Latest / Crafted Connections / EP 70: Ego Off, Value First with Jill Trimmel

Transcript

EP 70: Ego Off, Value First with Jill Trimmel · Crafted Connections

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Hey friends, I'm Katelyn Calhoun and you are listening to Crafted Connections.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: On this pod, we have conversations about creativity and business and frankly the humanness behind building a life around the work you love.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: It is not for the faint of heart, and I love to talk about my own experiences and interview people who are passionate about what they do and freaking human beings, right?
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: So if you're new here, welcome.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: We're in the middle of a fall series on burnout and recovery.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Long story short, I closed the business I'd spent eight years building.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: My life kind of fell apart a bit because my identity was very deeply tied to said biz.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: And I've been slowly climbing back out.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: During this series, I'm sharing the arc of this journey, utilizing solo episodes where I process out loud, and then also conversations with people I trust who have also been through hard things in the vein of burnout and step-by-step recovery.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: If you want to enjoy the full picture, you should go back to episode 68 and start there.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: I'd love to have you enjoy the full experience.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: I'm really being intentional about episode by episode taking you on like a long-term story, if you will.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: My background is in documentary filmmaking, which is a longer form of creation.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: So, you know, I specialize in this and I think you'll enjoy it.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: So this episode, this interview this week, is a bit of an extension of last week.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Last week I gave you, kind of gave you the breakdown of my business breaking down.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Uh, and I'm gonna tell you up front, Jill and I actually recorded this back in the spring, and our chat was what originally inspired this series.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: I realized this interview was meant to be a part of a larger conversation, and then I started like taking inventory of the already recorded interviews I had and like the stories I wanted to tell, and I was like, ooh, this is a full situation.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Jill plus some of the other interviewees in this series uh kind of paint the picture of my slow climb out of burnout, out of my business failing, and also they share their own insights and their own experiences of coming up against hurdles.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: So I met Jill right where I left us off last episode.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: I was a fresh, newly solopreneured human, if you will, sitting on more debt than I knew how to handle, how to chip away at, and not bringing in a lot of income.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: And so while I didn't have much to spare, my acquaintance at the time, now dear friend Brittany Scott of Grow, gifted me a free ticket to her inaugural women's leadership conference.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: And the only thing I had to scrounge together was money for the gas to get there.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: And then this is where Jill entered my life, and I've clung to her as a mentor ever since.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: So Jill is the CEO of Elevate Claim Solutions and Descomate.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: She came up in the corporate insurance world where she was the first woman in more than one role along the way.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: She knows her numbers, like really knows her numbers.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Like when you're talking to her and she starts spewing them off, like if you can move your fingers fast enough on a calculator, she's got it.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: That's just such a superpower of hers.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: But what's even more special is how her enthusiasm for those things translates into taking care of people.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Yes, she's a numbers person, but she's a people person when it all breaks down.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: And especially when it comes to supporting women in business or the workplace.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: She is all about the negotiation station.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: And we talk about that in today's episode.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: We talk about leverage, making sure that the leverage that you create in the value that you bring to an institution or situation actually yields.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: It's about choosing experience over the bigger paycheck when you've got your eye on the long game and being surrounded by the right people.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Something I think is very important in our conversation is utilizing said leverage to negotiate and get where you set your sights.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: So I've done this before where I've taken opportunities in order to improve my skill set.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: But I personally have struggled with the how do you actually negotiate when the time is right?
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: How do you actually hold that value that you've created and are bringing to an institution, a project, what have you.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Something that's kept coming back as I've moved through starting my new business, closing the former one.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: I sometimes the goal is just to be in business.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Like if you're in business at the end of the year, that's a win.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: We often lose sight of that because the narrative can become about growth, growth, growth, growth, growth for growth's sake, and trying to grow year over year.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: But when it comes down to it, you're the one who knows your situation and you're the one who has to live with the consequences.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: And nobody else gets to decide what winning looks like for you.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: So stick around to the end because Jill gets honest about her own burnout and about her business partner Margaret, uh, the person who would not let her quit.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Frankly, I always say Margaret is my favorite person.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: And we talk a lot about Margaret in this episode and the complimentary uh relationship that they have.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: And if Jill has her way at the end of this episode, the one thing you will take away from this conversation is permission to be a little bit easier on yourself.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: That's one thing I want to reiterate from what she puts across in her message today.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: It's we have to be nicer to ourselves.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: We're doing our best, we're trying our best.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like be critical and challenge yourself, but beating yourself up for things doesn't really, doesn't really get you very far.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: And I I love how she brings that out at the end.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Okay, so with that, here's my conversation with Jill Tremble.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Let's dig in, shall we?
• 5:44
  Speaker: Okay.
• 5:44
  Speaker: Cool.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Okay, so honestly, too, with you, I'm like, there's we're not gonna have any issues filling the space.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: I think we're both enthusiastic talkers.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: We are I always, for the folks listening, I always like to uh akin Jill and me with like I don't know the big the baby version, you like your Charmander Pokemon, and is it Trmillion?
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: I don't know, I feel like you are like like the like second edition of like a Pokemon, like you just the way that our we approach the world happens over an extra 20 years, yeah, it transforms.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, the transformation, but I I but I like in the same thing, right?
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: These little oh my gosh, anybody who loves Pokemon, I'm totally murdering it for them right now.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: But the idea of like you're like the same creature, but you like there's like the it's is it the next generation is what they're called?
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Like it's a 2.0, like Yes, it is the next generation.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you kind of like morph into like the the more mature version.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Um, and I just like have so much respect for that.
• 6:44
  Speaker: I'm probably less mature than you.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: I mean we can call it whatever we want to call it.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Moral of the story.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: I admire you so much.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: I like Gerald, you just uh mentioned, I also consider like when I talk about the people who are mentoring me, it's like you, Gerald, and then I've got like two or three other people.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: And I just am so grateful for your existence.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: And I think uh I'm just happy you're here uh and that you took some time for the past.
• 7:10
  Speaker: I'm thankful to have your energy, honestly, in my life.
