 
By Helen Thompson
Last December, Advisor Today teamed up with YAT to launch YAT Chat. During the past year, you’ve met young advisors, heard from YAT leaders, and gotten sales ideas and marketing tips from Advisor Today writers and editors. You’ve gotten to know NAIFA a little better and seen how much they value their younger members. The newsletter has more in store for 2005, with a line-up of practice management and technology features that are sure to grab your attention and even more sales and marketing strategies. Moreover, Advisor Today will have 100 candles on its birthday cake in 2006, so we’re spending an entire year celebrating. We do hope you’ll join us.
NAIFA Trustee Robert Miller, who serves as YAT liaison to the board, won’t be joining us right away, however, even though he too is celebrating his birthday this month. “AT is older than me, and I’m older than YAT Chat,” he says, “so I’m somewhere right in the middle.” Miller certainly doesn’t let that stop him: He’s currently in Africa climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, but checked in right before he left to send his regards to young advisors.
New perspectives
“The YAT group are the freshest minds we have in NAIFA,” he says. “They are the ones that are going to carry us into the future. I take the younger agents seriously because they are the future of our business. We’re a graying population of insurance agents, and we need young leadership and ideas.”
Miller’s role as board liaison is to advise, counsel, guide and mentor. “I find myself in the unusual position that after thinking that I’m young all these years, I’m in a position of leadership,” he says. “My charge is to advise YAT and help them crystallize their ideas without imposing what I think they should do on them.”
 |
Miller is committed to helping NAIFA be a great place for young advisors, noting that YATters can empower each other to rise to new levels of success.
|
|
One of the things he helped put together was last week’s YAT strategic planning meeting that took place at NAIFA headquarters. “We want to make sure that we’re not reinventing the wheel each year,” says Miller, who called in to the meeting from 12,000 feet up Mt. Kilamanjaro. “It’s great that YAT has a fun side, but we need to show YAT’s serious side, too.”
YAT is good for NAIFA
Miller was elected to the board at the National Convention in September. In the two months he’s been working with YAT leaders, he’s been impressed with their energy, enthusiasm and creativity. While he is there to provide guidance, he also helps YAT get their ideas in front of the board. “In my brief involvement with them, it’s been a mile-a-minute; the ideas keep coming. It’s great,” he says. “YAT can help NAIFA look at itself in a new light. They come with fresh ideas and vision, and we certainly need that. We may not always like what they say, but we need to listen to it and integrate those ideas into what we do.”
Mentor each other
And while Miller acknowledges that not everything will work, he is committed to helping NAIFA be a great place for young advisors, noting that YATters can empower each other to rise to new levels of success. “I’ve had more success than I’ve ever dreamed of, but what I’m doing may not be relevant to what they are doing,” says Miller, who can be reached at rmdreamon@hotmail.com. “The best mentors are the ones that are doing what I’m doing, and they tend to be within my own age group because we’re interested in similar things and we face the same problems.”
DECEMBER 2005
There's No Place Like YAT for the Holidays
Making Effective Presentations
A Methodical Approach
|
|
