The holidays give us a brief hiatus from the demanding daily requirements of our professional careers. In such a fast-paced evolutionary world driven by the progression and innovation of technology, the holidays also allow for great moments of reflection and creation of new aspirations for which to strive. Let’s face it, most successful professionals and leaders in any field are dreamers, and dreams are seeded from emotions which, during these pauses from the daily grind, tend to run slightly higher than other times of the year.
A few months ago, I had an epiphany while giving thought to why clients have hired and entrusted me throughout my career as a consultant. What was the root of their decision to do so over the 15 previous years and through two previous insurance brokerages? It led to me boiling down and developing what I believed were ultimately a few crucial attributes they desire from their representative partners…
In the employee benefits focused market segment we serve, those attributes are: Trained intellectual capacity, communication, passion, and differentiation.

Intellectual Capacity: You must have confidence in what you’re doing and, to display confidence externally, you must possess it internally. Confidence is built with countless hours of practice, being a carnivore of historical and current subject matter, and the desire for continuous development of a specific skillset. This gives you the intellectual capacity and confidence needed to earn our partners trust. Those that work the hardest to sharpen their skillset tend to have the greatest intellectual capacity within our field.

Communication: We must be able to convey a specific message to our audience in a compact and clear message. Personal understanding of specifics does us no good unless our clients understand our message. We cannot and should not expect them to know every detail, and we need to deliver the communication in a way that they understand and are comfortable with.

Passion: Simply put, you must love what you do. If you don’t, you won’t ever be the best at it. You must live what you do and preach it to be truly effective. It’s observed by others and emanates in the air around you. IT IS CONTAGIOUS.

Differentiation: You cannot do exactly what everyone else is doing. It’s imperative that a brokerage do things differently than those that have trekked the pathways before us. Status quo is a quick path to failure. You must be able to make a positive difference and develop the most comprehensive employee retention program at the most competitive price point. This is the value that is desired in the marketplace and likely the most important of the four characteristics discussed.

These characteristics of consultants, aligned with teams that cherish, demonstrate, work, and live with the same passion, is the perfect combination for victory and, ultimately, those who get hired and achieve success. Those are all qualities that we work to demonstrate to our clients every day. I confidently believe that the culture and personality that exist within an organization is key for success or failure. Everybody has to breathe the air within the organization and, if it’s good air, great! If it’s a bad air and vibe, bad! If it’s air coming from a theoretical “CO2 tank,” where everyone is feeling great and living their best professional lives, it breeds confidence and others want your “air” in their environment. It’s true, and I’ve wanted the same in reverse: the air in certain clients’ environments or cultures.

Therefore, I decided a few months back to cut the theoretical “umbilical cord” from corporate America and founded a boutique, analytical, independent consulting shop. I say “shop” because, to be clear, that’s how we view what BENPRO is; it’s a shop, a hobby, or a game. It’s competitive and that’s the part that makes it fun. If you’re going to work, hopefully you’re having fun doing what you do.

I was fortunate to compile some of my old comrades from a previous work of life, along with some additional tenured talent, and build, what I feel, is the perfect team. Fast forward 4 months and through a lot of hard work, we were able to bring over 95% of our previous clientele, which gave us the ability to comfortably finance the operation for the future…a future I’m most excited about. The perfect analogy would be truly “like a kid in a candy shop.” The sense of pride our team has and the “air we breathe” is simply remarkable. New people and other clients are going to want to be a part of this. Why? Because we are passionate about bringing the very best solutions and advice with our depth of industry knowledge, tenured specialist resume, and desire to truly serve those around us better than the rest. For us, this is a lifestyle, not a job. It’s a profession we’ve all decided to treat as a game and have fun with, therefore making us the very best at what we do.

For those already with us, congrats and THANK YOU! I humbly believe you made the right choice. We hope you enjoy the ride as much as we will into the new year and well into the future.