An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
The last words of advice are the ones I hold dearest to my heart, from my late grandfather, Bill Randall. He received an award in school that he kept with him throughout his life:
“It’s not what you get, but what you give; it’s not what you say, but how you live’ giving the world the love it needs, living a life of noble deeds; strong for the right, the good, the true, these are the things worthwhile to you.”
As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Lauren Randall.
Lauren Randall is an experienced Benefits Strategist consulting with CFOs and CHROs on their people and risk strategy. People are a company’s most valuable asset and providing best-in-class health benefits is a trademark of the investment management and tech industries. However, it can also open up the opportunity for increased waste and abuse that does not correlate to increased productivity and an elevated employee experience. Abnormal market forces and an opaque business model have contributed to this. Still, through technology, data, and analytics available today, consultants can better ensure that every dollar invested into human capital provides clients with a strong return. https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenrandall1/
Lauren works CFOs and CHROs in the hedge fund and tech spaces. When she started, she was having trouble getting her foot in the door in a predominantly man’s world. She reached out to C-suite women in the hedge fund and financial services space and invited them to coffee just to learn about the industry. As she met with more C-suite women and heard their stories, she started asking if they would like to meet other women in C-suite positions. This became a tri-state and online networking community for women. Currently free to join. Both emerging leaders and C-suite women come together to mentor, nurture one another, and create business growth. https://www.womentowomenexchange.com/.
“Ms. Randall’s opinions expressed in this article are based on her personal views and do not represent those of her employer.”
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I stumbled into insurance! I was completing my thesis for undergrad working as a barista, when someone approached me about a market research position at an InsurTech firm in Milwaukee. I had taken some time off due to an illness and was anxious to graduate and move forward with my life. I took the interview and immediately fell in love with the company, the leadership and the vision. Within three months, I was offered a full-time position in any department that I wanted, and I chose sales.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
I joined the insurance industry because of the hardships and challenges that I faced at nineteen being a patient in the health care industry. I saw first-hand how many bills my parents were overwhelmed with when I got sick. I knew that the only way that I could change the industry for the better, was to understand it. This is the mission that drives me every single day. While I work within the budgets, parameters, goals, and objectives of the clients that I serve, ultimately when they hire me, they are typically severing a long-term relationship with their prior advisor. While this doesn’t cause disruption at the employee level, breaking that relationship is a change and it is hard to do. Companies will only make this change if they themselves are ready for something better or more promising. Employees today are also demanding more of their leaders, and they want to feel taken care of. Benefits and compensation are major contributors to this. The insurance industry, I believe, is inherently disruptive due to the change happening in the world of people, health and work. The worst disruption, however, comes from the advisors and employers who are not willing to change with it.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
As an intern, I was told there was only one open position in sales, despite the fact there were four interns. I knew one of my fellow colleagues was interviewing for the same role as me and one of us would not get it. This made us extremely competitive and despite exchanging pleasantries, we were constantly one-upping each other and trying to push ourselves, optimize workflows, gain visibility with leadership and help solve complex problems. It became exhausting and we both felt the tension and stress build up. When it came time to announce who had gotten the position, our leaders told us that we both did. They said that having two great candidates and only one open position would not preclude them from hiring great talent. We immediately became friends and are still great friends to this day. While we laugh and still joke about our rivalry, I realize that I likely would have gained more by being a team player and expanding my mindset beyond the situation at hand. I try to have an abundance mindset over scarcity and always want to be supportive and inclusive of my colleagues and teams, because we are in this together. At the same time, it also taught me to recognize that sometimes our competitors can push us to perform even better than our own expectations.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
It takes a village and I have had so many incredible mentors on my journey. I will never forget meeting my current leader, Chantal Raineri. She was the top producer in my region, and I was meeting her for the first time just as our busiest season
The last words of advice are the ones I hold dearest to my heart, from my late grandfather, Bill Randall. He received an award in school that he kept with him throughout his life:
“It’s not what you get, but what you give; it’s not what you say, but how you live’ giving the world the love it needs, living a life of noble deeds; strong for the right, the good, the true, these are the things worthwhile to you.”
