In her 30 years of insurance experience, Joyce Usher-Mesiano has never hit a glass ceiling – and she wants to ensure the career path is equally friendly for aspiring young professionals. It can be assumed she knows her way to the top; the president of three Toronto-area brokerages - National Brokers Insurance, National Union Insurance and Grant Jones & Stuart Insurance, as well as second-opinion medical service Monarch Intermediaries - she boasts an all-women management team and finds the time to mentor via the federal government’s Champion One program.
“I do think it’s important to mentor whether they’re female or male, but the fact that we are run by women has brought four young women to me and I’m delighted to be able to help them,” she says. “I had a mentor, and I still call upon her; she has been instrumental in saving us time and effort and making sure that we’re following our vision.”
In addition to providing a wide array of services – her brokerages specialize in personal, travel, life and group benefits to name just a few – she credits her success to refusing to be complacent in the face of change. “We’re seeing a lot of disruptors,” she says. “Uber has brought a different perspective to it – keeping on top of those ideas and really having that view that something different can come across your desk, and you better be prepare to work through it and see if you can come up with a solution.”
In fact, it’s this thirst for knowledge and continued education that drew her to the industry in the first place - she was recently tapped to participate in the prestigious QuantumShift Ivey course on business growth and management – and says the industry’s rapidly changing landscape keeps her engaged.
“I think in insurance, you are constantly learning about new ventures, new avenues, broadening your ideas and coming across businesses,” she says. “Look at Facebook as a perfect example: if someone came to me years ago and said to me, we really need to insure this – well, you’d really have to think outside of the box. You really do learn something new every day.”
However, she thinks the industry as a whole may suffer from an image problem, meaning bright young talent “falls into” the business rather than seek it out as a career path. “I think that a stigma has been attached to the industry and that’s unfortunate,” she says. “I say ‘fall in’ because that’s what most of us say – we fell into it – but if I had to do it over again, I would still pick insurance.”
