You never know when you’re going to be there.
Wendy is referring to life circumstances. You never know when you’ll be the beneficiary of an insurance policy or filing a death claim for a loved one, for example. Or, in contrast, when you’ll be requesting coverage for a new child or grandchild, or adding them as a beneficiary.
Every week, Wendy receives these diametrically opposed kinds of calls. So she treats every file like the only one she is working on, even though they require completely different gears – which she is able to switch very easily.
“What people are going through on a given day is important to them, and it is important to me. I don’t even need to try to switch gears. It just happens.”
This level of empathy is something that’s been with Wendy since a very young age. She did not come from a privileged background. “I remember how excited I was to get a skipping rope from a neighbour,” she says. “I find it easy to put myself in other people’s shoes because I know that one day, I might be going through the very same thing as them.”
Wendy’s upbringing also instilled in her a taste for hard work – which is why she identifies so strongly with this element of the Brian Laundry Manifesto: There is absolutely no substitute for effort. As a personal support worker in a nursing home before her financial services career, Wendy questioned how much difference she was making to residents’ lives. So she took her dog through a pet therapy course – and it was the dog that really connected with the elderly. “Suddenly I was able to sit with these people and know, in my heart, that I was doing good.”
As Client Experience Manager on Brian’s team, Wendy supports advisors (“I make their lives easier”) and manages client inquires on all in-force policies. She is obviously a natural for many reasons, including her commitment for maintaining long-term relationships (“I don’t burn bridges”) and her infectious smile.
Born in Hamilton, Wendy is a mother and grandmother. She enjoys photography, has volunteered at a donkey sanctuary, and makes her own soap. Beer soap is really hot right now.
