NAIFA’s Greater Washington, D.C., chapter (NAIFA-GWDC) held a successful, all-virtual 2021 Success Summit. The event brought together NAIFA members, prospective members, sponsors, and special guests for a program offering, in the words of NAIFA Treasurer and NAIFA-GWDC member Brock Jolly, “camaraderie, personal and professional development, career networking, sales ideas, motivation, and inspiration.”

The 10^th annual Success Summit reflected the vision and hard work of NAIFA-GWDC members Dan Altmire, Ryan Buck, Connie Golleher, Brian Haney, Dilip Jhaveri, and Chris Pirtle, who served on the Summit Committee.

The program featured:

• Business Performance Speaker and Author Ross Berstein, who gave his signature keynote: “The Champion’s Code: Building Relationships Through Life Lessons of Integrity and Accountability From the Sports World to the Business World.” His “Champion’s Code” is built upon such concepts as creating a culture of excellence, using the currency of karma to generate momentum, following a moral compass to win the right way, creating buy-in by embracing change and failure, and evolving form “order takers’ to “trusted partners.”
• Transamerica Annuities Regional Vice President Carissa Miller, who gave a powerful presentation about the financial resources of women. In the United States, women control more than 60% of personal wealth and account for 70% of consumer purchasing. Women make up a market financial professionals looking to grow their practices simply cannot ignore. 

• Industry Veteran and Author Bruce Etherington of Bruce Etherington & Associates, who provided observations from his 55 years in the business of selling life insurance. He offered guidance, feedback, and direction to benefit insurance and financial services professionals at any stage of their careers. 

• Entrepreneur and Author Cameron Herold offered his presentation, “Letters to My Younger Self.” Herold learned a great deal in his role as COO of a company that grew from $2 million to $106 million in seven years and during the reminder of a 20-year career in which he built four fast-growth companies. His list of “58 hard-core leadership lessons” are things that no one taught him, but would have benefited him immensely had he known them at the beginning of his career.

The event also featured NAIFA association updates from President Tom Michel and CEO Kevin Mayeux. The event was sponsored by Transamerica, Brinker Capital Investments, Coastal Insurance Consulting, City National Rochdale, and Prudential.