BEST Blog: Insurance CE for 18 Years

	*Go to our website: https://bryanventures.com* Welcome to the BEST blog: A place for Renee E. Bryan to Spout-Off "Who reads all this CRP anyway?" If you have something to share, you can email Renee at reneeb@bryanventures.com, or post it right on our Facebook page. Please be advised: Any references you choose to make to this blog are open game for future posts. (Who am I kidding? ANYTHING is game for future posts.) Thank you! Renee E. Bryan also publishes writing at her blog: WrongWayLizzie.Me*.


		"Eighteen Again" Published September 2017

			The picture to the left is my high school graduation photo when I was, yes--that's correct, eighteen years of age. (Seventeen to be exact!) I sometimes try to convince myself I still look like that, but sadly, that simply cannot be true. If I did, people would respond in shock (and maybe awe...or possibly horror) when I tell them I'm the mom of college age kids. Instead, they just nod. So, as much as I might wish it wasn't so, I definitely look older than this eighteen year old version of me. Believe it or not, however, I am EIGHTEEN AGAIN! In a roundabout way...well, in a REALLY roundabout way. You see, I've been teaching insurance CE classes for Bryan Ventures since 1999 which means, given it's late in 2017 as I write this, we are, and I am, wrapping up the 18th year of live classroom insurance education. Just like when I graduated high school, looking back on all those school years, I am sitting back and wondering, "Where did the time go?" That graduating girl to the left (and even myself today) could think back to that journey of starting kindergarten and hopping on a school bus for the very first time. Just like the stroll down memory lane of all of those classroom years that brought that eighteen year old to the graduating platform, I still remember several details of the very first live classroom courses I instructed in downtown Mankato, Minnesota. Unlike all of our other locations that have shifted venues over the year, that very first insurance CE class was at the same location in Mankato that we teach today. In those days, it was the Holiday Inn. Now it's the City Center, but the classes themselves will be in the exact same room this October. I remember the excitement and the connection with that audience. I also remember a number of the faces of the agents in class as well as the instructed material. Another thing I can recall with palpable vividness is standing in front of that group of agents--maybe a dozen in total--and thinking, "This little business plan is probably going to work!" I am so grateful it did. This career and working for Bryan Ventures has been better than any blessing I could have imagined.


As much as things have stayed the same, like the energy, excitement, and agent involvement in our live continuing education classes, so many things have also changed. Back in 1999, we didn't have a website (the internet was still pretty new) and, as a result, we had no online insurance CE courses. That quickly changed! In 2000, we had our website up and running and shortly after we had our first online insurance continuing education courses available--some of which are still available today. There's a lot that has changed over the last eighteen years working for Bryan Ventures. There were also vast changes to the insurance and financial industry over that same eighteen year period. Too many to mention here and that topic could be an option for a future blog or even a new insurance CE course. What's most important now is the next eighteen years. Just like the eighteen year old girl featured in this picture who was very excited about the next part of her journey after high school--the college, career and family that was to come--this same girl is incredibly excited to see what the next eighteen years at Bryan Ventures will bring, and this girl is very grateful you are along with me on this journey. WANT TO SHARE YOUR IDEAS? Email Renee; or post on our Facebook page. Comments are based on the personal experiences or opinions of Renee and may not reflect the objective of Bryan Ventures, Inc.