The GRIT Factor by Insurance Group of America
🎙️ The GRIT Factor Podcast – Where high performers, bold leaders, and ambitious professionals come to learn what it takes to succeed.
Hosted by Drew Powell, this podcast dives deep into the core values that define true leadership and career excellence: Guts, Resilience, Integrity, and Tenacity. These are the values that drive high achievers and form the foundation of the culture at the Insurance Group of America (IGA).
Each episode features real conversations with industry leaders, top performers, and IGA team members who have embraced the G.R.I.T. mindset to overcome obstacles, take risks, and build lasting success. Whether you’re looking for leadership insights, career advice, or an inside look at what makes IGA a powerhouse of talent and culture, this is the podcast for you.
🚀 New episodes drop bi-weekly on Wednesdays.
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The GRIT Factor by Insurance Group of America
The Tenacity Blueprint: Allyson Lee's Leadership Journey
Tenacity is more than just a buzzword—it's a guiding principle for sustained success in both career and life. On this enlightening episode of The Grit Factor, we sit down with Allyson Lee, Director of Property and Casualty Operations at Insurance Group of America, who embodies this principle in everything she does.
Allyson takes us through her remarkable journey from being an insurance major in college (yes, she actually used her degree!) to her current leadership position. After cutting her teeth at a small agency doing "grunt work," she spent a decade at a global broker before finding her home at IGA, where she now manages a remote team while working from Savannah.
What makes Allyson's perspective so valuable is her practical approach to tenacity. "It's the relentless pursuit of a goal," she explains, emphasizing that sometimes motivation fails us, but discipline carries us through. She shares her strategy for balancing competing priorities using the metaphor of juggling glass and rubber balls—knowing which responsibilities will shatter if dropped and which will bounce back.
Perhaps most powerful is Allyson's advice for pushing through difficult moments: "Never make a permanent decision on a temporary feeling." This wisdom, along with her reminder that "my success rate for surviving a bad day is 100%," offers a refreshing framework for anyone navigating career challenges.
Whether you're considering a position at IGA or simply looking to cultivate more grit in your professional life, Allyson's insights on supporting team members, breaking down daunting projects into manageable tasks, and maintaining work-life balance provide actionable strategies for sustainable success. Listen now and discover how embracing tenacity could transform your approach to challenges and opportunities alike.
Welcome to the Grit Factor podcast. I'm Drew Powell, and here we explore what it takes to succeed through the lens of guts. Resilience, integrity and tenacity these are the values that drive high-performing leaders and shape the culture at the Insurance Group of America. Are the values that drive high-performing leaders and shape the culture at the Insurance Group of America. Each episode will sit down with industry trailblazers, iga team members and inspiring professionals who have embraced grit to overcome challenges, seize opportunities and create meaningful impact. Whether you're considered joining IGA or simply looking for the tools to take your career to the next level, you're in the right place. So buckle up. It's time to discover the grit factor. Well, it's a joy and an honor to be here with Allison Lee there's not Allison Lyons, to be confused with the two Allisons that are here Right AL squared, as we've been affectionately deemed.
Speaker 1:Well, thanks for sitting down with us and talking a little bit about one of our values tenacity. I'm excited to get into that with you a little bit today. Before we do that, tell us a little bit about you, your family, where you're from, all that fun stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so I'm Allison Lee. I'm the Director of Property and Casualty Operations here at IGA, which essentially means I manage the service team. I joined IGA almost a year and a half ago in November of 2023. And it's been a whirlwind and it feels like I just joined at the same time, but I was originally recruited to be a real estate account executive and then have moved into this role in the past six months.
Speaker 1:How long were you doing the real estate side of things?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I guess back up to when I first started my insurance journey, which I was actually an insurance major in college.
Speaker 1:Right, so I'm a nerd. You're the first person I've ever met that has that major, and I actually used my major, so that's a good ROI on my college education. You're the rare person like when I'm telling my kids oh, it doesn't really matter, no one uses a major Right. Right, yes, you actually do.
Speaker 2:I didn't even want to use my major. If I'm being honest, you don't meet people that want to be insurance agents but here we are. So I took a job right out of college at a small insurance agency. I was there for about a year and a half. I a year and a half. I liked it. I kind of learned how to spell. Insurance was really just doing the grunt work, like the data entry. Clerical work Wasn't super fulfilling. Didn't really know what an agency even entailed. I saw bigger for myself on the horizon.
Speaker 2:So after a year and a half I actually made the jump to a larger global broker which, to be honest, it was probably about the money at the time because first job out of college, not making a lot you know a nice little $10,000 raise.
