Rachel Perez

I would say the first thing that comes to mind is just perseverance. Resilience is a word that gets thrown around a lot, but it's true - the insurance industry is definitely a change environment, and there are changes always flying at you. You have to be willing to adapt and keep going through harder periods of things. For example, if you're in a market where there's a lot of claims happening and there's a catastrophe, like what happened to all those people in Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina, you really gotta kind of adapt and keep pressing through those hard days. That's really a big key for sure.

The best advice I ever received, specific to my career, was pretty consistent in the early days: find your voice and use your voice. It was a little hard for me because I like to be a listener, and I didn't want to be one of those talking heads in corporate settings who just talks to hear themselves speak. Because of that, I would hold back too much. I remember my first really strong leader - she was a woman - said, you know, I hired you into this role for a reason, and you need to exercise your voice on behalf of your team. There were little suggestions that helped me with that, like trying to find, within the first 10 minutes of the meeting, something of value to say and add. That was big for me, and I know some of that can be dependent on personality, but I feel like there are probably a lot of other women that deal with that - thinking they don't really have anything to say in a setting, but you do. You have your voice, and you have to use it.

I would say, you know, know your own value and your own expertise. And don't over-apologize - don't over-apologize for yourself. That's something, that's such a habit we get into as women. I'm not perfect at it, I still do it sometimes, but I really do try to watch that, because as soon as you kind of overly defer, I feel like it kind of gives people a platform to do it more. You have to know how to hold your own and be prepared. When I first started working in the field, I remember suggesting a strategy to a man who had more experience than me, and he said, 'you're pretty smart for a blonde girl.' I didn't like that - it's a backwards compliment. That shouldn't be assumed that I wouldn't be smart, right? So you need to hold your own, make sure you're prepared, and have that tenacity about you. But I will also say there's a lot of opportunity in this field. If you develop as a strong leader, you can still do it, even in a male-dominant field. There are people doing it, like Trisha Griffiths, the woman CEO of Progressive, who is incredible.

The insurance field is still pretty male-dominant, especially on the agency side. Anyone in marginalized groups faces challenges - I feel like the industry needs to really grow in diversity of thought, diversity of walks of life, and different types of people. There's been some growth in recent years, but it needs more. It does tend to be dominated by a certain type of person, so it can be a challenge for young women coming in because you have to know how to hold your own. For people of color, they're experiencing these challenges times ten. Sadly, some of those backwards comments might still happen for people that haven't been through enough of the D&I courses that they need to take. But I will say there's also a lot of opportunity. You can earn a good living while helping others. The field is very viable, tends to be very recession-proof, and can be lucrative in many ways. There are a lot of different ways you can take it.

For sure, integrity is one of the top ones - just trying to do the right thing, you know, regardless. And then I would say compassion, basically caring for others in any situation. I want to always be there for other people and help elevate other people. That's big for me. Even with the layoff I just experienced, I've been on the horn with my network getting my colleagues interviews. We've been on a text chat together, and they're like, 'hey, Rachel, I got a second interview, thank you so much.' That feels like something I would naturally think that I should do in this situation - we're all in this position together, so I'm helping myself but also helping the people I was working with so closely.