As time went on, I worked my way up as an insurance agent. To be an insurance agent you have to be licensed to sell insurance in your state. That means taking a state licensing exam. With exams comes studying. Most can get all of their studying done in one month to take their licensing exam, however I was going through a divorce, taking care of 2 little kids and trying to survive. The first time I took the test I had been studying for 4 months, and I failed. At a time in my life where everything was going wrong it was only fitting that I failed my exam.
I studied HARD for the next 6 months. I was not grasping the material. My brain was not absorbing. One evening I was studying when I thought, enough. This is not going well. This is not how I learn. So I took a long hard look in the mirror and realized that I need to be in a classroom setting with others learning the same thing and asking questions with real life examples. I found the in-person course and signed up. For four days I sat in that class for 8 hours each day. The Saturday after the course I took my licensing exam and I PASSED! This was a great moment.
In taking that course I didn’t realize my path trajectory was going to be changed for my whole life. The class was full of around 20 other who were getting licensed for insurance. One of them happened to be Aaron. He was super tall and I felt comfortable enough sitting next to him because he was married. Being newly divorced I still didn’t know how to handle my singledom. Aaron was buying an agency in Utah. We took our test together and passed together. We became facebook friends. I had several clients move to Utah and I passed his information along to them and vice versa.
I had passed my test, I called my boss, and I was fired.
With a new found confidence in myself I went to work updating my resume and sending it to every agency in a 25 mile radius. Within a week I had a position with a new agency and I was going to learn everything I could about insurance. Little did I know that the agency that I was working for was going to be the PERFECT fit for me. This office had 4 women that worked in it (including myself) from all different backgrounds. The agency owner was a woman that I respected so much and she taught me how to be a trusted advisor to our clients. I learned organizational skills that I would never have thought of. Two of the other girls taught me how to rely on others when you needed it. Together the 4 of us were able to increase our office sales, retain more clients than ever before and lean on each other when times were tough.
I learned so much about all aspects of insurance in this new office. For myself, I had to be the best to prove that I could make it in this world as a single mom. All of this was for me. Not for anyone else. However, I also wanted everyone to know that I cared, that I knew what I was talking about, and I wanted everyone to believe in me. In order for others to see value in me I had to believe in myself. And in order to believe in myself I felt that I needed to be the expert in insurance so I could take care of my clients.
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