for 4 years now. I started out at the St. Pete office, and now I'm working remotely for an office out of San Diego. It's been the coolest experience. Their home office is in Milwaukee, so we travel up there every July, and it's thousands of employees over the entire country. My boss is a woman, and she primarily deals with military, veterans, and active duty personnel. She helps them figure out retirement and maximize all of their benefits, and it's the most incredible thing I've ever seen. She's so talented - nobody can touch her. She's number one with what she does.

Her Interview

Ten minutes with Meagan

01What do you attribute your success to?

I feel like I've just had really, really good examples for work ethic. When it's hard, I've just seen the women around me and some of my other advisors - when life throws all these curveballs at you, women can just handle it. They can get through it. They've got kids on their hips, and they've got people who are in the hospital, and they've got a full calendar on their schedule, absolutely jam-packed, things with their husbands, things with everything. I feel like women just are the most elite at juggling all of it and making it look easy. Making it look like it's just a walk in the park, like nothing's going on. They walk in, they crack it at the door, you would never know.

02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?

Just not to ever rule yourself out, give it a shot, and just run at it blindly. Learn as much as you possibly can, because even if you don't succeed in that field, you're gonna take little bits and pieces from that industry, from that career, from your boss, from your coworkers. It's going to be a lesson that you take from it, regardless whether you succeed in that field or not. I just feel like there's so many things that you can learn from just branching out and trying new experiences, and it could change your life. You could blow up and become super successful, or it could help you figure out something that you didn't know you needed to know.

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