Week 1 Journal

Monday June 5, 2017

Today was the beginning of the internship. We started off with a meeting, introducing ourselves, as well as meeting the heads of the intern program. Scott Firestone also met with us pitching us information about insurance. The things he said really helped as he gave us advice with what to expect and ways to stand out. The only thing I thought was unfortunate was the fact that I couldn’t think of a question to ask him. When he left we were told that that could have been a really huge opportunity to ask for some advice or any other way to make ourselves stand out. I know he is a busy man, but I may try to sneak in a quick time to talk to him sometime this week and get any advice that he has to offer. After the introductions we went to lunch at California Pizza Kitchen, getting to know even more about my fellow interns and intern coordinators. When we got back, we were taught about Gallagher, writing notes and asking questions. Later in the meeting we talked a lot about the upcoming trip to Chicago, preparing us on things to expect and ways that we could prepare ourselves to represent our office the right way. Overall it was a great first day at work.

Tuesday June 6, 2017

Today was filled with many informative meetings. We started the day with Matt talking about our sales challenge next week. We went over things that would be useful to us and would have the judges favor us, like certain phrases and key words as well as abbreviations. We also were taught about soft insurance and how the company grows. In our next meeting Kathy Borowski talked to us about Impressions and how to make great first impressions. Impressions are extremely important so she went over all the dos and don’ts when meeting people. She also gave us tips on certain business manners. Our next meeting was with Debra Battaglia and her team. They went over worker’s compensation and all of the risks that companies have due to worker’s compensation. One of our last meetings was with Joshua Valdiva, who covered growth initiatives. We learned that AJG grows through mergers as well as acquisitions, but we also have organic growth in which we keep the same clients we have, while still getting new ones. This day was full of new information that I hope to keep with me.

Wednesday June 7, 2017

On our third day, we started off in the Hollywood Room where our intern coordinators we prepping us for the Rolling Meadows trip in Chicago. They talked to us about how it will be, but more importantly, how we should behave ourselves. Other conversations included the sales challenge that we cold hopefully win this year. Next we had a meeting with Alex Glickman, a well-respected producer of Gallagher. Meeting with her was nice as she taught us lessons that didn’t just explain what she does or how Gallagher works, but she taught us things that we could not only use while working at Gallagher, but in life as well. She told us things like, “You are personally responsible for what we accomplish as a team” and “If you have a talent, with no ambition, that is a sin.” The biggest thing that I took out our talk was, “You are your own person.” That really got to me as I have noticed that many people in Gallagher initially joined by knowing someone, however knowing someone or being related to someone doesn’t mean anything once you are here. You make your own reputation and you are your own self. After this meeting my whole day was consisted of meeting after meeting with members of our real estate team. I met many bright people and learned many things about real estate including the different things that we do within the team. One highlight was meeting Lito, he broke down all of the ins and outs of how he checks, corrects, and watches over all of the people in our team. He then told us a lot about renewals and the process in which it takes to finish a renewal. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time for him to fully explain everything that he wanted, but he asked us to come in at any time so he can finish his lesson. Today was interesting and got me extremely excited for what is to come with this team.

Thursday June 8, 2017

Luckily, there wasn’t bad traffic today, so I got in the office early and was able to catch up on things that I needed to do. The day started with a great opportunity for me as I was able to listen in to the real estate conference call. This call was helpful as it allowed me to see how we communicate as well as the important things that this team needs to focus on. Things that were mentioned included us changing our focus from taking clients from top brokers like Marsh to getting new clients from the higher end middle class. It was also mentioned to ask underwriters who they would recommend join our real estate and hospitality team. After the conference call I had a few more meetings with others a part of the real estate team. A highlighted meeting was with Alex Vien. He went over a lot of important terms necessary for us to know such as triple net leases, CAM, gross leases, and CBD. He also talked about the classes of real estate explaining was core, core plus, value add, and opportunistic means. He then helped us understand generally how to find out the premium of a client. Another entertaining meeting was with was about management liability. Last night Matt had us go over a few articles relevant to what we were going to talk about and we discussed them today. More meetings with real estate team members were supposed to occur after until the end of the day, but they got canceled due to overlapping of another meeting. What was funny was that the overlapped meeting was canceled because of the meeting that it was overlapping. This gave me the rest of the day to do journals and Elearns. Today was very informative again and I think that I am really getting into real estate. I’m excited to start doing projects for some of the team members.

Friday June 9, 2017

Today, I got to the office early because there was not that much traffic due to it being Friday. The first thing that we had was a meeting with Terry Campbell. He asked us what we’d like for him to talk about. Him being such a well-respected man in the company, I asked for him to go over the process of what put him in the position that he is in. He talked about how he had no plan of going into insurance, but when he did, the thing that made him so good wasn’t his sales pitch. It was his ability to create a relationship with the potential client. He told us how once you build a relationship; this is how you build trust. That really resonated with me because building relationships and affecting people is truly what I want to do in a business setting. Terry had many cool stories to tell about situations with clients that did things with him and what he has done for them. After that meeting, I had a team meeting with real estate. This was so nice because the team seemed so close. Everyone walked in laughing and telling jokes. Even though I didn’t know about much of anything we talked about, as it was about the state of our team and the policies that needs to be worked on, I still viewed it as very informative. After this meeting I met with Ani and Nan. They talked about all that they do, as well as added to some stuff that was mentioned in the team meeting. After meeting with Nan, I then was called to sit in a conference call with Alex and Jared, who were talking to one of our clients. After the talks I asked Jared many questions about why some of the things happened with our client and what do we do in these certain situations? This again was very informative and I learned a lot. Then came lunch, and lucky for me, I was able to spend it with the real estate team in a team lunch. At this lunch, I sat next to Alex and asked her many questions so that I can get more of an in depth description of how prospects become clients. She also gave me some tips to use with the sales challenge coming up. Lunch was great talking to everyone and having good laughs. That ended my day of duties as I came back to work and finished up my final journal. Leslie, Matt, and Nick then came in to make sure all was set for us to go to Chicago Monday. I’m extremely excited for next week, and can’t wait to learn even more.