Focus on Community: Empowerment by Building Resilience for Individuals and Networks

In this final episode of our five-part series, Scott Nelson-Archer joins us to delve into the importance of community. Recognizing the challenges faced by businesses and individuals during the pandemic, we explore how community can provide support and connection in times of uncertainty.

As we reflect on the role of community in our lives, we discover that it serves as a lifeline during periods of personal or professional transition. Whether through online platforms, social media, or joining industry organizations, we find ways to remain present and relevant to our clients and peers.

The conversation expands to encompass the benefits of taking time off, such as sabbaticals or maternity leave, while still maintaining a strong connection with clients. By nurturing a supportive community, we can lean on others who understand our business and provide valuable insights and camaraderie.

We highlight the numerous resources available today that enable us to engage with communities virtually, granting flexibility and the ability to connect with like-minded individuals. Whether it's attending virtual events or finding pockets of focused time for personal and professional growth, community plays a pivotal role in our resilience.

In the face of challenges and unexpected news, we realize the strength we derive from our community. It empowers us to overcome obstacles and find innovative solutions by drawing on the collective knowledge and support of those around us.

Join us as we explore the transformative power of community and the resilience it brings to our personal and professional lives.

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Transcript

Amber Stitt  00:08

So, for today's episode focusing on community with Scott Nelson-Archer, we're going to wrap up a five-part series, and really land on one of my favorite topics. Because really, as I put together this framework, it was around 2020 and we noticed a lot of people were having trouble with business, being able to see people, and it was like, "OK, how do we feel better?" And community can really be that for people, whether it's a conversation, we did a lot more online, couldn't really see our people at the time. So that made me really think, you know, if the lights go off of the business, how do you remain present? And that's where social media was really able to help us do that. Well, we had the phone, but how else do we look alive? And then people go to their churches for community, we have our family, not everybody loves their family, maybe they pick some friends, whatever it might be. But you can choose that community. My initial thoughts were, "How do you if you need to take time off?" If you're maybe wanting to go on a sabbatical, you want to take some time off, you have maternity, maybe you're ill, how do you then stay present and relevant for clients is really where this came from but then as I implemented community, in my own life, you've seen me do things all over the nation in the last few years, even out to DC, back with NAIFA, being part of Women in Insurance and Financial Services, and then working with insurance organizations. You've been on Task Force, you've been on the fact chair, build advisory councils, there's some leadership there, there's some community there, and then you can look forward to seeing these friends that understand your business. So, it went from okay, how do we protect these businesses in 2020? How do we build a system for people to then I started living in it going, "I'm a pretty Chatty Cathy", as you know, I say that a lot, high communication, but sometimes I just need my alone time. So, there's so many resources now for us as people, maybe you dabble a little bit online, you go to a virtual event, maybe you don't have time to drive somewhere, maybe you make that focus time, we've talked about actually getting out and utilizing your time wisely for yourself or your clients, family. But that community element just can help us have that resilience. Again, I use that word. Once I've learned about that word a little bit more last year, I was like, "This is really people having things happen." We had some interesting news this morning, a couple of different ways. On my side, a couple clients, how are we going to get over that? How are we going to overcome we can go back and look at our community.

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Amber Stitt  03:34

So, we focus on community, if you were to look back and say, "Okay, I started in this business early 20s.", right?

Scott Nelson-Archer  03:42

Twenty three.

Amber Stitt  03:42

If you were to speak to people that are getting maybe in the business, maybe they're transitioning from one line to the other. You know, I talk about how I've gone and done a lot in the last few years meeting with people as part of my passion project to help people understand this business a little bit more because we're in this financial service dropdown checklist, technically, we do insurance planning, but there's more to that. And there's people that might be interested in the business but might not get into it like I didn't for almost 10 years because I wasn't great at accounting, or math. And so, I thought that's just I can't do financial services. But really, if you can help people and figure out what you love about it, plug it in, educate, and that's where I ran with that in my early 30s. So, if we were to talk to people that might be dabbling with the idea of being in the business, any lessons, or like lessons learned, or something to share for the audience that might be dabbling with thinking about being in the business? What did you learn to be successful? You know, what were some of those things that helped you just keep going at it, even though it's hard, can be hard

