How to Find Meaning Working in the Insurance Industry

I am sick of talking about the insurance industry.

I’m sick of it.

I don’t care about the insurance industry.

I care about its people. I don’t care why things have always been done a certain way.

I don’t care why one group of old white guys doesn’t care for another group of old white guys. I don’t care. I don’t care. I don’t care about insurance.

Insurance has never been the point. It’s always been about people.

So many misunderstand this point. It’s always been about the people.

Always.

It’s always been about the people, about what makes our lives have meaning, about how we deliver value to the people we serve.

This is what matters. Insurance happens to be what we do, but insurance, the industry, the bullshit, it doesn’t matter.

And frankly, I’m sick of talking about it.

This channel, the work that I do, it’s not for everyone.

Seth Godin says,

“People like us do things like this.”

I’m sick of the fiefdom building.

I’m sick of invisible barriers holding people back because of geographical, political, or ideological differences that don’t actually exist.

As someone who’s traveled the country back and forth 100 times, spoken to thousand of agency owners, spoken to tens of thousands of producers and CSRs and carrier professionals and vendors and association professionals, there’s no difference.

There is no difference between the people that are doing this work for the right reasons.

We’re the same.

That is the work.

That’s the culture.

That’s what this is all about.

That’s what this movement is about.

“People like us do things like this.”

We believe that our jobs have meaning.

We believe that why we show up every day, that there’s a meaning to that work, and that it can be done better and it can be improved and we can both think that our work on a day-to-day basis is cool and fun and exciting and interesting and intriguing and meaningful.

We believe that if we can convey that to our customers and that our customers will hear us and care.

Ego is the Enemy

Ego is the enemy of change and I will not allow that ego to impact my work any longer.

The work that we do on my YouTube, it’s not going to be for everyone. I’m going to:

push the boundaries,
ask tough questions,
curse,
be outlandish,
do crazy videos with crazy cuts and throw all kinds of color in,
say things and do things and reference things that not everybody in our industry is comfortable with because that’s not the point.

“People like us do things like this.”

If you care, if you find meaning in the work we do, then there’s a place for you here.

I don’t care if you’re 22 or you’re 72.

I don’t care if you’re from Oklahoma, New York, California, Alaska, or Puerto Rico.

I don’t care if you’re from Germany or Japan.

What matters is that you find meaning in the work you do and the work you do happens to be insurance.

And while Columbus, Ohio may be the new Hartford, there will eventually be a new Ohio and we can’t lose touch of the legacy that got our industry to where it is today.

So we show up with respect.

We don’t show up to disrupt.

We show up to evolve, to grow, to innovate, to help, to support, to challenge. We show up to help others to find meaning in the work they do. Their work just happens to be insurance.

We show up to be there for them because that is the point.

It has always been the point and it’s what those who don’t find meaning int heir work, who don’t understand why others won’t play within the boundaries that they’ve set, why others won’t bow down to their ego.

Those people will never understand the work that we do, and they’ve done everything they can to corrupt our mission to fit their domain, and I refuse to allow that to happen.

So push, be bold, be unique, be the agency that you want to be, be special, be different, be exactly like everyone else.

Sell on price, sell on value, sell on trusted advisors, sell however you want to sell.

Sell online, sell offline.

It doesn’t matter.

What matters is that you find meaning in your work and that work happens to be insurance.

That you care about the customers that you serve, about you put them first before yourself, and if you do those things, if you care about that mission, then you are in the right place, my friends, because that’s the work that we do here.

I don’t care if you’re an agency, carrier professional, consultant, a vendor, an insure tech company.

I don’t care if you work for an association, I don’t care which association you work for.

I don’t care if you just manage a Facebook group.

To be part of this community, you simply need to find meaning in your work and have that work be insurance.

You must care about your customers as much as you care about yourself.

And if those things are true, then I love you and I’m happy that you’re here,, and it’s time for us to move forward. It’s time for us to do this work.

My friends, if you’ve made it this far, then I believe you’re part of this community, and I thank you for being here, and I look forward to the journey that we’re going to go on together, and I’m going to take this moment to ask you to do three things.

In the comments below, let me know how you find meaning in your job. What brings meaning to you? Why is it that you show up every day? It doesn’t have to be what makes you happy or what provides meaning, and if you don’t find meaning today, what would provide value to you? And the other members of this community can help you find that.
If you’re not subscribed to this channel, please click here and subscribe today. That way, you get notified of more videos, more content that we put out, more stories as we tell them.
Share this video with one other person. You can do that via social, email, just mention it to somebody that there’s someone else that you know in our ecosystem who finds meaning in what they do, and that work happens to be insurance? God, I’d love for them to be part of this.

I’m sick of talking about the insurance industry because that’s what we do.

That’s not what provides meaning to us, and when we feel meaning in our work, the insurance industry grows.

The insurance industry gets better, gets stronger, more connected, and those are the things that help our customers.

So if you find meaning in this work, I hope you stick around.

I love you. Peace.

Ryan Hanley

P.S. If you enjoyed this article, click here to get exclusive content.