Jacelyn A.'s TOO MANY EXCLAMATION POINTS
Jacelyn A.'s TOO MANY EXCLAMATION POINTS
29, Sales Representative, California
The perspectives and stories shared in this conversation reflect only those of the speakers and in no way represent the viewpoints of their employers or connected organizations.
Jacelyn is a 29-year-old sales representative working in the health insurance industry in California. During this episode of TOO MANY EXCLAMATION POINTS, she shares about her experience moving out to California with no job, how she’s built a community away from family, and the value of sisterhood and mentorship.
Please note: Our conversation has been edited and condensed for this newsletter. Enjoy the full conversation with Jacelyn on the TOO MANY EXCLAMATION POINTS podcast.
Who are you, what do you do for a living, and what are you passionate about right now?
I am Jacelyn and I am currently 29, I’ll be 30 in May. I am a Puerto Rican from Chicago, and I currently live in southern California. As far as my current position, I work as a sales representative for the western region for a health insurance brokerage agency. As far as what I’m currently passionate about, one is mentorship. I have an 18-year-old mentee that I’ve been working with since she was 14. Another passion of mine is reading, I’m a big book nerd, and travel. Those are my top three right now.
Those are great passions to have — all things we celebrate here! What is your 3-minute career story from graduating high school to where you are today?
In regard to what I wanted for my life career-wise, I had no intention of working in the health insurance industry, but I knew at a very young age that education was key for me and for what I wanted to pursue, whatever it was. Starting off graduating in high school, I had always wanted to travel out of state for my college experience, either to California or New York, and I ended up going to New York for college where I got my business degree in marketing. I really honed in on the business and marketing side of things. My initial thought process was that I wanted to do something in marketing for entertainment, fashion, travel, my biggest passions — I didn’t know what it was but that I wanted marketing and those things. My life took a complete 360, and I went to California after graduating from college. My first job was going door to door selling AT&T bundle packages to businesses. I was so desperate to get a job right after college and everything was commissioned based. After a month and a half I couldn’t do it anymore, so I decided to work part-time as a restaurant hostess and working at an after-school program. Then I finally got a taste of experiential marketing for an internship I did at a marketing agency for nine months. And then eventually, I got to my current company, where I’ve been for seven years now — you could say my first real big girl job. I started off as a marketing representative and have now transitioned and was just promoted to the sales representative position. It’s been a long journey.
What made you ultimately decide to move to California from our tiny college town? First of all, it’s a big thing for you to move from Chicago to college, but then to go from there to California, what was that like?
Not to sound cliché, but I knew in fifth grade that I wanted to go to California. I was able to go to our college in upstate New York where I got a scholarship and had a wonderful experience. After I did that, I just didn’t want to go back home, and I had a friend who asked if I wanted to join her to go to California. I’m that type of girl, I already knew what I wanted to do in fifth grade, I knew what high school I wanted to go to, what experiences I wanted to have, I was very particular. This was the first time in my life that I didn’t have a game plan; I didn’t have something lined up for myself. I touched base with the women in my life who were important to me and whose opinions meant a lot. I was like “Hey, I don’t really know what I want to do, but there’s this opportunity and I feel like I should take it,” and they were like “go ahead, I think you’ll do great.” I had nothing planned, I had an AirBnB booked 30 minutes outside L.A., no job, no apartment and we wung it driving cross country. With that being said, it was probably one of the most spontaneous decisions I’ve ever made. I did not have anything to my name, I had $600 and everything packed up in a car that wasn’t even mine. It was a really big risk and when people ask me that question, it was really just grit and not wanting to come home. I told myself, the worst thing that can happen in this moment is that I end up not making it out here and I just go back.
That’s so inspiring and incredible! Coming out to California without really anything, what was it like for you to create those relationships, build community and really establish a life for yourself out there?
It was really hard and it was scary at first, I will say that 100%, by no means was it easy. I realized as an adult after graduation that a lot of the relationships and friendships that you’re going to build now are going to rely on you either going out and doing certain activities to the point that you’re a regular, or you’ll build them from your workplace. The jobs that I was working at weren’t long-term positions, so meeting people was difficult. I did go out on my own a lot and did things independently, so it taught me a lot in that sense. It was hard, but it’s something that I really pride myself in that I was able to see how much effort I could put into myself, realizing that I wasn’t going to just wait on someone in order to do something. Eventually, I did meet people along the way that I consider now my second family, I got really blessed and really lucky. Those relationships were built in a variety of different ways, through mutual friends, timing, random moments, and also BumbleBFF.