Speaker 1:Like I jumped for the money.
Speaker 2:Um, but I did in the back of my mind no, like I wanted to get a broader education on like bigger accounts, strategic, and figure out what that entailed. And so I was with a large global broker for 10 years before joining IGA and I kind of took it was a lateral move when I moved to the global broker.
Speaker 1:What was it about? I'm curious about IGA. What made you say I'm going to leave this big brokerage, come over to this company that you know? And I'm also curious about the differences between the big global and the IDA.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I always knew I wanted to get back to a smaller agency. I had done the big broker thing, learned a lot, worked my way up the ranks, found out I loved real estate and so I was leading our real estate team in the Atlanta office when I got a call from our recruiter. I wasn't really looking for a job. I was with a great company, had a great job, but I knew in the back of my mind my end goal was to go to a smaller agency. I had started at a smaller agency, wanted to end up there and really this is my faith speaking, but it was a God thing.
Speaker 2:On the timing, this was an answered prayer. It checked all my boxes of what I said. Um, I wanted a next step for my career and so, kind of the stars aligned and I was just sold on Jamie's vision for the company. Um, they were looking to build out the real estate vertical to compliment the success that they had had on the construction side. So it was a great fit, um, and we're still focusing on real estate. But while that's getting up and running, I do have new responsibilities to manage the team, so that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I want to talk about just how, the how your, the values of grit and obviously the grit factor podcast and the T of grit is this tenacity, value, that that you represent and that you lead with your team. But one thing I don't think you mentioned is that you actually still live in live in Savannah, so you work remote.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I am full-time remote. So I went remote with my prior company out of Atlanta in December whenever COVID hit. Right before COVID hit, they made an exception for me and then everyone else went remote with me. So it was no big deal. So I'm used to it, I love it, I enjoy it. I still feel the connectivity. I'm on video calls throughout the day. I don't lack for connection in that sense.
Speaker 1:Well, because the reason why I bring that up is because, if I'm correct, there's quite a few employees that will work remote yeah, absolutely. We've got two members in colorado, south carolina, virginia, just all over the place so how do you, how do you make sure the culture, this grit factor, culture, how do you make sure that transfers remote, because you obviously embody it? I mean, you were someone that were like hey, if you're going to do a podcast, you're going to talk about values you got to have Allison on, but you're not in office all the time, although you come up and you're-.
Speaker 2:I try to be present, yeah you're very present, but how does that?
Speaker 1:transfer remote.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you definitely have to be intentional about it. It doesn't always happen organically, so it is about making the effort to connect with team members, whether that's scheduling dedicated time or having recurring meetings. But just being intentional about connecting with people, whether it's on a personal level or professional, just making sure that you're getting kind of that face time and getting to know each one of your teammates.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I love that. All right. So let's talk tenacity. Yeah, let's start kind of high level what does that word mean to you? And we'll talk about how you apply that and all this stuff. But just what is your working definition of tenacity?
Speaker 2:So tenacity, to me, is just the relentless pursuit of a goal, it's determination. I think it goes hand in hand with resilience, but really it boils down to discipline and self-discipline and putting in the work regardless, like keeping your eye on the prize, but being able to pivot if needed if something doesn't work out, and just chasing that goal and, you know, keeping finding that internal motivation. And sometimes it's not. You don't have that motivation, but you have the discipline to fall back on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the importance of and I've heard you kind of reference this before but this idea of like I'll do whatever it takes, like I'll do the less glamorous jobs, whatever, whatever I need to be, whatever I'm called upon to do, part of tenacity is it doesn't matter regardless of what position and I've seen this with. We've talked to Andrew and some other leaders and other leaders like yourself. One of the common threads that I see at IGA is this humility, and I think it does play a hand, and I'd love to hear your comments on how that plays hand in hand with tenacity, because it just means there's nothing too big, too small for that our leaders are willing to do.
Speaker 2:You speak to that absolutely it's a it's that get it done. Mentality like you're a team player, no one's too good for any task. We're all in it together and just we're all working towards the same goal, keeping our eye on the prize, doing whatever it takes, whether it's me issuing a certificate or, you know, a policy check the less glamorous roles and tasks that do have to be done and are very important. And I think tenacity, especially early on in your career, is very important Because sometimes you are required to sit in that position the job role where it may be more administrative while you learn and you know checking a policy like we could outsource, that we could use AI software and we do outsource now but but having that exposure to the policy checking really teaches you how to read a policy. You can catch mistakes. That way. It's not just comparing like okay, we check this, it matches what was done last year. You may you need to like be digging into the coverage forms, asking questions and I find myself doing this even today.