• 7:13
  Speaker: I look forward to every time I get to talk to you because I know I'm going to leave energized and I'm gonna learn something too.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: So thank you.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm glad uh that we fill each other's cups.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Um, I thought we could start today with backing up to when we met.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Um, as to whether or not you remember this, I do got the chance to enjoy you in your breakout session at Grow's first conference ever in Muncie, Indiana, fall of 2023, November, I think.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: And uh you had a talk on failure, basically, and uh coming up with a fail plan.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Now, for those listening at home, at this point I have given the whole backstory.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: I'm about to do a solo series on like the founding of my business and the downfall of my business and the rebuilding back into like the professional I am now.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: And uh this was the point in my life where like I had just let go, basically, I had to let go all my employees.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: And and I hear Jill talking and I'm like, oh, it would have been nice to meet this woman six months ago, a year ago.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: It could have been a whole different trajectory, but it was, I don't know if I would have heard it, right?
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Because I had gone through actual, like I had embodied an experience.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: And then and then you get up and you talk about having a fail plan when you are investing in something, when you're growing something.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: Uh tell me a little bit, tell the people about about uh that day and and and that talk and and and how you like to uh help women out, let me tell you.
• 8:44
  Speaker: Well, I like to help people out because I have received a lot of help.
• 8:48
  Speaker: But like you with one of my mentors before I started the company, uh, she had given me advice that I just was not prepared to hear hear.
• 8:58
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 8:59
  Speaker: And I didn't.
• 9:00
  Speaker: And had I, it would have made my road a lot uh smoother.
• 9:05
  Speaker: So I can appreciate needing to experience your own failure and pick yourself back up as opposed to just maybe doing it the way that people recommend you to do.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: Well, and that's maybe maybe that's something that we have in common is being an experiential learner, right?
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Like it's it really was like the timing.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like it was like two months after I had had to let everybody go, um, and was trying to figure out how to get out of the valley, the ditch that I was in.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: And um, and so I was feeling it hard, right?
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: Like the only reason I went that day is because Britney had had shared a free ticket with me, right?
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: And and the fact of the matter was like, okay, I had a gas tank to get there and back, you know?
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: And and so so when you're living in that space and then you hear someone talk about something, you're like, cool, now I know for next time.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: And I'm curious about your own experiences with like with that, when people have maybe maybe you've heard advice that has been like, oh, that would have been nice to know.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: But again, do you have any like examples of when you've like really learned something through moving through it and then and then kind of hearing the advice after the fact or or feel free to like sh how long do you have?
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: I mean, what stands out first?
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: What pops in your mind?
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 10:22
  Speaker: Well, and you know what, I'll go back to just the point of my mentor suggested, you know, not having as many principled partners in starting a company as I had planned to and did when we started Elevate.
• 10:40
  Speaker: But the fact of the matter is, two of the um partners who have since been bought out and are no longer part of the company, uh I needed them.
• 10:52
  Speaker: Uh, I needed to leverage their uh technical and uh expertise and ability to generate revenue in the field uh in order to build the cash flow up to scale at the level um or rate that I had wanted to.
• 11:11
  Speaker: So in the long run, it ended up fine.
• 11:14
  Speaker: I don't know that we would have been able to get to where we were without them and um evaluating the company and buying them out was it's over.
• 11:27
  Speaker: So it worked and we're still here.
• 11:30
  Speaker: Um, so rather I should have listened to her, not, you know, who knows, but I didn't and it worked out.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: So no, but I think that's a really strong point, right?
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: The idea that like it's not about, you know, yes, listen, but also you have to kind of move forward with what works and and then also when it doesn't work, pivot.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: And and I think that's a part of entrepreneurship.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: And then also another point on top of that is you, your organization, the people you're working with, you're all changing and growing and morphing like all the time.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: So you don't know until you know, maybe it was right when you started, but then it's like, oh, two or three years in, it's not right anymore, you know.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: And then you did, you had to like really untangle a lot, but how you wouldn't have gotten to the point of being so tangled or having the company where it was if it if it weren't for having all those partners to start.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 12:18
  Speaker: And I I listened to, I obviously she has given me um a lot of pieces of advice that I've listened to, but also I had limited time with her.
• 12:31
  Speaker: And when you're working with a mentor, you have to take into account that you don't necessarily have the liberty of having enough time with them for them to be or for you to be able to explain a full enterprise perspective of the problem or the issue that they're guiding you on, right?
• 12:56
  Speaker: Because I didn't, she just said that it was a valid point, she wasn't wrong, but yet I didn't take the time to explain, explain my two-year financial projections and how they played into that to get to where I wanted to go.
• 13:11
  Speaker: So sometimes you just have to be like, okay, they don't know all the facts, even though they have they're really smart and I value their opinion, but there's these other things that they don't know, I don't have time to tell them, so they can give me a full route, well-rounded opinion or guidance because I need guidance on these other things, and I gotta get through this like hour and a half I have with her.
• 13:31
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: It's a lot.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: And it's also, I mean, I think that that brings like the point of what I've found time and time again is like when things when things fail or don't work, or or they do work, but they're hard, like you just have to kind of, it's first off trusting yourself.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: And then when it comes down to it, the consequences are gonna be your consequences.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: So you you're the one who has to own them.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: So if a if someone's like advising you and you see them for like 30 minutes to an hour a month, like is it really like, you know, they they they're not the ones who are gonna have to pick up the pieces and actually execute when when things come to come to fruition.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: Um, or at least that's what I've kind of it's funny, I've reflected on it time and time again, but then I'll, you know, I'll forget and be like, oh, maybe that person's right, maybe I'm doing this wrong, what have you.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: Um, one thing you really that you said to me, gosh, back in November when I was like kind of officially like taking some time with like saying goodbye to my former company.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Um I love how you you ask like a series of rapid questions and then you like hit with this like poignant question.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: You're like, you'll go through like all the logistics really, really quick, and then you'll be like, Well, what did you learn?
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: And do you know exactly what to do not to do next time?
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: And then I was just like, oh hell yeah.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: Like and we accidentally had this conversation.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: And it was like, it was perfectly timed with the intention of the trip that I made to Indiana.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: Um, but but it was like an accidental, like we an accidental three-hour coffee where like, and then you know, and then you kind of like crushed it at the end with you're aware of your mistakes, so don't make them again, kind of thing.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: So what would you like advise?
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: Well, first before we get on this, right?
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: I would love to fill in the gaps.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: So you are a business owner, um, and you uh have a a background in the the insurance field.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: Can you kind of break down uh your your company and and uh who you are, what you do, uh, and uh who you work with?
