“I buy homes for widows and orphans.”
When someone asks Reggie Rabjohns of Chicago what he does for a living, that is his carefully thought-out answer.
In September of 2018 he was awarded the John Newton Russell Memorial Award “For Outstanding Service to the Institution of Life Insurance” at the annual National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) conference in San Antonio. At NAIFA he has been a member for almost 50 years and has served on various committees and elected offices.
In his acceptance speech, he shared the same career advice with the attendees that he likes to share with his grandchildren about feeding the mind positive thoughts.
“The brain has ears but can’t talk back,” warned Rabjohns. If you want positive outcomes, feed the mind positive thoughts.
“The brain can’t take a joke,” said Rabjohns, who said the brain believes what you tell it. His advice was to tell it what you want to achieve.
In my studies of how independent advisors and consultants attract clients, an often-overlooked tactic is to do pro bono and volunteer work. Rabjohns is a great example of a professional who has embraced volunteer work and has made service an important part of his career.
Rabjohns' commitment to volunteer service has helped him become an international speaker who has addressed financial professionals and institutions, regulators and associations in 42 states and 25 countries.
He is a man who chooses his words carefully, and recommends the practice to others.
“Ad libs are for amateurs,” Rabjohns told the 900 attendees at the NAIFA gathering, the first one the 30,000-member group was able to hold in two years. The 2017 conference in Orlando had to be cancelled due to a Category Five hurricane that struck Florida.
One of the oldest and largest trade organizations in the insurance field, NAIFA was founded in 1890 in Boston as the National Association of Life Underwriters. In 1999, delegates voted to change the association's name to NAIFA. Since 1956 NAIFA has been committed to improving the quality of life for Americans and addressing social problems when the association first started developing community service programs.
Rabjohns began selling life insurance at the age of 20 while attending Northern Illinois University. At age 27 he became the youngest life member of the Million Dollar Roundtable, a group that elected him president in 1999. He is a member of the Hall of Fame for both The American College and the State Mutual/All America.
The NAIFA conference also highlighted that September is Life Insurance Awareness Month. This national educational campaign, which is coordinated by the nonprofit organization Life Happens, is designed to get consumers to take stock of their life insurance needs and protect their loved ones with proper insurance planning.
