ITB with Crystal Ware - Helping Women in the Industry Communicate Their Value and Their Worth

One of the insurance industry’s top advisors when it comes to mentoring women in our workforce joins Rick Fox for this edition of “Insurance The Brightway” (ITB).

Crystal Ware, the host and co-founder of the “Get Clear!” Podcast for women, helps you communicate your value and your worth in the world of insurance!

A Risk and Insurance expert, Crystal will teach you the stepping stones to finding the right job, the right pay and your happiness in insurance on ITB.

ITB is a weekly podcast brought to you by Brightway Insurance, the insurance franchising leader coast-to-coast.

 #workingwomen #ITB #podcast #insurance #riskandinsurance

Transcript

Rick
Welcome back to another episode of the ITB Insurance, the Brightway podcast. I'm the host Rick Fox. And today I am very excited. A return guest returned to me as in we've, we've done podcasts before, but not on the ITB. So first time on the ITB, Crystal Ware. Thank you for being here, Crystal. 

Crystal Ware

Thanks so much for having me. I can't wait to dive in and talk again. 

Rick

It's always good to hear your voice. I love your perspective. I don't know what magic pill you're taking but Somehow the rest of us have 24 hours a day to work and you figure out a way to get in 30 because I can't even Imagine like let me just list off some of the stuff that Crystal's involved in right now So she is the CEO co-founder and the host at get clear and I'm gonna have her explain what that is She was part of empower 

insurance group before now, now she's merged with Cadence Insurance. And if you're anything, if any of you are on LinkedIn ever, it'd be kind of hard to not get a piece of her content come across the way where you are because it is, Crystal, I'm in awe. I bow down to how much content and work and effort and energy you put into, first and foremost, women. 

And then 1A, insurance, and those are such, it's such a powerful thing that you're doing out there. I just, I just say thank you not only for being here, but just for being you. 

Crystal Ware

Well, thanks. That's so gracious of you to say. And while I will say I've always had a lot of energy, as I'm getting older, I feel like I'm doing less. So it's nice to see somebody else, because sometimes I think, am I being too lazy? Should I be maximizing more? 

Rick

Yeah, just drink lots of water, stay hydrated. It makes it work. Uh, no, I w I would just say, um, for our industry again, thank you so much. Um, it, it feels that way sometimes. It doesn't it? Like you have your full-time job and then you want to go do these other, you know, your projects, your, your sort of, um, in your case, I'm going to call it a passion project, um, me too. Like this podcast to me is a way for me to. 

not only have great conversations with great folks in our industry, but give back, give people a way to look at the industry, maybe through a different lens, maybe help them in their day, maybe help them not just survive, but thrive when the market is crazy like it is right now. Any kind of a little edge that I might be able to give, it does feel tiring sometimes, but always rewarding. And so I'm going to kick it to you. Tell us your journey. 

How did we get here? Because when you and I talked, this was like years, this is three or four years ago, and it just seems to continue. Like yours just multiplies on itself of all the awesome things you're doing. 

Crystal Ware

Well, I'll back up and kind of just start with how I got into the industry because it's unique. And I say unique, it's, you know, everybody's journey is unique. And I do find that I would say more than 50% of people that I come in contact with have fallen into the industry and I'm not exempt from that either. I'm a lawyer by background. I practiced insurance defense work. And then I segue over to insurance after I realized, you know, billing your time is not that great. 

law firm culture is not always that wonderful. I had the opportunity to go work for a large broker, and I did that and then moved into doing risk management with a Fortune 500 and then a Fortune 50. That's where I just decided, after sitting on the finance committee for the years I was there, that I wanted to 

try my hand at being an entrepreneur to see what I could do on my own and use the skills and knowledge that I had cultivated to help the smaller and middle market guys out there and companies where I could, you know, maybe make a difference. As you know, and all the listeners probably know, we've been in the strangest, hardest, longest going insurance market. And so during that period of building my own agency and doing risk consulting, risk consulting, 

Rick

Yeah. 

Yes. 

Crystal Ware

I realized that the size that we needed to grow to was going to be really difficult in hiring people in the great resignation and keeping my hand out there and staying active with the insurance community. I came into contact with the great people at Cadence and it just worked out and we are already off to the races. So that's kinda how I got from point A to point Z. 

Rick

Mm-hmm. Yeah. 

Well, it's a cool journey. No, go ahead. Finish, Crystal, please. Yeah. A to like L. You're to like L now. You're like L. Yeah, we're still working. Now, and congratulations to Cadence, of course, for getting you on board. And I think the first time you and I talked, it was mainly about kind of culture and vibe and how to empower people and things like that. So I'm sure that's having an impact as well. Okay. So. 