• 15:30
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 15:30
  Speaker: Um, so uh my main partner, Margaret, and I, um, she came in a tad bit later, but we started Elevate essentially in July of 2020.
• 15:44
  Speaker: So it'll be six years this summer.
• 15:46
  Speaker: And um as soon as we started, I think it was day three after uh uh establishing our LLC, we were served, I was served with cease and desist order from a previous employer uh who I did not have a non-compete.
• 16:04
  Speaker: I had I did not have a non-compete.
• 16:06
  Speaker: And in addition, I had already I had gone to another corporate role, um, started a few other businesses, consulted.
• 16:13
  Speaker: There'd been plenty of time before I started this company.
• 16:17
  Speaker: Um so we decided, well, we're probably gonna be litigated one way or the other, so we should probably start generating revenue so we can pay for it.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 16:28
  Speaker: And uh we just plugged on, like it wasn't even there, albeit for me, my primary responsibility on top of staffing, technical, financial, marketing, sales was also navigating through six-figure times uh a reasonable multiplier on legal uh expenses and attorneys and court and um so we got through that and um that is all behind us now.
• 17:09
  Speaker: Uh during that process, I had started an additional company called Descamate, um a completely different service model, but same industry.
• 17:20
  Speaker: And then post-lawsuit, we last year and we uh combined the companies, merged the companies.
• 17:29
  Speaker: So now we just have Elevate Claim Solution, which operates in 28 states.
• 17:33
  Speaker: We offer professional services, claim services to insurance carriers and um managing general agencies, MGAs throughout the country.
• 17:44
  Speaker: Um we have three different primary services, all focused on um integrating with technology that's prevalent within the industry to create a um very efficient and effective way of doing business.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: Perfect.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: There it is.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Now we know.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: What got you to this July 2020 founding the organization point?
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: Can you give me a like your career summary, right?
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: Because I know I know you were in New York for a while.
• 18:14
  Speaker: Like I know there's and like well, I started my career at Enterprise Renticar, which was a phenomenal experience.
• 18:22
  Speaker: Um, I learned more there in a year on how to manage financials and scale a company while still focused on uh customer and employee experiences.
• 18:36
  Speaker: Uh I have a very data-driven, model-driven, pattern-driven mind.
• 18:41
  Speaker: So I enjoyed, and I'm competitive.
• 18:44
  Speaker: So I enjoy the competitive nature of cutting off this and cutting off this to get my net profit the highest and get my customer experience the highest in the branch I was in.
• 18:56
  Speaker: And then uh was one of the least tenured, I think maybe if not the least tenured females to be promoted there, recruited to progressive, same story, loved how data driven it was, um, promoted there.
• 19:10
  Speaker: And then I knew uh in order to get to that executive level, I needed to diversify my knowledge on the lines of business within the insurance industry.
• 19:19
  Speaker: So I took a uh step back and went to a mutual company, which had a broader scope of policies, uh, knowing that I would learn.
• 19:28
  Speaker: At that point, I set up a subrogation department for a smaller mutual company and had this gruff boss, Glenn, who has since um passed.
• 19:39
  Speaker: And he, and I always say, like, be open, um as open as you can be and maintain, you know, within your own comfort level.
• 19:54
  Speaker: But Glenn was a very gruff, he was a military like sergeant, and he rah-rah rah, and you know, he'd be like, Joe, get in here, and I get up from my cubicle and with my notepad, and I'd be like, Yes, Glenn, you know, blah blah blah.
• 20:07
  Speaker: And he was so smart.
• 20:09
  Speaker: I learned so much from him.
• 20:12
  Speaker: He fed me and he lifted me.
• 20:14
  Speaker: And when I went to Indiana Farmers, there was a concern of the B VP that he shared in my interview saying, I look at I'm looking at your resume, and I just want to let you know, you know, there's probably not opportunity for leadership here or forward movement, and I can see that that's you know how you track.
• 20:34
  Speaker: And I was like, okay, that's fine, we'll see.
• 20:36
  Speaker: I'll still learn.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: And the interview that would lead you to working with Glenn, you're saying Glenn.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: Okay, got it.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: So, but you were like excited about like getting a broader scope, learning more.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: Got it, got it.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: Learning more.
• 20:50
  Speaker: So then I I there was an opportunity, and I became the first female claim manager at that company.
• 20:56
  Speaker: Um, the you know, continuation of the only woman at the table.
• 21:02
  Speaker: And then I, yeah, I continued to be recruited there, um, managed pretty much all elements that you can within PC insurance, and then was recruited to um what we call the vendor side to an independent adjusting firm.
• 21:20
  Speaker: Uh, that was a huge experience and um and failure and my own failures.
• 21:28
  Speaker: I had gone there in a sales capacity and leveraged my relationships that I had developed in the industry, um, oversold relative to what they could sustain.
• 21:40
  Speaker: And so they failed.
• 21:43
  Speaker: And that was on my handshake and my reputation that we failed on, not theirs.
• 21:48
  Speaker: And so I put together essentially a business plan.
• 21:53
  Speaker: They did not have one and outlined marketing, sales, IT, HR, but recruiting, dah dah, dah.
• 21:59
  Speaker: How we were going to do everything, what reports were going to be delivered, who was going to do what.
• 22:03
  Speaker: And I had a meeting with the owners and said, I'm going to lead the operation.
• 22:07
  Speaker: This is how we're going to do it.
• 22:09
  Speaker: I modeled it comparable to a carrier.
• 22:11
  Speaker: And I said, I'm you're the you're we're going to do this, or I'm going to leave.
• 22:16
  Speaker: And so they allowed me the opportunity to uh refine their operations, scaled it uh significantly, took it to nationwide.
• 22:27
  Speaker: Um, and then from there I was recruited to QBE.
• 22:30
  Speaker: And as a young woman, I always had this dream of like working in a big city.
• 22:35
  Speaker: And you know, I thought it would be so great.
• 22:38
  Speaker: And so, and I would I would record it into the financial district in Manhattan, and it was a huge opportunity.
• 22:46
  Speaker: Um I negotiated the hell out of that contract because I knew they were getting ready to sell um potentially about a half a billion dollars of business, which would probably create a riff since that was 20% of their revenue at the time.
• 23:02
  Speaker: Um, so within that appointment agreement, which is something else I help women with and men, I um negotiated uh essentially a settlement offer if they let me go within two years.
