The producer I admire in my office is John.  I went out with him on a renewal meeting last week and thought he did a fantastic job of walking the thin line between broker and friend.  He was friendly and easy to relate to but also extremely professional and prepared for every question the client threw at him.  He made the client feel important and I could tell how much they trusted him.  His presentation of the renewal was well rehearsed but came off completely natural.

I only saw him interact with this particular client but from what I saw, I can tell he is consistent in his dealings and this is why I consider him a success.

-Elena in Orange County

The trip to Itasca was quite the jam-packed experience.  My room was amazing and most everyone was super friendly but man was the weather scary!  I cannot believe no one else has mentioned the fact that we were in a TORNADO warning for an entire night and that there were blue lightning bolts hitting the ground.  I called my family and let them know I might not be returning home (he he he). A little dramatic, I know, but seriously…tornadoes??

Okay, so back on topic, the trip was extremely eye-opening for me just in regards to understanding what is is our company really does.  I felt that I learned the most when GBS split off from the other divisions of the company and had speakers in a smaller, more personal setting.  Overall I enjoyed most of the speakers and felt really honored to be given so much time with the top executives of the company; clearly this internship program means a lot to them.

Gallagher does a really good job of showing how important ethical business practices are to the company and without even reading The Gallagher Way I felt that I had a deep understanding of what the book would contain after listening to people like Pat Gallagher speak.

As fun as the trip was, I am so happy to be back in California

Fight on!

-Elena in Orange County

The Orange County office has been really busy and exciting this past week.  I went out on a client open enrollment meeting to assist in welcoming a new client into the Gallagher family.  I was also able to spend a whole day out of the office at a health fair for one of our larger clients.  Getting to interact with people who are benefiting from our services was a blast!

On a more administrative level, I have become a pro at stuffing manila envelopes while putting benefits packets together, reviewing contracts and learning how to put a renewal report together.  It’s nice to familiarize myself with the daily grind of office life.  Just this morning we had a roundtable on They Don’t Teach Corporate in College …that book is a ton more interesting than I thought it would be!

As far as my recreational activities go, I am currently training for a half marathon in order to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  I will be running it on July 25th in San Francisco and I’m up to 7 miles come this Sunday!  Normally, I love playing sports and can’t wait for college football season!

Fight on!

-Elena in Aliso Viejo

It’s crazy that it is already week 7…time is flying by here! Last week ended on a good note, where I have been assisting two of our producers with marketing to one of our clients who is up for renewal 9/1. This week has basically just begun, and I have already done so much. I am assigned to be working in the BSD department this whole week. I met with the branch manager of BSD yesterday morning and she showed me around their part of the office. I had already met a lot of their people, considering I have been here for six weeks and they are always wondering who this new person is that keeps walking around the office. The branch manager wants me to help on a project this week of helping them design their cross-selling plan with the other parts of Arthur J. Gallagher.

I got the opportunity to sit in with the team leaders of the BSD department on their meeting that they have every Monday morning to hear some status updates on their projects, what social events would be coming up, etc. I helped the BSD people yesterday with dead files, certs, then finished off my day back in GBS helping with scanning to make all of our paper files electronic. (That has been a major project I have been working on here). My intern coordinator, Stacy, has been out of the office since last Thursday, and she will not be returning until Monday. Tomorrow, I am taking a day off of BSD work to go with two of our producers on a renewal meeting (the one I have been helping with on the marketing), which should be great!

Other than that, looking forward to another great week.

-Lindsay, Orange County

I cannot believe we are starting our 6th week for this internship program…time sure has flown by quickly! I have been working on a lot here already, which I love because it keeps me busy! Last week, Stacy (my intern coordinator) and I finished up a marketing for Life/AD&D, STD, and Dental for a large agricultural company which was quite a project to work on. We put out bid specs to carriers, received proposals back, and entered all of the necessary information from those proposals into a powerpoint to market to them. It was great to finish it up because I felt like I had fully completed a project and saw all of the necessary steps it takes. This week we are going to call the agricultural company and talk about it further with them.

One of my other main tasks is to work with the administrative assistant here and make all of our paper files into electronic files, then send the paper files to Iron Mountain. We acquired a company called “Elite” and they are moving into our office next week, so things have been crazy around here to say the least. They are bringing 11 people with them, so things have been hectic! We needed to make all of the paper files into electronic ones so we could create more space for them…an added bonus is that we are saving paper!

Other than that, I have been working on other things like the regional intern project, contract reviews, AM’s Best Ratings, and much much more to help out everyone here as much as I can, and to try to learn a lot as well! Things have been great and I love the environment of this office, which is always an added bonus to any job. Look forward to hearing from everyone again on Thursday’s conference call.

-Lindsay, Orange County office

During week 3, all of the year one interns were in Itasca for orientation. I was very nervous going into this experience; however, I really enjoyed myself everyday. I think it was great that we got to meet so many people on this trip, including many employees of the Itasca corporate office. One of the best things about this trip was the fact that we got to meet numerous other interns. It is great to be able to put a face to a name for a lot of the interns and I hope to stay in contact with as many of them as possible. The week in Itasca was an amazing learning experience! -Lindsay in Orange County