Make Zooming One of Your New Year’s Resolutions

By: Alexis Kimball, Agent Relations Manager

I recently read Seth Godin’s book, “Survival is not Enough.” In it, he explains how companies that embrace evolution will triumph over their competition. 

We live in a developing and ever-changing world. Change is the new "normal," yet it’s human nature to be uncomfortable with the unknown. Seth suggests that by constantly making small, effortless changes, it helps to overcome the fear of change. Thriving companies embrace a philosophy that supports new ideas, steers clear of unhelpful criticism, and understands that "failing" is defined simply by not trying new things.

Do you zoom? Seth Godin describes zooming as,

"…stretching your limits without threatening your foundation. It's about handling new ideas, new opportunities, and new challenges without triggering the change-avoidance reflex."

Explore new ways of doing things for no particular reason without a particular goal.  These efforts may have more of an impact than what you are currently doing. 

Zooming is not done in an urgent manner with the purpose of fixing an identified problem. Zooming is simply the act of trying new things for the sake of trying new things and analyzing the outcome afterwards.

Some ways to experiment with zooming: 

 - Try a food you've never had before.

 - Go to a trade show featuring an industry that you have no interest in.

 - Read a book that you would never pick up.                    

Look towards the future. Adapt, transform and grow to create changes in what you know. It's not easy to give up control and it's difficult to gain confidence in a skill you have not yet mastered, so don't abandon current strategies that work just to try something new. New ideas are risky, unknown, and a gamble but zooming will yield you expanded knowledge of strategies and success.

Here’s to your success in 2013!

Brownstone's Holiday Party in the Fast Lane

Brownstone Insurance closed our offices early this past Friday to celebrate our staff holiday party.

First, our office decorating contest took full swing as the Brownstone management team visited each office and took note of each team's effort. Each department spent the week decorating their space to celebrate the holiday season in an effort to win one additional day-off in exchange for their effort. Here are some photos showcasing our handywork:

 

In the end, it was decided that we were all winners for putting together such great team efforts, and every one of us was awarded an extra day off in 2013!

At noon, we headed over to F1 Boston, a state-of-the-art indoor kart racing facility. As only two staff members had ever been to F1 before, it was quite the experience for the rest of your Brownstone staff.

With several courses to choose from, Brownstone opted to compete on the City Course (we insure Boston, after all), complete with a hill, a corkscrew turn and a tunnel! These tracks and karts are no joke! You can reach speeds of 35-40 mph!

After 5 qualifying races of 12 laps, Brownstone employees competed in the final 15-lap race, with Murphy & Jordan Client Advisor Michelle Prall coming out on top. Way to go, Michelle!

Here we all are in our racing suits!

Big Event Contest Winners

The 2012 MAIA Big Event was a great success for Brownstone Insurance, having 50% of tradeshow participants stop by our booth to enter into our contests. For those of you who were not able to attend the Big Event, Brownstone offered attendees the opportunity to enter into 3 contests via a custom iPad application developed just for the occasion.

The first contest was for our grand prize contest for a luxury LV luggage set. Rather than require participants to be present for the drawing, we decided to hold the drawing via live internet broadcast the Tuesday following the event. Anyone could log into our LiveStream channel and watch live as we first broadcast some professional photos taken during the event by our photographers at Imagemakers Photographic Artists, followed by the live drawing here in our office.

The winner of the luggage set was John George from Jimcor, who coincidentally, was a vendor located next to our booth at the Big Event who mentioned during the show how much his daughter would love the luggage set. We hope John's daughter enjoys her new LV luggage!

The second contest was a Friday-only contest that was known only as our "secret contest." Many of you probably received custom Brownstone boarding passes in the mail or from one of our agent relations managers, Don Allan or Alexis Kimball. The purpose of these passes was to provide a place where you could write down your personal boarding pass code that was texted to you shortly after entering your cell phone number into our iPad app.

Then, at 7:18 Friday night, we used a computer program to randomly select a winning boarding pass code -- and we had not one, but two winners of the secret contest! Paul Zielinski from Horace Mann Insurance and Mark Germani from Germani Insurance both held the winning boarding pass code and will be boarding a plane with their guest for a whirlwind weekend getaway to Paris! Airfare, hotel and dinner will all be courtesy of Brownstone Insurance. Congratulations to Paul and Mark!

The last contest was for an instant prize at the Big Event -- a stainless steel luggage tag complete with the Brownstone Insurance logo. We awarded over 200 luggage tags during the event so if you weren't lucky enough to win the LV luggage or the surprise trip to Paris, hopefully you walked away with one of our custom luggage tags.

Thank you to all those who visited our booth this year, and to those of you who we did not see, hopefully we see you in 2013!

Brownstone Gearing Up for the 2012 MAIA Big Event

If you've ever taken part in the Massachusetts Association of Insurance Agent's annual convention and trade fair, better known as the Big Event, you know that Brownstone Insurance pulls out all the stops when it comes to our booth.

From our eye-catching displays to our classic, luxurious giveaways, the Brownstone Insurance booth is always a must-see! And this year we have a truly special experience planned for Big Event participants.

Be sure to stop by our big double-booth located at #'s 120 and 121 to see what we have in store for you this year! You will not be disappointed.

For more information on the Big Event, visit www.massagent.com/events.

Where Are All the Insurance Agents?

By: Alexis Kimball and Don Allan, Agent Relations Managers

There are not many career reports showing insurance professionals as one of the top most desirable jobs.  We wondered -- why not?  

Unfortunately, there seems to be a negative perception that insurance agents are only interested in sales and commissions. People don't like to be sold something that they are told to buy and it's even more difficult when the product is not tangible.  

But working in insurance is not like that! Being an insurance professional can be challenging, but rewarding! Our industry requires analytical thinking, creativity, education and a willingness to learn. There are many characteristics that make a workplace desirable -- integrity, security, strong customer relationships, results and growth opportunities would all appease a job hunter.

Insurance takes more expertise than many other sales jobs. It takes more than being an extroverted sales person to gain a client and keep them for a long-term relationship. Successful insurance professionals are trustworthy, have strong interpersonal and communication skills and a positive attitude.  

Discussion: Why do you love being an insurance professional?