• 23:14
  Speaker: And they did.
• 23:15
  Speaker: And it was the best summer of my life.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: And from there, there's a settlement offer, right?
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: And so you basically were in New York with this beautiful offer and just enjoyed the summer.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: Is that what happened?
• 23:28
  Speaker: Or the whole going to New York thing actually really ended up sucking.
• 23:34
  Speaker: I did not enjoy climbing over trash and walking through rats on the way to the office in the morning after all.
• 23:40
  Speaker: Um, I didn't realize that was such a big problem in the big cities.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: I'm a Midwest girly myself, yeah.
• 23:46
  Speaker: So I I and they were, I mean, there was clear, again, only woman at the table.
• 23:53
  Speaker: That table did overlook the new uh Statue of Liberty, which was nice, but um the players were a different level of it was a different level of play.
• 24:07
  Speaker: I would say from what I was used to, I would not have considered it a fair playing ground for me.
• 24:14
  Speaker: But um, no sour grapes, it is what it is, everything worked out wonderfully.
• 24:19
  Speaker: So yeah, after that, I took a consulting job with a firm I had worked with while I was at QBE, uh just implementing customer experience uh uh customer experience software and teaching organizations how to correlate the data relative to their KPI so they understood what the driving point of success was, as opposed to guessing.
• 24:43
  Speaker: And then I started a CBD company, my own private line called Juice Love and Happiness.
• 24:48
  Speaker: That became too hard to navigate as the laws were changing rapidly.
• 24:51
  Speaker: What year was that?
• 24:52
  Speaker: Ooh, 2018.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you you were ahead of the curve on that for sure.
• 25:00
  Speaker: Yeah, the legal expenses and the re um uh you know, redoing the labels, redoing the QR codes, maintaining the um shifting with the laws at that time was just become the it eliminated any opportunity uh for me to experience a real margin.
• 25:22
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 25:22
  Speaker: But I learned a lot.
• 25:24
  Speaker: And then before I left that industry, I ended up consulting both farmers, um, spent some time at Purdue.
• 25:31
  Speaker: They've got an amazing program that supports uh farmers throughout the state.
• 25:37
  Speaker: And anyways, uh then somebody asked if I would come back and start an independent adjusting firm, and I said no.
• 25:44
  Speaker: And then I thought about it and I was like, why not?
• 25:47
  Speaker: I miss it.
• 25:48
  Speaker: I miss the people, I miss um it's very servant-oriented.
• 25:54
  Speaker: You're serving people in their time of need, and and that means something to me, and I missed I miss the fulfillment of being in this industry and doing this work.
• 26:07
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 26:08
  Speaker: Um I know, I knew it was hard, but I knew I could do it.
• 26:12
  Speaker: I've done it for so long.
• 26:13
  Speaker: That um so we did it.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: And then that brought you to the July 2020.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: The elevate.
• 26:18
  Speaker: I snapped all the adjusters, I called them, I interviewed them, I reviewed their files, I yeah, it was it was uh was it fun?
• 26:28
  Speaker: I think it was fun.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: You did it, no matter what it was.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: And I it's done.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: I didn't so now it's fun, it's done, right?
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: I I was talking to someone about that the other day about how like it's like we don't give ourselves credit for like what we've done in the past.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: And then also we like, you know, or we just like, you know, hindsight, hindsight is not 2020 sometimes.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: Hindsight is like rose-colored glasses sometimes, right?
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: Where you're like, oh I can watch so great.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: And you're like, was it though?
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: Because I I all the time will say to people, I'm like, you could not pay me to go back to my early 20s.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: Like it was trying to figure it all out, just being like, I'm a baby adult.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: I no, thank you.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: It was so confusing.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: Um, oh, there's so many ways we could do this uh next.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: But basically, before we move forward, I want to kind of give people a little bit of a layman definition of what you do now, which is essentially like if you have like an insurance, like need to make an insurance claim, you dispatch people, like you being okay, audience member, something hits your house, a tree falls on your house, right?
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: Jill's company dispatches those insurance claim folks out and about.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: So the guy who comes takes pictures, or or the woman who comes and takes pictures and then sends it off to the insurance company, that's Jill's organization.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: They they're dispatching those people.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: So for the person that has no idea anything about insurance, because I've I've had the opportunity to do a workshop with Jill's company.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: And when I was first starting, I'm like, okay, making sure I actually understand your offer and your services, what exactly do you all do in the insurance company, right?
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: So it's like when somebody makes a claim, Jill's team helps that like all the the dots of I's and T's and crossing and all that come together so that that people can actually pay you your money.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: And it's a beautiful thing.
• 28:18
  Speaker: We adjudicate losses.
• 28:19
  Speaker: Yeah, we have adjusters, they adjudicate the loss, which adjudication means making you whole perfect.
• 28:25
  Speaker: We're assessing the damage, writing an estimate, and uh recommending to the carrier what they should pay you to make you whole.
• 28:32
  Speaker: Perfect.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: There we go.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: Okay, cool.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: So, so all that to say, um I love it.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: I and I love um your reflection of like how it is a very serving in like segment of the industry, right?
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: Because it is when people are like, well, shit, I need money because this has happened to my property or you know, my home, which is like my place of safety, right?
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: You you're helping them get the money in their account to then, you know, move on with their lives and make it better.
• 29:04
  Speaker: One of my favorite stories to tell is I had uh when I was managing on the carrier side, I had a new adjuster start, and then I um was facilitating a meeting and had our large loss adjusters in.
• 29:17
  Speaker: And Troy uh was doing just kind of an overview of handling total loss fires.
• 29:23
  Speaker: And John was like, you know, he had a question, Troy, Troy, and he's like, What's the first thing you do when you get out on a total loss fire scene?
• 29:32
  Speaker: Yeah, you know, and and I think he was thinking about like you put your investigation head on or you didn't.
• 29:36
  Speaker: And Troy was like, Well, John, the first thing you do is give out hugs.
• 29:42
  Speaker: Right.
• 29:44
  Speaker: Yeah, because you're it's human.
• 29:47
  Speaker: And that's what you do.
• 29:48
  Speaker: It's like the first thing you do, and the primary thing you do is you cure.
• 29:51
  Speaker: Yeah, and that's why I love this word.