Crystal Ware

which isn't, it isn't point Z. I hate, I always hate ending on that because it's like not the end. It's not actually the end of the, yeah. Yeah. 

Rick

Let's shift over to, I really want you to dig into this passion project of yours. And I'm going to say what I think it is. It's helping women raise their worth and get the salaries they deserve as sort of a 30,000 foot. But I want to hear, you know, how did that come to be? How's it going? You know, we have a lot of people that listen to this show that are females and could benefit from this in our industry. So like, tell me all about it. 

Crystal Ware

Well, this is what I really have realized all these years. I mean, I'd spent a lot of time at all along the way throughout my journey, working with other people and mentoring people. And also I sought out mentors. I had great mentors in the industry that I think have helped me tremendously. And so when I thought about that and the kind of information that I share, like you mentioned on LinkedIn, I was doing that in my day job. I was sending things to people. 

and just helping, trying to help people, or if I had friends that wanted to get a new job that would talk to me, and I started seeing these trends and women really having a hard time communicating their worth and their value, and then standing up for what those, you know, what the value they had. I mean, many of these people were people I worked with, I knew very well, I knew they had a lot more to offer on paper and in the daily life than they were communicating and letting on. 

or letting themselves even believe. And I knew that finding the right job, finding the right pay, that contributes so much to your daily happiness and what your life turns into. And I am so thankful and so happy with my career and my life. And I just want that for everybody and think it is truly available for everybody. Some people just don't know how to build the stepping stones to get there. 

So I wanted to start my own podcast to kind of share my different journey and bring on other people that had an atypical journey and show them that, you know, if this is your dream, if this is your goal, here are people that are doing all these different things. Because sometimes when you see it, it makes it easier to believe that it can be done. 

Rick

Yeah, I think it's funny as you're saying that I'm thinking about how many times, let's just use my children as an example, where I've tried to make a point or steer them in a direction and then they hear it from someone else and then repeat it back to me like it was this gospel that they heard, this really amazing thing. And I'm like, man, I've been saying that for a really long time, but you needed to hear it from outside because it's, so that's... 

One reason I think it's awesome. The other is that, and just my two cents, not, obviously I'm not a woman, I'm a man, and I'm in a man, what has been predominantly a male-driven industry for many, many years. You're seeing the pieces of that now change and more ownership at the agency level by females and women holding much larger roles, which I think is amazing. But I still think there's a, 

uh, an easy, I don't want to say easy, but like a trigger that's like, well, I'm not going to be able to do that. Or I'm, I'm a woman and there's five men on the board, like whatever that, that scenario is. So what, I mean, is that, am I right? Am I, am I reading that right from, from a non female perspective? And then is that kind of what the vibe is that you're trying to put out there, which is look like there's others. 

Don't stop or don't, you know, like I use the Henry Ford quote, if whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right. So are you trying to change those that think they can't? Is that where we're at? Yeah. 

Crystal Ware

Yup. 

Absolutely. And not necessarily because I really, you know, and I've seen this with my own personal network of friends and family members. It's not always that you want to grow into these higher levels, that you want to be a president or a VP of a company. Some women are very happy, and I've known some very, very sharp women when I press them to say, Do you want to be the front person? Do you want to be the person out there? This is going to, you know, 

structure which direction you need to go and what skills you need to build upon. And some of them are like, No, I want to be really, really good at my technical job. OK, what you're feeling is that you really just want more money for the same job. And there's a way to do that, too. There may be a cap. I mean, we have to be realistic about that. But if that's the goal, then let's talk about how you can position yourself to be the best in class and get more money there, versus saying I need to take a jump to get the money I want. 

Rick

Mm-hmm. 

That's right. That's right.

Crystal Ware 
I also think from the perspective of small and mid-size agencies going through and talking to, and that's something I've done as well, is go through and talk to just individuals and have simple conversations, asking the questions of where they want to go, what they want to do, taking some notes. Agencies can talk about whether or not these are the people that are high-value candidates that we need to do things to keep, and maybe we have some people that...

If they slowly move out of the organization to somebody else, maybe that's the better fit. But for the organization to understand that as well and be prepared when it comes to time for annual review and or if people come to you in midterm asking for something.