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
For me, I’m focusing a lot of my effort on helping hypergrowth companies more effectively scale and update their insurance and benefit plans. As companies start out, they tend to enter more “out of the box” insurance solutions, as well as payroll and technology vendors and relationships. As they eclipse a certain number, they tend to outgrow these systems and policies and it can cause a great deal of friction and potential liability. The best advisors have a deep bench of experts in technology, as well as the human capital management (HCM)/payroll space, so we can advise our clients on systems beyond just traditional benefits administration.
The other area of change I am seeing quite a bit is diversity, equity and inclusion, and the concept of “inclusive benefits.”
Mental health is another area of innovation, where we are helping clients to engage with vendors that can provide a better care experience with mental health providers. The most recent Supreme Court ruling is also another area that our compliance teams are advising our clients on, as this is a sensitive topic impacting many employers differently across the country.
Lastly, long-term care and leave management are two areas employers are struggling with. States are starting to mandate state-specific long-term care plans and employers will have to comply with these mandates. We are helping our clients take leave management and long-term care coordination off their plate to make their lives easier, more efficient and compliant.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
There is an additional level of scrutiny that we are all subject to when we succeed, and sometimes, when you are already in the minority from a gender perspective, this spotlight can be heightened. I think many women have experienced this. Especially when we somewhat “break the mold” of what traditional success looks like, it tends to naturally garner curiosity from others. I try to remind myself that success comes and goes in waves and that when I am down and no one is looking, I am doing the exact same things that lead to my success. I try to stay humble in that regard and not pay attention to the ego component, although we are all susceptible to it.
Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?
Medical Medium was the book that changed my health journey and my life. It allowed me to look deeper into my health and my condition and change my lifestyle in order to heal. I’ll be forever grateful to that book for the hope it gave me in a somewhat hopeless situation.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
My inner “why.” is to build a bridge of understanding amongst people. I’ve always been curious about people, fascinated by what makes each person ‘tick’ and why each of us makes the decisions that we make. I’ve always felt that an openness and curiosity towards others can serve as a bridge to our differences and I try to exercise this passion in my writing and my work. I used to feel so passionate early in my life and I felt so strongly about my opinions. When I got sick, I began to question the world around me and look at life, and even death, through a different lens. As I started to peel back the layers of life and the world around me, I started to see that treating others with respect and keeping an open mind towards differing opinions was far more important than any one belief that I held. I believe that we are all made better by working with multiple perspectives and viewpoints, by embracing the discomfort of respectful debate. My goal in life is not to influence people, it is to live the best life that I possibly can, live the legacy of my grandfather and that somehow by living my most authentic life, this may empower others to do the same.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
When I was undergoing treatment and taking a break from school, I spent a lot of time sleeping. The fatigue and exhaustion took away a lot of my personality, but I still had the ability to dream. I had a quote above my bed, “I have a dream and even if it remains a dream, I will visit it every time I lay down my head.” It was a picture of me sleeping and smiling, dreaming of getting better. There are so many ventures we enter with the prospect of promise and the uncertainty of outcome. I was let down countless times in my journey, but I knew that no matter what, nothing could take away my dreams. I continued to visualize my healing and visit that world to stay connected to it. Now, since recovering, I try to stay true and connected to that feeling, to maintain that sheer gratitude for the version of myself who never gave up, who put the time in, day-in and day-out, without any guarantees, for the mere chance of the life that I have now. I try to thank her every day and remind myself to keep dreaming.
How can our readers follow you online?
I am very active on LinkedIn, so connect with me! I share benefits tips and tricks and other insights and posts. I also am active on www.womentowomenexchange.com.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Female Disruptors: Lauren Randall On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.