Susan Lyn Sykes

I attribute my success to my relationship with God. I have experienced opportunities to become more teachable, more kind and caring about the needs of others. Keeping the Weekly and Annual Sabbaths since 2008 have changed my life. I have learned that sometimes, I am the one in the way based on what I am thinking. I strive not to judge others the way I see things and this is a constant struggle, but there is much peace to be had. I am able to look at the animals and I am absolutely amazed at how God designed them. I watched the squirrels and became aware that they just knew to store their nuts in the warm weather. They also had many different places they stored them, but especially in the snow, I had the pleasure of watching the squirrels find their nuts in the various places. I look at the stars above and I am able to feel my littleness knowing there is a great creator with a plan. It keeps things in perspective. What is important and what is not.

The best career advice I ever received came from Nick Burns of the Burns Group. I was talking to him about recruiting agents and sharing how wonderful Equis Financial is, yet there was something that I was not getting through. He, a seasoned, 25 years in the business asked me, 'How many apps have you written? How much business have you written?' When I said I was close but hadn't written any business yet, he said, 'Girl, you start writing business. You're gonna believe.' And he was absolutely 100% right. Once I started writing business, I did believe. That made a tremendous, absolutely tremendous difference. You've got to believe in what you do.

I can say that Equis Financial regards women on a very high standard, something that you just don't see on the street or in any other situation. They actually have a Winning with Women on Wednesday. Our top producer is a woman - Deanna Cooper, who was a parole officer. She's on her second year of $1.5 million with her own pen, and everybody looks up to her. She just says, 'I just do it. I have more leads, I do more work.' There's so much down-to-earthness to this company. Our CEO Barry Clarkson says it's not about the flashy cars, it's about being responsible. Once you start making money, it's not about spending that money. You need to invest back in your business, which I'm doing. That's really, really important to me - to invest everything back in my business, make sure I pay down any debt.

The biggest challenge is definitely not explaining everything, but to wait, have moments of asking questions and just wait. Let that still time happen. This is so that clients actually understand what we're providing. We're big in Equis Financial about having clients that are going to be needing our services the rest of their life, so we do annual reviews and color of money assessments where we can assess their risk and how much they need to have money in risk versus safe areas. One challenge is that so many people, when they hear life insurance, they just think of the death benefit, but I'm excited to explain that life insurance has changed - it's not just a death benefit anymore. We provide all kinds of different products that are Green Line Company products where they don't lose money when the stock market goes down. The opportunity is really about helping middle-income America with affordable solutions, providing people like convenience store workers with a pension by putting in just a little bit every month so they will have an income that they will not outlive.

To be completely transparent and truthful, even when it's uncomfortable. My husband and I have a very, very close relationship, and it's just getting closer. It doesn't happen easily - it's something that has to be maintained. There's a lot of sacrifice involved with that. Putting somebody before myself is not easy. I'm also learning to allow my 21-year-old son, who has a language impairment, to go out and get a license and get a job. He just came back with me from a retirement solution convention in Delray Beach, Florida, and it was an amazing experience to have him there. He's working on getting his insurance license - he didn't pass the first time, but he's taking it again this Friday, and I believe in him.