Sandra Cadet Green

I think it's my faith. I would say my faith in Christ has been my biggest help. At my church, I get a lot of support. I have a lot of friends at the church that I've reached out to throughout the course of my corporate career and this career, and just the insight that I get from them, from my Bible study, from the women that I know, even on the social side that I can lean on and gain insight from, that's been fantastic. I'm a people person, so when I meet somebody, I'm always open to receiving feedback and insight from whoever I meet, because I've found that the Holy Spirit can use anybody. You can be a child, you can be somebody you just happen to meet in the grocery store and have a quick conversation with. But I'm always open to finding ways where I can glean value from someone, and I can add value to someone. I try to keep my pentacles out to see how I can make a difference in the life of somebody else, as I'm also looking for people to make a difference in my life. Everything happens for a reason, nothing happens by chance. We are all interconnected, and we should all be here to help uplift each other.

Somebody told me once, and it was so true, that you need to bloom where you're planted. Wherever you are, you need to be the best that you can be in whatever position that is, because you may not be there forever, but while you're there, you need to add value, make a difference, enjoy the journey, because that's all part of it. And that's going to help you as you grow. I know that in my past corporate job, I had a corporate job for 25 years before I even opened this practice. Sometimes I would end up in positions that I may not have necessarily wanted to be in, but this advice was so true.

If you do the agency role, which is what I did, and a lot of people do, you have to be diligent, you have to be patient, and you have to be tenacious, and know that most people are not going to grow a successful business overnight. Some people are fortunate because they already have a circle of influence around them that they can tap into immediately, but for most people, you have to go hunt and find clients. You need to identify what is your business model, and then go try to find clients suitable to help you grow your business based on what you want to focus on. You can focus on the life insurance, or you can focus on investments, or you can focus on business solutions, or you can focus on estate planning. Depending on where you want your practice to go, you actually need to market yourself, gain credibility, go out and identify people who could use your solutions, and then make all that work. That is a longer process than just a consumer sale. It's all about building relationships, finding ways where you can add value beyond just the solutions that you bring, being a trusted resource for others, and then from that, hopefully, you'll be able to cultivate and grow business.