“I don’t coach ABNs (Australian business number); I coach people,” is how ARMA Insurance Brokers managing director and Women in Insurance Summit speaker Amanda Morris (pictured) puts it, referring to her passion for coaching which the broker-slash-mentor discovered after setting up her Maitland-based brokerage.
In an interview with Insurance Business, Morris noted: “The last probably three to four years that I’ve been doing reviews with my insurance clients, I would spend some time on doing the insurance review but then I would spend time on helping them with their business.
“I’ve invested in myself heavily over the years in personal development and getting coached myself, so I learned a lot about running a business, not just about insurance, and I would then help my clients on different aspects of running their business. And from that I realised that I really loved that and I was good at it, so I decided that I would go and get formal training in coaching.”
Morris, who trained at The Coaching Institute in Melbourne, currently has two business mentoring ventures – Choose Talent and Broker Base, with the latter catering specifically to small broking firms.
“I’ve niched in coaching insurance brokers because I love my tribe,” explained Morris. “They’re my fellow industry mates, and anything I can do to enhance [not only] the experience for clients but also the success for the business owner really fills my soul cup.
“I do things a little bit differently. I’ve implemented different things in my brokerage that work really well that I see that not a lot of other brokers know or have invested in themselves. So, I decided to bring that to them and try and help them to streamline their strategies. I’m in the trenches with these people every day, so I feel their pain and I know what they’re going through.”
At the moment, Morris is coaching 15 clients at Broker Base while looking to hire qualified brokers who wish to get into the coaching space. Just like her, they should have the technical broking skills and at the same time be eager to impart guidance through coaching.
Morris told Insurance Business: “I want to get to a stage where I’ve got coaches that are helping clients and I’m coaching my coaches to deliver the best service possible. And I’m particularly passionate about helping females in our industry – there’s so many attributes that go wasted sitting behind the desk.”
So how does she manage to juggle all these balls?
“I employ talented people that are great at what they do so they can work with autonomy,” stated Morris, who employs 10 people at the ARMA Insurance Brokers office and two offshore virtual assistants. “I don’t have to micromanage people around me. And I’m very diligent with my time and where I spend it.
“I also always make time for me, and I think that’s probably the most important thing. I always make sure that I’m looking after me first, so having my time for my exercise and meditations and reading and things like that. And when you find a job that you love, it’s not working.”
While coaching is arguably Morris’s favourite, the managing director is far from leaving the world of insurance broking. After all, it was through the industry that she found this calling. Also, having her own branch keeps Morris’s finger on the pulse. On taking the leap years ago to set up shop, she said: “It was definitely a risky move, but it was the best decision of my life.”
As for the value of her work, Morris declared: “With broking, you’re only really helping the client in one aspect of their life, it’s protecting their assets. But with coaching, you can impact their entire life, both business and personal. Because I don’t coach businesses; I don’t coach ABNs; I coach people.
“So, the impact that I can have as a coach is so far-reaching. When I coach a business owner, the impact trickles down to the employees’ lives and to the clients’ lives. It’s endless, and I just love that.”
Morris is speaking at this year’s Women in Insurance Summit Australia taking place on August 05 in Sydney. Register now.
