Meet The Agent – Holly Vallee

Graeme: Welcome to Uplift. My name is Graeme, Brand production specialist here at Nova. And thank you for joining me on this very special mini-episode of Uplift, where we meet one of our agents – Holly Vallee. Thank you so much for joining me on the podcast!

Holly: Hi, Graeme. Thanks so much for having me. It’s great to be here today.

Graeme: Holly, can you tell us a bit of your professional background and how you ended up here at Nova?

Holly: I went and got my advanced diploma for business administration from Sheridan College. And through that, I had done a co-op program to get my feet wet. So the majority of my career was spent in the public sector, so probably about seven years total. And throughout that whole time, I had done some courses on the side. But the cool thing about finance and accounting is that it’s in every industry. So you could be in the sports industry, you could be in any industry that you wanted to. I came across a LinkedIn post that a mutual connection had shared, and it said, take a look at this awesome opportunity. I clicked on it and it’s a job ad for Nova Mutual financial operations lead. So I looked at the socials and I immediately found a sense of calm and belonging in that. A couple of the stories that were being shared on there kind of touched home with me. So I applied right away, and I heard back the next day, and then I was a financial operation lead at Nova. So that’s how I came to be at Nova Mutual, and that was in 2020.

Graeme: I know that working in the public sector is almost like the dream position for a lot of people. It’s like I’ve landed; I’ve made it. And I know a couple of other people on our staff, too, have left the public sector and come to Nova Mutual. What’s the big difference between the two that made you want to come and work here at this awesome mutual?

Holly: I know it’s the ability to think outside the box. You’re not stuck in this box and have to work with it. You can think outside the box and you can follow wherever you want to go. So if you feel like, oh, I really want to do something for this one customer, I can do that here. Whereas sometimes you had to jump through hoops before or I think it’s just providing a better service. And that’s something that I really like to do is go above and beyond for the person I’m working for or working with. And I was absolutely able to do that here at Nova.

Graeme: Talking about autonomy and freedom here at Nova, you changed your position here and only starting in 2020 have already evolved into a whole new career. Can you tell us all about this?

Holly: Sue, our Employee Experience Director, suggested an awesome course to me. It’s a Simon Sinek course called “Find your why.” I absolutely loved my financial role, but I just found that something was missing. My cup wasn’t, per se, filled at the end of each day. I enjoyed the work that I was doing, but that sense of satisfaction was something that I was missing from my career goals. So I did the Simon course, and I came out with my “Why” statement. And your “Why” statement is the route to the reason for every decision you make. It’s the route to why you react the way you do and why you do what you do. So with that, the two main words that I took away from my “Why” statement were care and support. So how can I make somebody feel safe? How can I care for them and support them in Nova? Because that’s something that I need to do for myself, and that’s something that I need to do to feel fulfilled. So it was a light bulb that went off in my head, and it’s like, okay, the agency is where I need to be. This is where I can touch the people that are directly impacted by the services that we provide. And sometimes, in the worst times that they could be experiencing to let them know that they’re okay. We’ve got you. We know exactly what to do, and we’re taking care of this for you. That, to me, is what fills my cup. And that, to me, is what, at the end of the day, makes me feel like I did a good job. And here we are, in agency, and I love it. I feel like I’m at home. I feel like this is where I’m meant to be right now, and it’s awesome.

Graeme: On the podcast, I’ve been closing off 50 episodes by saying, if you want to join the Nova family, click on that find a broker button. But there’s another way to join the Nova family, too, and that’s through our agencies. Can you explain?

Holly: There are a couple of ways to contact the agents. There are three of us. We are a small but mighty team, and we would be happy to provide you guidance or answer any questions that you have or even get you a quote. So we have a sales line so you can call Nova’s mainline and follow the prompts. Or you can email our sales inbox and that’s sales@Nova Mutual.com. And one of us agents will be happy to get back to you.

Graeme: A lot of people are hearing about Nova Mutual through the grapevine, through word of mouth, say people want to change their policy and change their insurance provider and be involved with someone who’s doing a lot of cool things in the community. What would be the steps, and maybe when would be the best time to change your policy?

Holly: The best time would be at your renewal date. So that’s kind of when we would want to make a smooth transition from your previous insurer to Nova. So typically, we do need a little bit of time to go through all the information and get everything set up. So as soon as you receive your renewal from your insurer and you’re looking over that, you can give us a call and we can kind of talk through everything at that point and we can go from there.

Graeme: What kind of insurance do we offer here at Nova?

Holly: We have personal lines, so your home and auto insurance, tenants package, condo package, any sort of coverage to protect your home and your contents. We also have commercial policies for small businesses and commercial auto as well. And then we also have agriculture.