Oh my gosh, what’s that?
So, BumbleBFF is an app that’s dedicated to dating, you know the Bumble app and they have different versions of it, for friendships, for dating, and even one for business. But, when I first moved out to California in 2016, I was like YOLO, I’m going to see what this app is all about. And I’ve actually met three to four really good friends, who I’ve been friends with for the past 5+ years. Ya know, I was really nervous and will say that not every interaction will be a great one, but again I just got really blessed and lucky that I’ve met people through that. It’s really varied, I’d say that anyone who is in that same situation to keep an open mind and not just think that there’s one way to do it.
Oh wow, I’ve never heard of that before. That’s such a great move and a great use of technology. You mentioned earlier about the women in your life, and that you have a mentee now, can you talk about that power of sisterhood in terms of mentorship and what we can do as women for each other.
That is something I feel really passionate about when it comes to women and sisterhood; I think it’s a wonderful thing if you have it. Growing up, I had a lot of strong women in my family who were great examples of how we should strive to be. I’m a first-generation college student, so when it came to those types of circumstances, there were a lot of things that I was paving the way on my own for. But the women in my life, though they may have not experienced those things specifically, they were supportive, and wonderful and rooting for me, and that makes such a difference in a young woman’s life. I’m the oldest of four, and I wish I would have had an older sister who had guided me a little bit further in that experience, not necessarily an aunt or a mom, they’re great, but having someone who’s a little older than you who could have more insight, it would have been appreciated. So, when I came out to California and got my stability going, I felt there was a disconnect as far as my community, and I wanted to do something. I’ve always loved working for different charities and things like that. I was able to find the organization that I’m a part of and got connected to my mentee. She has taught me so much about patience and kindness and how much love and effort teenagers, and adolescents in general, need. I tell her, “As much as you think I’ve helped you; you’ve helped me heal my inner child and taught me so many things.” So, I think that womanhood and sisterhood is so key to a young woman’s life and think it is so important. I hope that at least one person has that type of connection in their lifetime because it makes a huge difference, whether it’s confidence, pursuing things, guidance.
I love that and thank you for sharing that. I think a lot of us can pinpoint to female mentors who’ve helped pave the way for us or offered that guidance and encouragement. To be able to step into a place where you can provide that to someone else, is so enriching and life-giving. Can we talk a little about your work, you work in sales now, can you describe what your day-to-day looks like?
So, honestly, my day-to-day can vary depending on what I have going on. It changes every day, every week. For a standard day if I’m going into the office, I start at 8 a.m. It looks like meeting in-person or virtually with different carrier representatives, organizations like United Healthcare, Humana, Aetna, touching base with those representatives to plan and strategize on how we can partner to create more of a successful environment for our agents to sell those different products. I also meet with certain agencies or agents, those are our clients because they’re selling the insurance, and making sure they’re assisted in whatever way they need: working on contracting, resolving issues with clients, strategizing, developing co-op opportunities so they can market themselves. It varies. But really, a boring way to say meetings. Other times I do travel for work to my territory to meet with people, build relationships, and make sure everyone is good to go.
You were in a marketing role before you went into sales. How was that bridge and transition for you?
With being in marketing for five-and-a-half years, it was a big difference because I was working in the office the whole time, on the phones assisting our agents. We met with agents from time-to-time, but it really wasn’t what I am doing now which is building relationships that are pivotal to our business. At first, I was pretty scared of the opportunity, but after a while I was moreso just excited to do something different because what I was doing at the time was very repetitive, and I enjoy that sales gives me more flexibility to connect with people, travel and see different places.
I think one of the cool things too is that it gives you more ownership of your experience, because your metrics and your success is a direct result of what you do. I think for those of us who are type A’s, go-getters who’ve worked very hard, planners, that type of role is something we excel in because that’s everything that we’ve done and put out there.
