Happy anniversary, ladies! This month’s column marks ourone year anniversary of this series! I can’t believe how fastit has gone!

I’m happy to report that my sister-in-law gave birth to a 7lb1oz baby girl named Josephine on June 19^th, and we areall so in love with the new addition to our family! I’malready educating her on insurance and financial services andplanting the seed of succession early.

This month, you’ll get to meet some great women from differentcorners of the U.S. Get ready to feel inspired as you meetAlice, Kristin and Laurie!

Alice Tang, BPG Wealth Management LLC

“I stepped off all boards (except one) and opened my time andenergy to new challenges. I found public speaking — or publicspeaking found me. I enrolled in an eight-month academy program bythe National Speakers Association (NSA) Oregon Chapter. It has notonly provided me with training to become a professional publicspeaker, but has also given me contact and context from academymembers in other walks of life. They have different ways of doingbusiness, different perspectives and differentaudiences. Because of this, many different doors haveopened in the last few months. I also gained a sense ofpeacefulness every day. I am working less and accomplishing more,with no evening or weekend appointments. This also my third yearqualifying for Court of the Table at the Million Dollar RoundTable!”

Kristin Blakeslee, MassMutual

“I learned early in my career that my passion would lie inconnecting good people with good people, and I have been fortunateto support that passion for nearly 19 years in various recruitingroles, 15 of which have been in the financial servicesindustry.

One of my favorite quotes by Warren Buffet is: “Someone issitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a longtime ago.” This nicely sums up my belief about recruiting.Recruiting, to me, is much more than filling a position or hiringan employee. I believe recruiting is the lifeblood of anorganization and a brilliant opportunity to change not only thetrajectory of a candidate’s career path, but also an opportunity toplant the seeds of success for the organization. Whether I amrecruiting experienced financial advisors or coaching someone onhow to improve their recruiting process, the sheer importance theact is never lost on me.

Over the last year, the financial services industry hascontinued to adjust and shift in response to market pressures, andwith these shifts, recruiting must flex. I have spent thegreater part of the last year developing new recruiting processes,philosophies and tools to support the attraction of the best andbrightest candidates. Each day I wake up, I challenge myself tothink outside of the box and deliver a unique idea to set us apartfrom the competition.”

Laurie A. Leja, Northwestern Mutual

“There’s a famous quote that reads, “If you always do whatyou’ve always done, you always get what you’ve always got.” This is the motto that I apply to my practice as I feel it isimportant to never be afraid to take risk and grow. I wasfortunate to work under the renowned HarryHoopis for the first 21 years of my career. Being average wasnever an option. He taught us to work the Al Granum system andengage in client building. MillionDollar Round Table (MDRT) was the first benchmark and the bestmeeting I ever attended 14 years ago and I’m proud to report that Ihave never missed a meeting since that time!

In this business, I feel it is important to take a comprehensiveapproach to planning so that my clients know that they have atrusted advisor who understands them. I also provide aninnovative teamwork structure, my parents were an amazing team thatserved as great examples for what this should look like. Myhusband and I have been working together for the past 17 years andour clients often remark how well we work together as a team tocover the bases with our complementary skill set. In thisbusiness I feel that evolution is key. I connect with othersin the industry by attending company and industry meetings andevents. Study groups have also been essential to my success. I amcurrently in two that focus on physicians and long-term care. Irecently added a third called the MAIA Group with female leadersfrom my MDRT circle.”

As always, if you know of great women in the industry who areworking hard to make this this industry great, send an emailintroduction to me at [email protected]. I’d loveto connect!