Scott Nelson-Archer  04:42

Everybody's got their own story and I don't know that I have a clear path on my story, truthfully. But the reality is, I'm a big believer in process, you know, something that can be understood, articulated, and then repeated. I think it's important to understand if you really want to be towards the top of that mountain, if you will, you're gonna work harder than other people and doesn't mean it's not possible because it is, it's just you've got to decide that that's where you want to put your efforts. It's perfectly fine not to, you need to find something, or somebody that you like to work with. What I mean by something like for me, disability insurance is a passion of mine and I have a reason for that. If you happen to have a type of person you like to work with maybe that's females, maybe it's males, maybe it's an occupation, maybe it's nationality...

Amber Stitt  05:24

A niche you're saying. You're talking about staying in your lane, but there can be pathways, too, there's different pathways to your lane at times... 

Scott Nelson-Archer  05:30

100%.

Amber Stitt  05:30

But what really resonates with you, so that you can be the best.

Scott Nelson-Archer  05:33

So, you can focus on what you're trying to do. Because if every day you wake up and you say, "I don't know what I'm going to do, or who I'm going to do this with," then sometimes that can be a pretty hard path to find. That's not a very good roadmap, right? In my opinion, you know, but if you know, I'm a dentist, and I want to work with people, you know, maybe it's a segment, you know, maybe I'm a child dentist, so I don't really want to deal with adult issues. So, you're focusing in on that. And so, we've narrowed an occupation and then to a specific type of clientele. You know, the same thing in any kind of any business -- what you want to deal with, who you want to deal with. And the reality is, in the financial services business, it is wide open, you don't have to be good at talking to people. You don't have to be great at socializing. You don't have to be wanting to be client facing, you don't have to be somebody that is persuasive, or understands everything. There are tons of support roles. There's...and what I mean by that, is there are people that are great at product understanding, not great at delivery of such product information. There are good technicians out there that really understand the legal concepts, or the way you apply certain things. But they're really terrible at marketing, and they don't know how to get paid clients. There are people that are product vendors, if you will, that bring products to say, "Hey, this is what we've got. Does this fit with any of your clients?" That's an important role, too. You know, we talked about underwriting, let's not make it faceless. The reality is those underwriters, we know we know them really well. They've got great stories, the ones that I have a tendency to have had the best connection with, I find, they're really working hard to figure out how to get a contract approved. "What can we do as an insurance company to protect our interest, but also to extend its offerings?" Those are really, really important people in our world, there's just so many things that people just, I don't think understand that this world is so much bigger than what we think of it as. An insurance company, whenever you talk about that, what do they do? They bring in premium dollars, they invest those dollars until they need to go back out as claim dollars. They need somebody trading bonds, they need somebody investing in real estate, they need somebody assessing that real estate.

Amber Stitt  07:41

There's a lot going on behind the scenes. And we want them to be doing that to be profitable.

Scott Nelson-Archer  07:45

Absolutely. Because they're there to complete the promise that was made on a piece of paper that said of you and your family need us, we're gonna be here. 