Speaker 2:I'm a coverage nerd, so I like to kind of understand what the policy saying, and you'll catch.
Speaker 1:I'm so grateful by the way there are people like you in this world, because I'm like I don't ever read the fine. I'm just like, yeah, I'm sure it's fine.
Speaker 2:But I ever read the fine. I'm just like, yeah, I'm sure it's fine, but I love that you do that. You find an exclusion and it was on last year, but you don't catch it and and then you read what?
Speaker 1:oh well, they're excluding tree trimming well, this is a tree trimming client, so this coverage is junk, so right right. So just like that's why it's important to do those little um less glamorous jobs to get to build that foundation so talk about a time just in your personal story, in your journey or your career, where this idea of tenacity and perseverance paid off for you.
Speaker 2:Sure. So just thinking about on my career and getting to where I am today, just keeping my eye on the prize and working hard in each position prior to this for my end goal being to get to a smaller agency and have a bigger role within the company, into a leadership position, it's doing the groundwork, pursuing continuing education, designations and just learning and challenging myself, probably, you know, pushing myself outside of my comfort zone and doing things like recording a podcast.
Speaker 1:I was about to say.
Speaker 2:I was like like this right now, yes, exactly Pushing myself and challenging doing things I haven't done before, that I wouldn't consider myself good at. Those are learning opportunities for me, that kind of hone, my soft skills. So seeking those out, even though as a perfectionist I tend to shy away from those naturally. But with the encouragement of my team members to push me in these directions, it is helpful to build my tenacity as well, well, we're grateful that you are Look at you. You're a natural podcaster. This is great.
Speaker 1:You know one. If I'm just going to confess one thing that I've struggled with personally when it comes to tenacity and perseverance. Like I'm a starter, I love starting things, I love new and exciting and whatever. But there's, you know, part of the value of tenacity is this ability to stay motivated, to stay in on these longer-term projects, or even challenging projects. Can you speak to that a little bit? How do you stay motivated, how do you stay locked into these longer-term projects.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. One thing is just keeping your eye on the long-term goal, understanding my purpose. So, for me, I'm motivated by my family. I want to. I want to provide a good life for my children and and make them proud. So that's, that's part of my internal motivation that helps me do a good job at work and then, from like a work perspective, breaking projects down into manageable tasks, like we are implementing a training project, to really present a formal, robust training program. So, okay, that is a daunting task in and of itself, but when we group as a team and kind of break it down into more manageable modules, that helps keep that motivation and the ball rolling on it so you don't get overwhelmed. The other thing is really juggling. It's a juggling act, like knowing which the cheesy phrase about the glass balls versus the rubber balls. You've got to juggle the balls and figure out which things are glass, are glass and if you drop it at breaks or which are rubber and they bounce back.
Speaker 1:So I actually haven't heard that before. Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's what I try to remind myself. It's like I may miss my daughter's you know soccer practice, but I'm at work, doing very important project and up here, um, or vice versa, there may be a smaller meeting I can skip out on because I've got something at home that it's a non-negotiable. So just keeping that, that balance, yeah.
Speaker 1:I love that. Well, and when you keep the balance like that, it just makes it more sustainable. It makes it to where, like you, can actually do this as a career in longterm Cause I'm thinking about the people that are watching or listening right now who are considering IGA as a potential place to come work or, like kind of you, you weren't really looking for a place, but maybe this could be the spot. I think it's that idea of we want people to work here and be healthy, and grit means we're going to work hard. Yeah, we're going to go hard.
Speaker 1:This is, excuse me, this is a fast paced organization. Probably not a good fit for someone who wants to go slow and be super safe. Right, I mean, I don't want to like speak for you, but that's probably probably true. Um, but yeah, it's like in order to sustain, in order to last in any profession, there is that balance and being a part of a work environment that allows you to say, hey, I need to miss this meeting because I need to show up for my family, but also there's an expectation of you're going to prioritize that on the other side too, right?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. It is a balance and having a good support system, whether that's your family or your team members, your coworkers, your manager, whatever that is and we really do live that out, you feel the collaboration and people supporting each other here Because you've got, and you didn't say this, didn't say this earlier.
Speaker 1:It even made me ask him. But you got three, three young ones.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so yes, I'm a mom and a wife first. I do prioritize that in the back of my mind, like my kids are five three and one, but I'm in the thick of it right now. And it's not, and I don't always, you know, I don't know where I was going with that.
