Mia (Carnes) Sipe-Powell

My journey into insurance was completely unexpected. I graduated with a bachelor's degree in psychology after first attending nursing school, and I was planning to get my master's and become a therapist. But my husband and I had just gotten married, and since I had a semester to wait before programs started in the fall, he suggested I find temporary work while my student loans were coming due. I joined ESUS through their Early Career Program, which takes people with bachelor's degrees and trains them in insurance from the ground up. I ended up absolutely loving it - it was the best of both worlds, combining investigation work with law, medical aspects, and customer service, which suits my naturally positive personality. After two and a half years, an attorney I worked with encouraged me to apply at Broadspire, saying I'd love the people and the company. I made the move and then COVID hit while I was handling a hospital account, and suddenly I was getting 30 to 40, sometimes 50 claims a day. It was unimaginable. During that crazy time, my former company asked me to come back as a supervisor, but when I told Broadspire I wanted to keep climbing the corporate ladder, they said 'absolutely not' and offered me a team manager position on the spot. I've been here ever since, and now I lead our early career program in Tampa with another supervisor. What I'm most passionate about is bringing new people into this field - recent college graduates, military veterans, bartenders, and especially stay-at-home moms who want flexible work. Our jobs offer hybrid or fully remote options, which is perfect for moms like me with young kids. I love giving people the same opportunity I found by chance, because if I hadn't stumbled into this field, I never would have known it existed.