Joyce Chan, AFP, used to be a first responder, but she didn’t like being in situations where she was merely responding, not helping.

The former police officer had been to many suicide scenes, but one incident hit her hard. She was called to an incident where a middle-aged man jumped from a building to his death after being diagnosed with a terminal illness. Inside the man’s shirt chest pocket was a note with three lines written in Mandarin.

“Asian dads are very sparing with their words,” Chan said. “It said, ‘Daughter, I’ve gotten cancer. Money is best saved for yourself. Don’t miss me.’ And that really hit me, because while I was there to manage the scene, I asked myself, what help was I truly rendering to this man lying in front of me?”

Chan had wanted to be in law enforcement ever since growing up and joined the force in Singapore after graduating from university. But after that shift, she seriously considered looking for another profession.

“I really wanted to be in a place where I could meet people, maybe one, two years before their diagnosis, to offer them the different options,” said the six-year MDRT member. “I always tell people that I’m not in the profession of selling. I am in a profession of offering people options, and the best thing is that they decide for themselves what these options could be and fund the policies for themselves rather than seek help from welfare organizations.”

As a newly minted advisor, Chan needed to build a pipeline of prospects. The first step usually is contacting friends and relatives to let them know your new career is selling insurance. Some new advisors are embarrassed and unwilling to do so, but she wasn’t. She knew that her purpose was clear and that she needed to take care of those closest and dearest to her.

“I think that one of the greatest challenges that many new advisors have to overcome is the fear of being judged, especially in this era of social media,” Chan said. “WhatsApp chat groups are prevalent, and you might be worried that if I prospect so-and-so, will they say on Instagram stories, ‘Avoid Joyce because she’s a financial advisor now’? You’re worried that if you speak to a friend, they’ll text WhatsApp chat groups to say ‘Joyce is a financial advisor now and just tried to provide me advice. Don’t go for a coffee with her.’”

Perspective shift

Chan recommends that new advisors overcome that fear by shifting how they perceive their profession.

“You are only afraid because you’re thinking that you are there to take commissions, to make policy sales and take money from clients. If that’s what you’re thinking, then you’re in the wrong profession,” Chan said, adding that she adopted a new mindset by looking at her prospecting activity as one where she is a giver, not a taker.

“If we could shift that mindset to where we are seeking prospects and clients to give them the best perspectives, the best opinions that we have, and from there, let the client decide whether or not to work with you, and respect their decision. If we are there to really present the best versions of ourselves, then perhaps our approach to prospecting would be very different,” Chan said. “I’m not here to make a sale out of you. I’m here to give you the knowledge, options, to give you what your next steps could be, and you make that decision for yourself. If you change to a give-first mentality, I think prospecting would be very different and that fear would greatly reduce, because what’s there to be judged about when you’re here to give first?”

Embracing the Whole Person

Chan has since qualified one time for Court of the Table, but during that climb, she recognized that she was stuck on a performance treadmill and needed to jump off.

“You work to live a life and not the other way around,” she said. “I am very fortunate to have my parents and all my grandparents around, and I joined this profession partially because I wanted to spend more time with them, but I really wasn’t.”

Another motivator for embracing the Whole Person concept was setting an example for colleagues. When Chan advised them to take a break to avoid burnout, but they worried that their production would suffer. 

“That’s when I realized that the root of the problem was me, because they are seeing that Joyce gets anxious when she takes a break,” Chan said. “In the past, I struggled a lot with scheduling because it was just work, work, work. I learned that if I want others to prioritize rest, to prioritize family time, I have to show them that I’m able to do it first. They have to see that Joyce is able to do it.”

So, another adjustment she made was to schedule important things first.

“That will always be my family,” Chan said. “This season, I’m prioritizing family first. There may be seasons when I prioritize work first, and that would be understandable as a working adult. In such seasons, I would have communicated my workload with my family. This month I’m going to be away at a conference, or the busy season is coming and I’m going to be spending less time with you, but here’s how I’m going to make up to you. I want to make sure that in achieving success in this profession and also in my life — because that’s why I’m an advisor — I am providing a better life for the people I love. If I’m not spending time with them, then what am I really doing? We work to help others live their lives well, and we should most definitely lead by example.”