Amber Stitt  07:53

So, the reason I'm bringing this up is that the fifth step is focusing on community, but there's multiple legs to the stool on this because I'm leading with asking you as a person that's been in the business over 30 years, you know, someone's starting out, or going sideways, in from maybe like you mentioned, different jobs and data analysts might not be forward client facing, start talking and expanding your network, start finding people to talk to because you might uncover or unravel something. If you're a client looking for something, you want teams that have a network kind of figured out, ask them, "Hey, if I need this, you know, can you help me a couple different ways", what do they specialize in? Do they have access? How's their community look? Have you ever bumped into somebody that doesn't have many friends, you go, "What's up with that? What's going on there?" So, you gotta work on that. But then, I talked about resilience at the beginning, that can help us. That community can help us, too. So, it can go so many ways. Pay attention to that. We have resources, we're back to what I was saying about sometimes I need a long, quiet time. I can choose which activities to go to. Introverts, you have so many options. Now you can pop out for an hour, go to a coffee meeting, go back home, but leverage that. Again, we talk about technology, really dialing in some of the social aspects on your own terms is really going to be important. Keep communicating with people, because that's where you're going to uncover more about yourself with personal development, but it's really going to help you pull some leadership in your way. We've talked about charitable endeavors. When you're good with your money, you have more access to give more. But then, maybe build out some time with teams to have some freedom to go do things, too. We talk about that a lot. And then there's some mentorship that we all can kind of give and take, which has been really nice. I've been able to have that with you. It's been wonderful. So, really closing out this segment, and really going back to the five steps to just wrap up our series together, as you know, personal development, we always can be working on that and then rolling that into your money goals. How are you handling your money? Do you need a little bit of help? Is there something that you could look to, or to a mentor, working with your teams, or partners to help you be better? They're really having that accountability. I think we all need to be a little more accountable as life gets busy. Working on risk management, we talked about that. Getting organized, looking out, and auditing your life. What else helps you to transfer risk? It's not just insurance products. It's the transferring risk because you're paying attention, taking that time, and keep innovating, that goes along with personal development, but really focusing on community. If you're not feeling like that's very established, I think we have a colleague that I remember seeing him at a conference early on, he goes, "If your calendar is empty, just get out there, set some meetings, even if it's friends, get out, create that energy." So, if you're feeling a little bit lonely on that, you can always go out and establish more, but don't underestimate the social aspect of opportunities online. But I think that we've been really fortunate with our organizations, I mean, we literally have to make time for it, go out to conferences, see people, but by establishing those relationships, people understand us, I talk about how sometimes it can be lonely being in the business, if people don't understand what you do and people that are entrepreneurs feel that a lot. A community is so important that then just working with people that have that network can really save you time, and be more efficient. So, as you're building a business, or mindset, that's where, you know, we're really working on the community, if you don't feel like that's really dialed in, maybe take a look at that, because there's some give and take, that can be helpful, you can give, and usually you can receive when you do a little bit of that.

Scott Nelson-Archer  11:07

Well, absolutely. You know, as you interact with people, you know, there's gonna be good things that come out of that, whether it's good things for them good things for you. The other part of it is, it can be a lonely business, we're not sitting in office with 50 people that are our contemporaries, we're sitting in office, we may have a handful of employees in any one location, that's not a huge social circle. And so, when you do end up, you know, meeting other colleagues, they might be, you know, in a different state, they could be 1000 miles away, they could be, you know, a five-hour plane ride. The reality is, you're not gonna be able to physically get in front, and be with those people as much. So, you better take time to have that part of your life be important, have that part of your persona, be there because, you know, we all need that type of social interaction just for good mental health. 

Amber Stitt  11:55

Really, yeah, anybody. And that's really why I bring up that resilience piece. But it's been nice because we can work with people no matter where they go. And so, that's really been the benefit for me. And I can enjoy that. Sometimes it's hard to turn off work. But again, as we talked about, you got to work a lot to be able to get it all done and accomplish our goals.

Scott Nelson-Archer  12:12

Yeah, if you want to be at the top of the hill, it takes some work. If you want to be the bottom, that's pretty easy. 

Amber Stitt  12:18

Well, thank you for sharing this time with us and the audience. And so, I know you've paved the way for many, and you're always helpful. So, I just want to give you a little tribute and thank you and I hope the audience loves some little takeaways and I hope you feel like you can take some action today. So, thanks again, Scott.

Scott Nelson-Archer  12:32

I appreciate being here. Thanks.

Closing Outro  12:37

Thank you for joining us on today's episode of The Amber Stitt Show. For more information about the podcasts, books, articles, and more, please visit me at AmberStitt.com. Until next week, enjoy your journey at home, and at work. Thank you for listening!