• 29:53
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's so that's so wonderful.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: Okay, quick pause in today's episode because I want to tell you about something I've been building, I've been working on, that I've been curating for y'all.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: It's called Calhoun Edits.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: Here's the thing we all know we should be doing video.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: Solopreneurs, marketers, business owners, you know the benefits.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: But the part that we all dread is the editing.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: You film something, it's super fantastic, but getting over that hurdle past the edit halts the entire project.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: And then you've spent all this time creating something, you don't finish that last little bit, right?
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: I have been editing video for over 10 years, and I'm here to make it super, super, super dang simple.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: I want you to succeed.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: I want you to utilize the power of editing and the magic that can come from putting things together, having that rhythm.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: And over on Instagram at Calhoun Edits, I break down short, practical tutorials, mostly in the edits app, because it's free as can be on stuff that you probably don't know about.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: Keyframes, captions, sound effects, all sorts of little things that make your videos feel polished without taking your whole afternoon, your whole day, your whole life.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: And if you'd rather hand it off or want some one-on-one help, you can book a free 30-minute consultation right in my bio.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: So go follow Calhoun Edits and let's get your videos out of your camera role and into the world.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: We deserve it.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: All right, back to the episode.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: I would love to kind of pick your brain or hear your take on because you you just described this.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, is it 30 plus year career that you've you've had so far?
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: And it's like, dare I say apologies.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: But it seems not so long.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: But but no, but it's uh, but like, but there's so many things and opportunities and learning situations that you've had and gone through.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: Um how would one navigate so many choices and opportunities and directions and like ways to invest your time, right?
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: Because you and I are both like multifaceted, you know, interested in everything kind of people.
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: So how do you how do you like make decisions when it comes to career opportunities or life opportunities like that?
• 32:17
  Speaker: Well, I try to when I start at a in a position, well, when I started in a position, I try to identify where I want to take it and where it can lead, of course, and if those align.
• 32:34
  Speaker: And then I put together um what I think would be the best plan to execute, uh, bringing those together.
• 32:43
  Speaker: Um, and for most of my life, the goal has always been uh just to be in leadership.
• 32:50
  Speaker: I like I enjoy leading people.
• 32:55
  Speaker: Um I'm curious, so I like to be in the closed door.
• 33:00
  Speaker: I want to know what's going on, I want to understand things thoroughly, and I feel like um, and I've always felt like I have value.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 33:14
  Speaker: And so um once I identify what needs to be done to get to that next level that I've determined I want to go to, then I make a plan on what I need to do to get there and then execute it.
• 33:32
  Speaker: And most of my career, or in much of my career, the next opportunity I took was actually less money, but more uh, but the experience and the knowledge gained was the stepping stone I needed to get to that next level that I wanted to be at.
• 33:59
  Speaker: And so I just stayed the course and made the sacrifices along the way to ensure that I had the freedom, if you will, to focus on knowledge gain, not status or money gain.
• 34:16
  Speaker: And in the long run, I always ended up making more money.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: Okay, cool, cool.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: Can you play that out a little bit further in the like in the long run?
• 34:29
  Speaker: From the like, okay, yeah, because if you actually like let's say like when I went to progress or like when I went from progressive to Indiana Farmers, I took a roughly $35,000 pay decrease, um which I remember that put my budget monthly about um having ten dollars extra a month.
• 34:52
  Speaker: I also remember when gas went up during that period, which would be around 2005, I think.
• 34:59
  Speaker: Yeah, um I put my budget in the red.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 35:04
  Speaker: And so for a period of time, my budget was not the best, which is not what I meant toward women to do.
• 35:13
  Speaker: But sometimes again, that goes back to the sacrifice and just having your eye on the long game.
• 35:18
  Speaker: And but then by the time I left, that was my I had then another position and another position at that company.
• 35:27
  Speaker: And by the time I left that company, I was making more than what I probably would have been had I stayed at the previous company.
• 35:36
  Speaker: Nice, nice.
• 35:36
  Speaker: Yeah, it's all strategic, you're saying.
• 35:38
  Speaker: And then the same.
• 35:39
  Speaker: I took another pay cut when I took the next position, but when I left that company, I was making more than I would have had I stayed in the previous position.
• 35:50
  Speaker: So I think a continuous detachment of things from things um has supported that.
• 36:01
  Speaker: Um because I have always said I don't, I don't really, I could, I could live in a trailer and work as a waitress and be joy and conversation.
• 36:14
  Speaker: I don't have to have, you know, yeah.
• 36:18
  Speaker: I just I think that focusing on feeding myself with knowledge and experiences as opposed to feeding what my next house is gonna look like or what my next car is gonna look like, um is has been part of my superpower to get where I am.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: There's a quote, I think it's Jim Carrey where he said, I wish everybody could have all the money so that they know that it's not about the money.
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: Like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: And it's along those lines, right?
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: And and I think like you were also being strategic, right?
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: Because I've I've done the thing, especially like because my industry and my like video creative visuals content background, like people will, you know, they'll let you do anything for free as long as you're doing it, right?
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: Like, and so it is a bit of like there's also that that point that is important in the difference between you taking something to learn, taking something a pay cut to learn.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: You also have to like be like, cool, what is the strategic opportunity so that I am moving forward?
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: That I am there is an investment here, right?
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: Like the pay cut does yield an investment in in the next like this amount of time.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: And and you're not necessarily doing that because you're like, oh, I want to make this much so that I can buy that house down the street, but rather like, okay, I'm also valuing myself along the way, which I think has been And increasing my value.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're increasing your mm, mm-hmm, cool, perfect.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: Love that.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: Okay, cool, cool, cool.
• 37:43
  Speaker: And I think that's what I focused.
• 37:45
  Speaker: I mean, that is truly what I focused investing in throughout my career is my own value.
• 37:50
  Speaker: Perfect.
• 37:52
  Speaker: Now, once you I mean, which of course I like to spill onto other people.
• 37:57
  Speaker: And a lot of the value has been the people who have spilled it, you know, poured into me.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: Well, so with that, right, when you do increase your value, then like then you do have to like negotiate for that value.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: So what does that look like for someone when they're when it's time to like have the nose negotiations, when it's time to like take a look at like all the investment you've done and increasing your value, all the educating you've done, whether driving yourself in that education, seeking opportunities that are going to give you more learning opportunities, like strategically broadening like your knowledge of an industry so that you can like seek out, you know, different how do we then negotiate and hold that value?
