Life and Work with Kelsi Ring

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelsi Ring.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Kelsi. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I grew up in the great state of Arizona, in Bullhead City near the Nevada/California borders. Right after high school, I moved to Las Vegas. During my 4 1/2 years there, I pursued a career in phlebotomy but ultimately realized that I didn’t have a passion for it and needed to make a bigger change in my life. I had a friend living in Phoenix who invited me to visit and I immediately fell in love with the city and knew that this is where I needed to be. Shortly after my visit, I packed up my life in Vegas and moved to the Phoenix area. Being in my early 20’s, I was in the odd transitional phase where I felt the pressure of social norms of not being engaged, married, or on a career path, I was happy with. My dad had also recently been diagnosed with cancer so the move to Arizona allowed me to stay close to him. I found a job waiting tables shortly after arriving, and worked as a server for four years. Those years proved to be very emotionally difficult with the pressures of where I should be, the weight that cancers puts on your heart, and working a job I wasn’t happy with, but looking back, I realize that stage of my life helped mold me into my next career move.

I knew I wanted more out of my life but I still couldn’t decide which path was meant for me. I felt the desire and need to contribute and help people, but didn’t know where to start. I needed someone to believe in me and give me the opportunity to prove myself. One day, I came across a job posting on Facebook searching for people looking for a challenge, had enthusiasm, and wanted a career that required hard work, I thought to myself “Hey, that’s what I need; a challenge. I can work hard. I want to work hard.” I craved a challenge, I needed it.

I reached out to the woman who posted the listing (my current account manager) and was set up for an interview. During the interview, she explained to me that selling insurance took self-discipline, hard work and a lot of rejection. It wasn’t going to be easy but if I worked hard I would succeed. I had never worked in insurance and had no idea what it entailed so she offered me a deal; if I could study independently and pass the AZ Insurance State Exam the position would be mine and they would offer on the job training. I spent the next four months studying while serving at night to make ends meet. I scheduled my exam and… passed!

A month later, I filled the position of Insurance Producer/Agent at Bizsmart Insurance Group, and that was just the beginning of a very fulfilling career. My mentor/agency owner gave me the tools, encouragement, and belief in myself that I needed to be successful. He encouraged me to ask questions, gave me advice and guided me in the right direction. It felt almost like fate that I landed this amazing career with a mentor that I genuinely trust. Now, over a year later I am a top producer at my agency, was 1/15 agents selected out of thousands to attend one of our carriers summer trips and am number 3 in sales of all of Bizsmart Alliance Insurance! I moved to Phoenix with no idea where I wanted my life to go, little college, no sales experience and have completely changed the direction my life is going all from taking an opportunity and a chance on myself.

Has it been a smooth road?
The road I took to get to where I am now was full of potholes, so to speak. Although I was starting down the right road, I still came across many struggles, most of which were internal. I was fair-warned that this job in insurance sales was going to be a challenge, but you never fully understand the difficulty of something new until you face it. I didn’t realize the toll that a client prospect who canceled an appointment or a sale that fell through would affect how I felt about myself. At first, I was rejected often, I found myself getting frustrated or even angry at myself for not fully understanding the product or how to conduct myself in the world of sales; I ended up internalizing all of my frustrations and let it affect the way I saw myself and the work I was doing. I knew I could be great at what I was doing and I had the drive and passion to actually help business owners and families, so I kept at it. Each successful sale and every satisfied client meant more and more and helped to build my confidence in the field and in myself.

If I could go back to the days where I was struggling and have a pep-talk with myself, I would tell her this: You’re doing what you need to do. It’s ok to ask for help, to ask questions, and admit when you don’t understand something. You’re going through hardship and what you need to experience in order to learn, build character, and find success. The most worthwhile and rewarding things are the hardest to obtain but if you get up every day, put yesterday behind you, and move forward. You’re going to be great and do great things, after that the days of struggling are going to be something to look back at and giggle.

To the girls starting their journey, or are even where I was at a few years ago, I would tell them something very cliché but it’s BEYOND true—believe in you and encourage yourself and have the courage to go for an opportunity that you may feel underqualified for, you may surprise yourself. Even if you have a support system behind you, at the end of the day, you’re truly the only person who can encourage and believe in yourself enough to make a change. If you don’t give yourself those well-deserved pep-talks and celebrate the small victories, your road will be a long and bumpy one.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Bizsmart Alliance Insurance Group – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
At Bizsmart Insurance Group, my job title is Agent. As an Agent, I specialize in helping business, home and auto owners find areas in their policy that may have holes or feel their rate isn’t competitive enough. Bizsmart Insurance is an insurance broker, which means we search through several different carriers to find the best policy for whatever the need or case may be.

What sets me apart from your average insurance agent is my desire to save consumers money and, even more than that, make sure that businesses, homes, and autos are fully protected in case of any incident. I sincerely care.
For example; I recently had a case where a family owned Construction Company had no idea that their current insurance had an exclusion in their policy that excluded 80% of the current work they were performing. I thoroughly read over their policy and found the exclusion that they were unaware of. If an incident were to happen they would have had to pay out of pocket for damages, which would have been devastating to their company that they worked so hard to build. Helping this business owner is one of many cases that highlights my career. When I handle any new cases, I try to put myself in their position, what coverage do they have now? What do they need realistically? I do consider myself to be a bit of an over-thinker, but in this position, it greatly improves my attention to detail in every case I handle and allows me to dedicate myself fully to each client.

Often it feels as if the media, by and large, is only focused on the obstacles faced by women, but we feel it’s important to also look for the opportunities. In your view, are there opportunities that you see that women are particularly well positioned for?
I feel that social media is more driven towards women giving more opportunities to capitalize on. Every opportunity presented is worth exploring regardless of gender. In this day in age with the availability of education and technology, any one person could be well positioned for any opportunity presented. The media highlights the negatives that are found few and far between and that is what people focus on and is fresh in their minds; when people think of women in the workplace they typically don’t think of all of the female business owners, court justices, scientists, mathematicians, etc., they think of the negative connotations of secretaries, maids, nannies, waitresses or other jobs that are considered gender-based. In my opinion, gender-based positions are not what they used to be and I love that women in the workforce have come so far and continue to be accepted in almost any occupation today Any opportunity is one a woman could be well positioned for and media has only further supported women’s rise to the top.

Contact Info:

• Address: 1410 W Guadalupe Road Suite 112
  Gilbert, AZ 85233
• Website: https://www.bizinsgrp.com/
• Phone: 623-295-2936
• Email: kelsi.r@allinsgrp.com
• Instagram: kelss0
• Other: www.linkedin.com/in/kelsi-ring-5b8251167/

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