Tell us about your career trajectory. How did you end up in the insurance business and in your current position?
I was working for a family business and friends of the family were in the insurance business. It peaked my interest, I had a chat with them on a dock and then one thing led to the next – I moved to Winnipeg to work for an Alpha House from Ottawa.
Ten years go by, you do well, and then I just decided to open up my own firm and it made sense to align myself with, in my opinion, the strongest Tier 2 in the city.
What is the most fulfilling aspect of your work?
Having the ability to be creative, I would say. Meaning that you can actually have a real chat with customers or potential customers and really tailor to their needs without having limitations of what corporate Canada puts in place.
When you look back at your career, what would you say are your proudest accomplishments?
The ability to work with the Snowsuit Fund, for sure. It’s basically a fund that’s put in place in Ottawa for underprivileged kids under the age of 18, and they get a free snowsuit every year, as long as they qualify. I volunteer in the warehouse and give some money.
How does Assurances Reid and Bradley’s Insurance differentiate itself from competitors?
I think that we’re young, we’re very ambitious, we’re
embracing technology for sure, and I think we’ve created a work environment that’s very appealing to potential employees.
I’m all about work-life balance, I really am, so whatever people want to define as that, that’s the thing I do here. We’re flexible.
What are some of the challenges you encounter in your role?
Talent acquisition is the biggest one – finding good people that have the same mindset, that want to attain the same goals, that want to move forward at an aggressive pace, like we do.
There are no young people coming into the business. That’s my next project, by the way, how do you now attract people into the business?
What changes in the insurance industry broadly speaking have you seen over the past few years that have affected your work or the industry as a whole?
A lot of the veterans are retiring so all that knowledge is exiting our industry. I think that there’s going to be a void there to fill. I’m 32 and there’s some guys now who are all retired, and I call retired guys sometimes to ask for their advice. I think that void will need to be filled and there’s a major gap there.
If you weren’t working in the insurance space, what would you be doing right now?
Realistically or dream? I’d be a musician [or] I probably would’ve stayed in the automotive world. My family was in that business.
