How one event gave CEO her springboard to success

Alexis Cierra Vaughn (pictured) is back and better than ever at the Insurance Business America Women in Insurance conference in Atlanta – in part, because of attending that very same conference two years ago.

The founder and CEO of Off Course Consulting, a premier insurtech strategy consulting firm, will be moderating a panel discussion entitled ‘Capturing Best Practice – Preserving Industry Wisdom’ at the upcoming  Women in Insurance Conference on April 12, in Atlanta at the JW Marriott Atlanta Buckhead hotel.

She remembers fondly her first such Women in Insurance conference about two years ago, also in Atlanta, when she was a head of agency marketing.

“It was so much fun. I literally made lifelong friends. I’m very close to some of my panel mates to this day,” she recalled, during a recent interview.

But she can also remember the jitters from that day as she went up on stage in 2022.

It was the very first conference she had ever spoken at, she remembers, and she was nervous and a little intimidated. She had her speaking notes ready at hand on her phone, but, after the second question, the chemistry on stage really started cooking, and her nerves dissipated, allowing her to come out of her shell.

She credits some of those solid gold connections she made at the event to helping propel her career forward too. Now, in 2024, when she steps on to the stage, she will be doing so as a founder and CEO of her own insurtech consulting company.

“Yeah, it’s quite the journey, and in such a short period of time,” she said.

She estimates that in the interim two years, she has taken part in about 18 leading industry conferences, including engagements in Europe.

“Everybody started booking me after I spoke at this conference,” she stated.

Preserving industry wisdom

On the topic at hand this spring, she stressed that she wanted to welcome a new generation of insurance leaders, and create a space for them to actually want to come into insurance. A good number of people in insurance remember that they fell into their career, herself included. But she wants the insurance industry to be seen as a career of choice.

“I have been literally doing everything I can to make sure that I’m mentoring the next generation,” she said. “I’m also working with educational institutions on some amazing new things that we can do to really promote more of our younger generations to move into the industry.”

She is encouraged that insurance companies are starting to highlight more jobs that include the technology sector. It’s important for the next generation to understand that the insurance industry offers more careers than just being an agent or broker, she said. There are so many other lanes that may interest those who don’t want to be client facing. Introverts may prefer to become an underwriter or actuary, she noted. There is literally something for everyone.

“It may be boring in your first role,” she admitted. “Tell the truth. But the next role you find, you may find your niche in this industry.”

Creating a positive space

Vaughn knows how important creating a positive space can be.

When she entered the insurance field, she was a single mother. Once she was established in the field, and made a life for herself, she started her own MGA and taught 26 other single mothers how to do what she did, passing on her knowledge and expertise.

“Sharing is caring, for real,” she said. “People don’t know that there’s such a great field out there, where you can really be making an impact… I always knew that I wanted to make a huge impact on the world and the insurance industry allows me to do that in so many different aspects.”

And she predicts that the disruptors to be found in the new generation will shake up the centuries-old insurance industry, in a good way.