I’m excited to announce two new additions to our Desert Insurance Solutions family:

Colleen Flores, Account Executive-Health Insurance Colleen spent the last three years becoming expert on health insurance and the Affordable Care Act. She’s going to help our individual, group and Medicare clients navigate the health care maze, and she’ll be bringing new health insurance clients our way. She has a business degree from College of the Desert and lives with her fiancé and two daughters in La Quinta. We’re lucky to have her.

Kaycie Baker, Account Executive-Arizona Division Kaycie will be finding new clients for us out of our Scottsdale office. She was previously an account executive for a Phoenix food manufacturer, and before that she learned insurance working in my California office. She’s fearless, independent and full of positive energy…I should know because she’s my daughter. I’m pleased to see her directing that energy into following my footsteps. Speaking of mom, Kaycie is mom to little Maddox (second from the bottom in the montage below).

Colleen and Kaycie will be joining Lorena, Reyna, Carol and me. With this team and my industry connections I’m confident we can provide clients with large agency resources and boutique agency attention. I’m very proud of the team we’re building here.

Back in my December 2014, I shared my personal experience as a young mom who overcame a series of challenges and went on to find success. That experience led to my community involvement helping disadvantaged young women (such as single teenage moms) improve their self-esteem, succeed with jobs and break the cycle of poverty.

My experience has also impacted my hiring decisions. Yes, I’m an equal opportunity employer, but it so happens every woman in my office was a working single mom at some point in her life. Maybe that’s why we appreciate one another and work so well as a team.

Here’s the thing about working single moms: among them I find hidden gem hires that are readily transformed into rock star employees! Why? Two reasons:

First, because they’ve been working single moms! They’ve already proven they can do one of the hardest jobs in the world. And by definition they are loyal, independent, resourceful multitaskers. All they need is an opportunity and a small degree of flexibility to address childcare and they’re on their way.

And second, I find them with great skills and experience. Before they join me they were frequently working for some inflexible stick-in-the-mud boss who held them back from their true potential because as single moms they didn’t match some old school success profile. So when I hire them away and give them a real opportunity they are so grateful and enthusiastic they can’t help but succeed!

So as Thanksgiving approaches, a big thanks to working moms everywhere. You are unsung heroes and America’s Hidden Resource! When somebody says you can’t do it, don’t listen. There’s somebody like me that knows you can do it, and if they’re smart, they are hiring.

Also a big thanks to all the women in my office. I couldn’t do it without you, and your kids (shown in the montage) couldn’t either.

And finally, thank you clients, for believing in Desert Insurance Solutions enough to make it one of the region’s fastest growing insurance agencies. Many of you have done well over the years, primarily due to your own hard work. But if ever in your past somebody believed in you when others wouldn’t, or if somebody gave you that one break when you most needed it, then you know what I’m talking about with these hard working moms.

What I’m talking about is us all doing well by doing good!

Happy Thanksgiving, from our family to yours.

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