Daria Schumacher > Registered Representative

"Teaching the business to others, seeing them succeed and watching them grow as representatives gave me a real sense of pride and accomplishment."

I knew that I wanted to work in the financial services field since I was 15 years old. I always loved math, and as an athlete and basketball player, I had a taste of winning and being a team player. This made me realize that I also wanted to work with others when I chose a career.

I went to business school in Poland, where I studied marketing and management. I was always looking for an opportunity and a challenge. As a young student, I realized that my English skills were not where they should be in order to be successful and competitive in the business world. My burning desire to be the best led to a trip to America. My sole purpose was to learn English, but I ended up getting married. For two years, I traveled between Poland and the U.S. In February 2004, I graduated with a Master's degree in financial management and accounting, and in March I moved back to America permanently.

While researching career opportunities, I came across First Investors. I really liked the Company model of building a business through word-of-mouth, as well as the philosophy of always putting the clients' interests first. I liked the opportunity, and the challenge, of being able to control my own destiny. I knew this was the company I wanted to work for, and retire from. However, after my second interview at the Albany office, I was told, "No." I was disappointed at first, but I believed strongly in my ability to succeed, and with the encouragement of my husband Hans, I called First Investors back. As a result, I was invited for a third interview with my soon-to-be manager, David Roche, who gave me the opportunity to join the Albany team.

I faced a lot of challenges at the beginning, starting with the language barrier. I had to translate my life insurance, Series 6 and Series 63 books into Polish, my native language, so that I could study for my exams. I didn't know the geographic area, and did not have any family nearby to help me jumpstart my business. My bankbook consisted of five people who were business owners, and while many representatives would have assumed they wouldn't need financial advice, I called them—and all five are my clients today.

I had a slow start, but I knew that if I mastered my presentation, stuck to the procedure and treated all of my clients as if they were the most important people in the world, I'd be successful.

I always believed that if you want to be successful you have to not only surround yourself with successful people, but also be willing to take their direction. I was mentored by my manager David Roche, who taught me successful techniques for analyzing CSQs, presenting them to clients and following proper procedure. David was also willing to help me improve my English, and had the patience to answer the hundreds of questions I had about this business.

I had to do a lot of prospecting to find my future clients and attended every home show, expo and county fair in the area. Early on, I found out that speaking with a foreign accent, always smiling, having fun while working and being positive made me different from my competition, and helped me grow my business. I've always believed in referrals—I learned that on day one from Dave. Delivering to our clients what we promise gives me the confidence to know that I deserve referrals. To this day, I ask for 10 referrals on every single appointment. I've also never stopped prospecting at shows and expos because why change something that works?

After only one year in the business, my manager gave me the opportunity to mentor. Teaching the business to others, seeing them succeed and watching them grow as representatives gave me a real sense of pride and accomplishment, and confirmed that management is my destiny in life. There are a lot of mentees in Albany whose success is an important part of my success today.

I'm very competitive and always strive to be the best, but I'm also a team player and there's nothing that makes me happier than the success of my colleagues from the Albany office, especially as we celebrate being the #1 office in Insurance Production this year. I also share my success with my husband Hans, who supported me through every step of my career, never let me down and encouraged and motivated me to do more, and strive to be better.

I believe in what I do and I care about my clients and the people around me. I'm very passionate about my career and how I can impact my clients' lives and my mentees' careers, and help them reach their goals and live their dreams. Every day I look for a new challenge and a new opportunity because I know that there is more success to come and First Investors is the Company I'm going to retire from.

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