Rick 
So what's great about this, Crystal, and I want to kind of put a bow on this because I want to ask you one more question and I want to keep this as a digestible length because I think you and I could talk for like four hours. But so I think what do people do here? Let's just say there's one, if there's even one person out there that went, man, this is awesome and I'm going to go, especially if it's a female that's saying, I'm going to go out and I'm going to reevaluate or I'm going to...

Crystal Ware 
Yes.

Rick 
I'm going to apply for that job where I'm only six out of 10 or any of these little things we've talked about. How do they connect with you to keep that moving forward? Is it listening to the podcast? Is it connecting on LinkedIn? What's the best way for them to kind of start to, because honestly, here's my cheat code for you. Get involved with Crystal. Literally get some, at least if you're just following along with her, she's going to give you information that's going to help you. But what's the best way for them to do that, Crystal?

Crystal Ware 
Yeah, I mean, I throw out a lot of bite-sized information on LinkedIn, certainly, Crystalware Risk Strategist is my LinkedIn. I'm on Instagram at crystalware underscore get clear, where I also have more video organic videos on talking about those. And then if you can upload in the show notes, I don't remember it off the top of my head, but I have a link for my newsletter.

where I'll send out a lot of information. And I take on a handful of private clients. If people need help, obviously I work regularly. So I don't have, I'm not doing full-time coaching, but I do work with people. Yeah, yes, yes.

Rick 
Oh, okay. Yeah.

Rick 
But you do have that 30 hours a day that I talked about that somehow you figured that out. I gotta get a bottle of those pills because that would be really great. Now, okay, so just quick, 30 to 60 seconds, your take on what's going on. You mentioned it earlier, we both sort of said it. This market is insane. I don't wanna beat a dead horse because we talk about this a lot, but I just wanna get your two cents on what your take is, what people should be feeling, what's the trends, what's going on.

How long are we gonna be in this hole? Like, what are your thoughts?

Crystal Ware 
Well, you're in Florida, right? So you know, okay, property tragic, I'm in Texas, it's just tragic. I don't know what to say about it. I mean, you need to make sure you can maximize your connections if you're on the agency side, if you're placing business. There's just, I don't think that if you're in a place like we are or in California as well, you're not going to be seeing 10 options. You're just not going to see that. So.

Rick 
Yes, yes.

Rick 
crazy.

Crystal Ware 
You need to have good data, you need to go out there. And I don't think it's going to get, honestly, I just can't see it easing up anytime in the next five years. I just don't think unless something hugely shifts in the property market that we're going to see a big change there. The DNO looks good. It looks like things have eased up a ton on the DNO. There's lots and lots and lots of capacity. And I think just on the,

standard, what I call vanilla, Main Street America type business, I think you're going to see slightly above inflationary values just as a sign of where we are economically. But for the most part, unless this is a challenged area or property related, I think things have leveled off to a decent degree. If you get into the bigger, you work with bigger clients for your buying 100 million, 200 million in liability limits.

There are some challenges there too.

Rick 
Yeah, and I think once the economy sort of figures itself out a little bit, we'll also see a little more, a little less volatility, I guess. But good insight. Okay, last question. It's my time capsule question. You've answered it before. I'm curious. I haven't listened to our old podcast to see if you've got a new answer, but let's see. So we're going to record this bit. I'm going to bury it. Somebody's going to dig it up in the next five years sometime.

What is Crystal Ware's one big piece of advice for the insurance industry?

Crystal Ware
to value employees and make it fun, honestly. I think it's a really hard time in the industry to attract good and exciting young talent. And we really need to make that the main focus. I personally am seeing even more, since we last talked, even more people retiring and we're losing a lot of insight and talent. And I think...

That is the main thing that we need to find a way to keep it fun, to keep it interesting, and bring in good talent.

Rick 
Well, as always, Crystal, thank you for doing this. I think you're such a great energy in our industry. And so if you're not, go out, everyone, get connected with Crystal on LinkedIn, on Instagram. Just be a part. I guarantee you'll get information you need. And from our side, from the ITB side, make sure to make sure you're connected with me on LinkedIn. And I will tell you that Crystal now, being a veteran, a two-time

podcast friend of mine. Our original connection was on LinkedIn. She sent me a note on LinkedIn and said, I like what you're doing and I'd love to be a part of it. And now two episodes later, I mean, I've tracked her down now when I moved to the new podcast. So send me notes, make sure we're connected. I'm also trying to share as much good content as I can as we all work our way through this hard market. And thanks again, Crystal. Always great to have you. Thanks for everybody who tuned in.
And we'll see you next time.

Crystal Ware 
Thanks so much.