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: Because I think that's where a lot of folks talking for a friend, aka myself, like lose it a little bit, right?
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: It's like cool.
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: Like I think that's where a lot of people do.
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: And so what do you do?
• 38:48
  Speaker: Not to really calculate our own values uh in a tangible monetary way.
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 38:54
  Speaker: Um, but for me, so when I took the let's just say the built the subrogation department, I wanted to know, and this goes like it's the same pattern with every role that I took.
• 39:06
  Speaker: Okay, I want to know my KPIs.
• 39:08
  Speaker: What am I responsible for?
• 39:09
  Speaker: What are you grading?
• 39:11
  Speaker: What is my success?
• 39:13
  Speaker: What are my measurements?
• 39:14
  Speaker: Okay, where are those measurements now?
• 39:18
  Speaker: Uh, you don't know?
• 39:20
  Speaker: Okay, well, then we're gonna pull a reporter.
• 39:23
  Speaker: We're going like if you when I was at progressive, no problem.
• 39:26
  Speaker: It's so data-driven, you know exactly where everybody is all the time.
• 39:29
  Speaker: But then you get to a smaller company and you have to go through the process of saying, like, okay, well, if you're holding me accountable to this, I need to know where it is now in order to quantify my own value and impact.
• 39:42
  Speaker: And that's how I operate.
• 39:44
  Speaker: So I need you, and I can empower you and help you to figure out how to do that.
• 39:48
  Speaker: Because at that point, my background with progressive enabled me to understand how to do that.
• 39:53
  Speaker: So, um, so then I would do baseline, and then like when it was time to get the next position, which was the next money or the next level of uh pay grade, or even any performance review, I would come in and I would be like, okay, look, our uh recoveries have gone up by 78% since I've been in this role.
• 40:18
  Speaker: Our this and this has reduced by 35%.
• 40:21
  Speaker: This, you know, I haven't I have you know brought in this amount of money.
• 40:25
  Speaker: I here's my kudos list.
• 40:27
  Speaker: I printed out every kudos I've gotten in the last year or since I've been in this position.
• 40:32
  Speaker: So you can review those.
• 40:34
  Speaker: I've learned this, I've sat on the arbitration board.
• 40:37
  Speaker: I've what value does that add?
• 40:39
  Speaker: I'm writing arbitration.
• 40:40
  Speaker: I've also stood on the panel.
• 40:42
  Speaker: You know, so just really like keeping, I just said this at the last Grow conference, literally keeping a folder that is kudos.
• 40:54
  Speaker: Yeah, and it's all about like what I've done, what my impact has been, and quantifying that.
• 41:02
  Speaker: Okay, so that's one, does that make sense?
• 41:04
  Speaker: It does.
• 41:05
  Speaker: No, it's wonderful.
• 41:06
  Speaker: Yeah, and I think I want to how I get the next position.
• 41:09
  Speaker: And then when I'm negotiating the raise for that position, and they try to give me at the lower end, you know, it's like, well, that's okay, but I'm gonna need a six-month review because you can see that I'm trying to make my impact.
• 41:24
  Speaker: Yeah, and I'm not gonna wait another year when I'm making this type of impact for you to reward me or give me the value that I'm actually creating in this role.
• 41:34
  Speaker: 100% perfect.
• 41:36
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: So honestly, just to kind of give people a baby step, it's starting to track that stuff, even if it's just like create a kudos folder and make sure there's actual like data and numbers in that kudos folder as well.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: Like, don't get wrong, screenshots of like colleagues being like, Great job, Jill, is also good.
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: But like a like looking at like you know, data, numbers, what have you, whatever you do.
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: Um tangible value.
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: Tangible value.
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 42:01
  Speaker: Every company is every CEO and down is responsible to create a profit.
• 42:08
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 42:08
  Speaker: If they do not, then they will not have a company for long.
• 42:12
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 42:13
  Speaker: So you want to think of your value in way of the people who are making the decisions about how much money and what next level you go to.
• 42:22
  Speaker: What makes them look good to the board?
• 42:24
  Speaker: What makes your manager look good to the chief claims officer?
• 42:28
  Speaker: What makes the chief claims officer look good to the CEO?
• 42:31
  Speaker: The other thing that I've always offered to do, and this is a oh, what's his name?
• 42:37
  Speaker: He was the general manager of the Cumps for a while, Theo Epstein.
• 42:41
  Speaker: Um he said, and I heard this a long time ago uh when he first went there in an interview with him, is decide, decipher the 10% of work that your boss does not like to do.
• 42:57
  Speaker: Have them teach you how to do it and then offer to do that for them.
• 43:05
  Speaker: Because a lot of times that's a that's probably gonna be like a a piece that's like um that's going to develop you and it's going to be hard.
• 43:16
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: And so And it also just creates an inherent value, the fact that you're taking the stuff from like because you know, and you know, I I've had to lay people off, and the first two people that I, you know, I knew I had to cut some folks, and the first two were like, okay, like these are the like the creative responsibilities that I founded my company on.
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: So like, okay, that I gotta let you go.
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: Whereas like the operations was like, cool, stuff that needs to get off my plate.
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: That role stayed a little bit longer until your girl had no more money.
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: But still, like, but it is like when it came down to it, like making the call, it's like you know, what are the actual like things that are being brought to the table to make the money?
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: And it's like if there's duplicates, it's gotta go, and it's a lot.
• 44:00
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 44:01
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 44:01
  Speaker: So I think that just yeah, utilizing data to demonstrate value.
• 44:09
  Speaker: I love that.
• 44:10
  Speaker: And then oh but the point with the 10% is that um oh gosh, what was it?
• 44:17
  Speaker: Oh, I don't remember.
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: No, that's okay.
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: So you uh Well, actually I was wanting to um let's transition into surrounding yourself with amazing people.
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: Um I also I wanna I wanna take a little bit of time to have a Margaret Love Fest, and I also want to hear about like what it's like to like just really build an amazing network because I've had the pleasure of being in a networking event with you and seeing you chase people around the room trying to get their LinkedIn connection.
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: And it's so wonderful because LinkedIn, I'm such a fan, and it, but also like you've done this, you've built like a LinkedIn connection, you know, mega following over the last like so many years.