Speaker 1:you know um, I don't know where I was going with that All right. So what advice would you give for people who are are striving to cultivate this value of tenacity into their professional lives?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think just um defining their purpose for them it's so personal to each person and building a support system around you. Um, the other thing is just acknowledging that setbacks are part of you know the job, like we're going to make mistakes, but that means we're learning and improving and growing. So, um, one thing I tell myself is you know, my success rate so far for surviving a bad day is a hundred percent. I can get past this. Um, and you move on and you learn from it. Um, and you go from there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's so good. One thing that I've heard you speak on before is this idea of you never make how do you say it? You never make a permanent decision on a temporary feeling. Did I get that right, yeah?
Speaker 2:Yes, never make a permanent decision on a temporary feeling.
Speaker 1:What does that mean?
Speaker 2:So for me and it sounds kind of morbid when you say it like that and it's not intended that way. But when you want to throw in the towel and you're like this is not for me, maybe I'm not cut out for this, you're doubting yourself. You're feeling that imposter syndrome, questioning, you know, your competency. It just sit with those feelings for a moment and realize like this too shall pass, like not to be cheesy yet again with it.
Speaker 1:Feelings for a moment and realize like this too shall pass, like not to be cheesy yet again with, but that I think it's great advice and it doesn't feel cheesy to me, because I'm an emotional person and so it's really easy for me to let emotion, emotions guide.
Speaker 1:And this is where you know, and it's okay to feel those feelings. You know it's okay to you, know it. But when it comes to tenacity, especially when it comes to this grit that we're talking about a lot of times, it's not, it's not suppressing your emotions, but it's recognizing. I feel this way in taking a breath or giving, getting yourself some space. Or, like you said, so far I've survived.
Speaker 2:I love that yeah, I'm 100 survival vulnerable, honestly, because, going back to the support system and pulling in your team members, they can pick up some slack when you're having a bad day and vice versa and support you Because we're all again. We're all working towards the same goal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm curious and this might be a little bit of a curveball question for you but when you have that bad day or that you're feeling emotional because we all get there, whatever, what are their tools, strategies? This is almost like my personal therapy session, so I'll charge you. You're charging me extra for this.
Speaker 2:How do you bounce back? Yeah, so whether it's healthy or not, I'm a compartmentalizer. I try to put a pin in it. I recognize what is causing me stress in the moment and I feel that and you know what, I'm not going to think about this anymore, whether it's distracting myself or moving on to something else I try to acknowledge it and move on, move forward. Just try not to look back and because I could beat myself up. I'm such a perfectionist that I don't like making mistakes. I hold myself to a very high standard.
Speaker 1:Which probably serves you really well. But also, yeah, it's a correlating weakness.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I could be a toughest critic, for sure. But yeah, I try to just compartmentalize those bad days and move forward, focus on the bigger picture.
Speaker 1:So, now that you're in a leadership position here at IGA, how does this idea of tenacity, resiliency like? How do you lead this out with your team?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I hope that I could model tenacity so my team members can see that it's not always glamorous and there are hard days. And likewise, I want them to feel supported and know that I've got their back and I'm on their side and we can work through issues together, because I find when people feel supported, they're more likely to take calculated risk and push themselves further. So I always want my team members to know that, like we're in this together, like I want to collaborate, this isn't me making decisions, this isn't like anything like that. I just want them to feel supported and know that I've got their back.
Speaker 1:I love that. Well, let me ask you this because, again, if someone's watching or listening right now, you know a big part of having you on is kind of hearing your story, but also your leadership philosophy and just who you are as a leader what encouragement advice would you give to someone who's looking at IGA, even just culturally speaking? Like, what encouragement would you give them and not that we're trying to, because a lot of this is just figuring out fit right, like who's the right, fit or not, and it's not like we're just trying to get everybody, it's like let's, let's hire the people that we know is going to really work. So what would you say about tenacity and encouragement you give for anyone looking to join iga?
Speaker 1:um I know that's like a big softball, that's a big softball question.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I think you just need to come. Come in with an open mind and ready to work hard and don't be afraid to make mistakes. We're all very supportive. I tell all of my new hires I expect you to be asking questions. We don't expect you to have all the answers. We don't have all the answers. We talk through questions all the time at all different levels. So just taking the initiative to learn and grow and put forth the effort, but we're here to support that in your growth.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that Listen. Thank you for sitting down having this conversation. Is this the hardest thing you've done in a while?
Speaker 2:It pretty much is.
Speaker 1:Are you literally walking out tenaciously before?
Speaker 2:our eyes. Yeah, I guess so.
Speaker 1:That's the great thing about IGA you just never know what you're going to be thrown into yes, yes. Well, great job. Thank you for sharing with us today and thank you for your leadership and what you embody here at IGA.
Speaker 2:Thank you Bye.