3 Thoughts About Writing The Academy Journal

I took a short trip down memory lane recently by checking out the Academy’s blog on Insurance Journal. (I’d link to it, but if you’re reading this, you already know where it is) I just realized that I’ve been writing this since the middle of February. I remember kind of trying to push off the idea of writing the blog at the beginning. To be fair, when I agreed to write my first post, I had been sitting in this chair for five weeks. I wasn’t used to doing this much writing. Hand cramps, you know.

While I was looking at the posts over the months since I’ve been writing, it occurred to me that I hadn’t taken time to discuss with you (my favorite readers) the way I planned to approach this blog. You have probably figured out that no topic in insurance feels out of bounds to me. You’re right, but it’s more than just what comes across my mind when I sit down to type. Here are a few characteristics that I like to see when I’m reading and that I plan to use in writing this.

I like lists. That’s why most of my post titles include a number:

2 Unbelievable Stories from My Underwriting Days

3 Quick Responses to Insurance Career Objections

4 Reasons that Maybe is My Favorite Insurance Word

5 Words You Can’t Ignore in the Policy

Lists make the reading easy. I wrote an article for a prior employer and sent it to a peer for review. She sent me back an email that simply read, “TLDR.” (I heard that amen. That wasn’t kind.) It means too long, didn’t read. That’s when I decided that if I’m over about 200 words, I’ll do everything I can to make it easy to read. Therefore, you get lists. By the way, you can thank someone that I currently work with (no names, please) for the bold formatting so you can find each of the points easily. Cuts down on your reading time. You’re welcome. Thanks, J.

I like simple. You’re not going to get a lot of complicated language, unless I try and break it down into simpler terms. It’s not that I don’t know the hard words. I just don’t like to use them. Part of my job is to take complicated insurance concepts and make them easy to deal with. That means that I don’t generally use dry academic terms. I tell stories to make it easier to relate to the information. I’m not a lawyer so I don’t use lawyer language. I’m an insurance teacher and storyteller. That’s what you’re getting from me. If you read enough, you might even learn a bit about me because even though it bothers my wife sometimes, I only have my stories to tell.

I like actionable. You have limited time. You’re choosing to spend some of that time with me. That means that I have to be very careful to give you something that you can use today. Not something that was useful ten years ago, or may never be useful. I hope to give you learning that helps you to do your job better. (OK, I also want you to laugh a little whenever possible, too.) I believe that when you know that you can get practical help to make your job easier or make you more successful, you’ll keep coming back and tell someone else where you got some help. That makes me want to write more.

I wanted to get that out there so that you know what to expect (if you didn’t by now). We’ll be back to insurance topics next week. If you have anything that you want to see written about here, or you have kudos or concerns, leave us a comment. If you think we’re doing a good job with this, share it. The more people that read the Academy blog, the more people we help.