• 45:00
  Speaker: I don't know about mega, but it's it has organically grown um in a pleasing way, it's very natural.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: It's not just you get a request you accept, it's like you've been IRL with a lot of the folks that you're connected with.
• 45:11
  Speaker: Well, there's a lot I don't accept.
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's no, and it's because you yeah, because it's not everybody gets to, you know, be in your orbit.
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: But um, before we dig into like the actual like growing a network, surrounding yourself with amazing people, let's go.
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: It's almost micro and macro talking about like having an amazing partner, collaborator like like Margaret.
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: I know you've got other other partners or or you have had other partners in the past.
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: Um, but what is it like to find someone who's like just kind of you guys fill each other?
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: You're so what's the word, complimentary in in your skill set, this that and the other.
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
• 45:50
  Speaker: So I I think that this is one of the um areas that hinder I think not identifying what I would call the Margarets in your life or the Jills in your life and understanding your own areas of opportunity or weaknesses, if you will, or things you just don't like to do.
• 46:19
  Speaker: And uh that when you when you come along in your career and you meet somebody who well, one is wildly intelligent, which I respect obviously a great deal, um, but then two that you just work and you click well together and you complement each other.
• 46:43
  Speaker: I've been told, I'm I I've been told this.
• 46:46
  Speaker: I don't know that I would come up with this on my own, but a lot of times um people like me who are outward facing and drive sales and drive revenue and you know uh really like uh connect and network with a lot of people and and bring in, you know, um that type of energy and vibe don't necessarily identify the values of the margarets.
• 47:15
  Speaker: And so I think for entrepreneurs and business leaders, um a lot of times ego, like people um perform in a certain way to honor their own ego rather than just being authentic to who they are.
• 47:33
  Speaker: Um, I like to think I'm authentic to who I am, and with that, I don't have to look through my ego to see what I'm lacking and how much value uh there is in who I am not.
• 47:51
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 47:53
  Speaker: Does that make sense?
• 47:54
  Speaker: Absolutely, absolutely, yeah.
• 47:56
  Speaker: Um, a lot of people like I talk about my value and my value and my value all day long.
• 48:00
  Speaker: Like I'll talk about my value, but I don't that value is because I see value in others.
• 48:09
  Speaker: That is how I've become so valuable.
• 48:12
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 48:14
  Speaker: If I would have, I've done a lot of practice because to turn through that beginning phase of my career.
• 48:20
  Speaker: I mean, there's certainly a lot of ego there that that drove certain actions and decisions.
• 48:25
  Speaker: You know, that so doing the work and getting to the place where I understand your ego is not your amigo has probably been the most pivotal piece of success for me.
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: And so I almost I hear too when you say like seeing the value in others is like one of the things that is so valuable about you.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: I think that also, you know, this can be synonymous with like being a great leader.
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: So I think this is a perfect transition into like you prioritize and very much wanted to be a leader from from it sounds early career.
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: What did you do?
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: And and how would you advise people to navigate like leadership or or learning to be a leader?
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: Because it is it's cute.
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: It's cute on one of those posters with a big old lion, you know, in your elementary school, but in practice, embodied is so challenging.
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: So I'm I'm curious.
• 49:21
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 49:22
  Speaker: To be a good leader, I again goes back to the same thing that I just said.
• 49:26
  Speaker: Um I had to move away from my ego.
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 49:31
  Speaker: And I had to practice every day not to honor my own ego.
• 49:35
  Speaker: Uh, because you have to um well, because you can't.
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 49:43
  Speaker: Um, there's just too many things, in my opinion, that has to be done that you can't do with an overinflated ego to drive an organization to a culture of value and success.
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: And to go back to what I called out at the beginning of our conversation, which was, you know, you asking me a series of questions as I was stepping, finally like stepping away, letting go like some stuff from the past, like it it the actual decisions, the actual mistakes came from those choices came from such a deep place of ego when I actually like look at it, right?
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: And it's interesting that like if I had just kind of like looked at the facts, looked at what actually would work.
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: It wasn't about like being super cute and expanding super fast and like the PR message that it sent, right?
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: It's like what actually works behind the scenes, what operationally, what culturally would actually be so good for for the organization that I was trying to like essentially live another day, right?
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: And I yeah, I think that that's so amazing.
• 50:49
  Speaker: And I will say, like, uh some of my uh years at this company has been some of my worst years as a leader, um, just having experienced horrendous um burnout, uh, which is a mental health crisis, and by all means.
• 51:07
  Speaker: Um but um but I couldn't tender my resignation.
• 51:13
  Speaker: Margaret wouldn't accept it.
• 51:14
  Speaker: So uh which is where you need the Margarets to be like, keep going, get your ass in gear.
• 51:19
  Speaker: Uh not for me, not for Margaret.
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 51:28
  Speaker: So um, and and then with that comes forgiveness.
• 51:33
  Speaker: And um, I mean, of course, I held it uh together enough to be where I am now, um, and I'm thankful for that, and it's been a lot of work and intentionality, um, but at that point to get what to get to where I am now, I would not be here had I not had that element of me which attracted phenomenal people and phenomenal leaders because they saw and honored everything that I and Margaret had built.
• 52:15
  Speaker: And I had driven essentially all of our revenue and sales at that point, and so they honored that and they and they and they lifted it.
• 52:26
  Speaker: Yeah, and with that I was able to you know focus on my mental health journey while trusting that there was somebody who truly valued and truly cared for the people, the employees, the contractors, the carriers, the insurers, the for everyone.
• 52:50
  Speaker: So I do think like who you surround yourself by and and it it goes, I've always had the saying, and I've heard a lot of people steal it, but I stole it from somebody I'm sure in the beginning.
• 53:04
  Speaker: Um I hire slow and I fire fast.
• 53:09
  Speaker: Um and a lot of that hiring slow is about ensuring that there's a cultural alignment, that there is an alignment in the way that we care and that we serve.
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: Perfect.
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: No, that's amazing.
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: And I I do can you dig a little bit deeper into you were talking a little bit about, you know, forgiveness in in this process, um, because it is it is a long game, right?
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: Like you founded this in 2020.
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: So here we are coming up on six years of of this organization, and you know, lots of different things have happened.
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: Um and I almost I wonder too, I'm curious.
