Olivia Martin

I attribute my success to my parents and how they raised me. My parents raised me in a way where they never sugarcoated anything. They were very good parents, but they also wanted us to work hard, my brother and I. From a young age, my parents told me that nothing is handed to you in life, and you need to go out and get it yourself. But they also raised us in a way where we're very grateful and respectful. They gave us a great moral code as young people, and I contribute a lot of my success to them.

The best career advice I've ever received is to take things into your own hands. A lot of people just wait to get promoted, or they wait to do something before they're told. I always am proactive, so I like to go out and do things before someone tells me to, or if I want something, I'll make that very known. That's just how I think people can get to where they want to get, is by being proactive and really taking control and ownership of your career.

I would say insurance for a long time was dominated by males, but the insurance industry is changing every day, and there's just so much you can do with it. You don't have to be on the brokerage side. You can go into underwriting, you can go into claims, you can go into account management, so there's always a role for someone. Even if you don't have the knowledge, there's just so much out there nowadays where you can learn and grow your expertise, and you don't have to come from an insurance background. I know so many people who were a chef before they became an insurance broker or entered the insurance industry. I don't think people should sell themselves short.

I would say the biggest challenges are honestly the economic environment and the risk environment we're in. We're in a soft market, which makes it harder to negotiate and get deals. The risk environment is putting everyone over the edge, so underwriters are a bit tight on wanting to negotiate. The uncertainty is palpable right now. There's nothing that is solid, and you feel like you're on quicksand sometimes. The risk environment is probably the hardest to deal with just because there's not much negotiation happening right now.

I would definitely say transparency is most important to me. It's very hard to be transparent today and not freak out about it, especially with insurance. There's a lot of dishonesty these days, or a lot of beating around the bush. Transparency is just a skill that people need to be aware of, and we need to be transparent with our clients about things and not say we can do something without actually looking at it and reviewing. I also think communication is very important. A lot of things get miscommunicated, especially in our business, and it makes or breaks a client, honestly.