I agree with that 100% because it makes you feel more purposeful, at least that’s what it was for me. Again, when people ask me, “Oh, did you always want to be in health insurance?” Absolutely not, I had no idea this was going to be my life. Regardless, one thing I’ve learned is that you make do with what you have, and you grab pieces of things you enjoy and what certain things mean to you. For me, being in this position and having this promotion means a lot to me. It brought out the opportunity to be more independent, to have more flexibility, to feel more like I have a big girl job and having more responsibility. It has brought a big change for sure.
You’ve mentioned throughout our conversation about you being in fifth grade and deciding what you wanted for your future. Can you tell us, what fifth grade Jacelyn would think about this life that you’ve created for yourself?
Even you asking this, makes me kind of emotional because I think about that girl often. Growing up with a variety of circumstances that I had, I didn’t come from a family that had too many examples of what I’m doing right now. I’m the first in my family to move out of state and live out of state, other than my grandmother who lives in Puerto Rico, to really just go out and go for it. So, for fifth grade Jacelyn, she probably thinks she’s so cool right now. She’s probably like, what is going on, how did we create this life? Even recently, moving into my dream apartment, having so many people care about you, to curate this life for yourself. I put so much hard work into it and not only was it hard work, but it was also luck and blessings. She would be ecstatic, and she would be in awe that she was able to accomplish so many things; maybe not exactly how she imagined it would be. But I really can’t complain about where I’m at right now and I know she couldn’t either.
RAPID FIRE
What is a piece of advice you received that has impacted the way you look at building and maintaining your career?
Something that my mom always instilled in my is “It’s not that serious,” and I have had to sit myself down so many different times and reiterate that to myself. I wouldn’t consider myself too much type A, but specifically getting this promotion, being anxious and so scared to mess up or not do a good job. I had to sit myself down and be like, “It’s not that serious, you’re doing the best you can, you have the tools they’ve provided you, along with what you’ve learned along the way and that’s going to be enough.” And if it’s not enough, guess what, there are so many opportunities out there for you that you can fill in or be meant for.
What do you hope for yourself in 5 years?
I’m trying to stem away from being too specific and holding onto things, because I don’t want to be down on myself if I don’t get them. So, I’m going to keep it general, and I want to be healthy, happy and I really want to continue doing something that provides me financial stability.
What are you currently reading or read recently that has stuck with you?
Currently I’m in the middle of Sarah J. Maas’ series Throne of Glass. I started with ACOTAR and it really brought me back to my days as a high schooler reading the Twilight series and have gotten really pumped about it. Right now, I’m on the fifth book and I’m so excited to keep going.
Favorite thing to get you jazzed up before a big day?
Probably my self-care, getting my hair done, my nails done. If I look good, I’m going to feel good. My outfit needs to be on point and have a good playlist.
What is your preferred way to use vacation time or PTO?
Travel. Travel. Travel. It’s the only way I stay sane at this point in my life — having something to look forward to rejuvenate myself.
What are you looking forward to?
I’m going to Puerto Rico in two weeks to visit my grandmother and I’m bringing one of my best friends and I’m excited for that. As a thirtieth birthday gift for myself, I’m going to Scotland on a solo trip. I’m really really pumped to do that and see the castles and the history and the architecture to really bring my imagination to life.
What is your Too Many Exclamation Points right now?
Coming from a position of being in the same role for six years and finally going into a different role in the last eight months, it’s trying to do the best I can without putting too much pressure on myself. The fact that in this industry, there aren’t many individuals that look like me, young Latina women, it’s very white male dominated. I’m normally the only young woman in the conference room. So, for me, it’s navigating those business relationships and conversations. In building relationships, you have to teeter-totter between being personal and having that personality, but also keeping it business. So that can be difficult at times to navigate that world where I’m not going to be around too many familiar faces.
Thank you so much to Jacelyn for joining us this week and sharing the story of her career journey with us. Our podcast together goes into even more detail, so I encourage you to take a listen.
Be sure to share in the comments something that Jacelyn said that resonated with you or share this episode with a friend to encourage them on their career journey. As always, I’m grateful you’re here and wish you a week ahead with only the best exclamation points! — Skylar