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: Um, I think this is a good way to kind of summarize everything we've talked about, like career-wise, you know, you've you being you and me, right?
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: Like there's things that we've tried that haven't worked, maybe we're ego-driven, maybe like just advice from Jill to Katelyn, like when it comes to like approaching past experiences, past um, you know, failures with forgiveness, like how how do you do that?
• 54:17
  Speaker: Um well, it's from years of failing and having to forgive.
• 54:21
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: Right, where you don't really have a choice at some point.
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 54:25
  Speaker: Well, you know, when I I would I I fail a lot, but I I go fast, right?
• 54:32
  Speaker: So the faster you go, the more you're gonna fail because you're always gonna fail.
• 54:35
  Speaker: And I just um not providing myself the grace that I had consistently given to others along the way is probably one of the main derivatives in my mental health crisis.
• 55:00
  Speaker: Um in that voice of condemnation, of you know, you need to do more, what are you doing?
• 55:09
  Speaker: You can't, you need to do this, you need to do that.
• 55:11
  Speaker: What are you you're letting these people down, you could be doing this, you and then just like it it it be yeah, so um just the thing that and I try not to say like oh I if I I you know what what what would I change, but I would probably um just have done the work to learn how to be easier on myself sooner.
• 55:44
  Speaker: Um yeah and I had I had thought that you know having ended the my corporate career essentially like the epsilon of you know the financial district, blah blah blah.
• 55:58
  Speaker: Um, you know, I really did not think that that would be like to me the max amount of pressure, right?
• 56:06
  Speaker: Like that's a lot of pressure, it's a lot of um well, it's the biggest egos I've ever worked with, which isn't just in that room alone creates pressure, um outside of the position.
• 56:20
  Speaker: But I was wrong.
• 56:24
  Speaker: Um yeah, being an entrepreneur, I will say we scaled so fast, we we quickly put ourselves in the 1% of women entrepreneurs relative to revenue.
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
• 56:37
  Speaker: Um, and then also just navigating, you know, five lawsuits along the way.
• 56:42
  Speaker: It's just a lot.
• 56:43
  Speaker: And you we couldn't get funded, we couldn't, so the scale, you know, scale to an eight-figure company with a very small uh we had a 20, I think a $25,000 credit line.
• 56:55
  Speaker: That's all because we got that, I think, before the lawsuit was filed.
• 56:59
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 57:00
  Speaker: So we, you know, we scaled to this eight-figure company with $25 million.
• 57:04
  Speaker: And yeah, that stress of just managing the cash flow and um knowing that everybody who was working here and doing everything to make the magic happen really needed their jobs.
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: Sorry, go back.
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: You said you scaled to the eight figures with $25,000, right?
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: Line of line of credit.
• 57:24
  Speaker: We all had an initial investment of a hundred uh combined hundred thousand dollars and then a line of credit of twenty-five thousand dollars.
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: No, I mean it's still not, yeah.
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: It's like it's yeah, and it goes, I mean, my from especially with payroll from my experience, it goes quick.
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: It really does.
• 57:43
  Speaker: Well, and that's where I, you know, I'm it's busy right now in our industry, and I'm on these adjuster boards, and I can see adjusters already complaining about how they're not getting paid.
• 57:54
  Speaker: And I think that that is just a you know, it's just a testimony that entrepreneurs need to live and die in their finances because it's not a matter of how fast you can grow, it's a matter of how much money you have to grow that fast and take care of everyone who's driving it for you.
• 58:18
  Speaker: 100%.
• 58:19
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: Perfect.
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: I could we could talk for two more hours plus seven.
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: I feel like it's been 15 minutes.
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: I know, right?
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: And I I don't want to um over kind of go past uh what we've scheduled for ourselves, but uh is there anything from this conversation that you'd like to kind of summarize with or share with folks?
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: Maybe you know, as you were driving or taking a shower, you're like, oh, I really want to make sure I share this on the on the my in my conversation with Katelyn today.
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: Um I did not.
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: That's okay, that's great.
• 58:52
  Speaker: I will like say my summary and my best advice would just be to try to not live in your own head.
• 59:02
  Speaker: Um just just try to live experiential, you like just try to experience what you're experiencing and let it go.
• 59:11
  Speaker: Yeah, and then you know what's next, what's next?
• 59:15
  Speaker: It's gone.
• 59:16
  Speaker: Unless there's something you can do about it, let it go.
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: Kind of be where you are and try your best.
• 59:23
  Speaker: Yeah, and and that takes work for most of us and do the work, you know, read the books, go to therapy, you know, go to yoga, meditate, um, you know, find your yeah, spiritual leader guidance of what feeds you to make sure that you're not just living within yourself, because what you attract is a derivative, in my opinion, from the energy that you put out.
• 59:52
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 59:53
  Speaker: So if you're living in your head, you're not you it's impossible to have an abundance mindset when you're living singularly.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, which I think goes back into ego stuff, right?
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: Because if it's just you go all about the ego.
• 1:00:09
  unknown: So real.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: Jill, thank you so much for your time today.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: I'm so grateful.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker: And again, like everyday practice, right?
• 1:00:17
  Speaker: Please allow me to be a better person today than yesterday.
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: Just we're out here just doing our best.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: But I am so grateful for you.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: I'm so grateful that like I walked into your your breakout session, you know, almost three years ago.
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: Uh, and uh wow, wow.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker: Just I do think that that is part of our alignment between you and I is that we do consciously live with gratitude.
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: That's all you can do, right?
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: And especially like when you've been through moments where it's like, like you said, in you're in your head, it's tough stuff.
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: The only shame doesn't serve you.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: The only way, you know, out is through.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: Like you just you don't have a choice.
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: I think I think I was asking you a few questions earlier, and when it comes down to it, like moving, you just have to move through things sometimes, you know, and it's not easy, but like, what are you gonna do?
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: Just stewing it, like that doesn't work.
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: So no.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: Appreciate you, my friend, and I love you so much.
• 1:01:15
  Speaker: Really feel honored to be on your podcast.
• 1:01:18
  Speaker: You're doing great work.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker: I value you.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: Crafted Connections is lovingly produced by Calhoun Creative Consulting, a strategic storytelling firm dedicated to helping people and brands tell their stories in a way that resonates.
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe and connect with us on Instagram at Crafted Connections.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: Keep creating, keep connecting, until we meet again.