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Admin of the Month: Laura Evans
December 1, 2023
Our Admin of the Month for November 2023 is Laura Evans, Director of Client Relations and Event Coordinator at Beckett Financial Group!
At Beckett Financial Group, Laura is the driving force behind the scenes. As Director of Client Relations and Event Coordinator, she is committed to transforming every client's uncertainty into absolute financial security throughout their retirement journey. With meticulous attention to detail, Laura crafts engaging client events and extends genuine care to each individual in the office, fostering a sense of belonging within the Beckett Financial Group family. Witnessing clients achieve their retirement goals is the most rewarding aspect of Laura’s role and reminds her of why she, along with the rest of her team, do what they do.
Outside of work, you can find Laura planning her next vacation. She and her husband Jason have been married for over 25 years and have 3 wonderful sons, who all love to travel. They are currently looking forward to checking another National Park off their list! When she's not traveling, Laura enjoys hiking, kayaking, and spending time with a good book and her two cats.
Check out Laura's advice video below!
How did you get into the administrative field and how has your role changed since being in the profession?
I began my administrative career as a Patient Service Representative for a corporate dental office. From there, I continued to advance and ultimately took on the role of a Regional Manager overseeing seven offices. However, I quickly realized that I missed interacting with patients and all of the admin tasks that I had grown to love. After reevaluating my goals, I decided to take a step back from management and found a position with a local financial company, Beckett Financial Group, thus returning to the admin world. After 3 years, I have never been happier.
What is your favorite part of your job?
Like most administrative professionals, I wear many hats, but my favorite is Event Coordinator. We're a small office but we're very active in the community. We also love to reward our clients and referral partners. I joined the team a couple of weeks before COVID shut everything down, so that particular part of my position was very slow to grow as things began to return to normal. In 2024, we plan on holding approximately 50-55 events. These range from private company lunch and learns, community education events, educational workshops, networking events to client referral reward events and client celebrations. I love being involved in the events because I get to meet new people and build relationships while celebrating our clients, which is always so rewarding.
What are you most proud of as an Admin?
I'm extremely proud of my ability to grow relationships. I'm constantly in the community making new connections so that I have an abundance of resources for our clients. Just because we're a financial group doesn't mean that we stop with financial planning when assisting our clients. Oftentimes, our clients are facing other challenges, so having a network of valued referrals is extremely important. At the end of the day, if I know that I've done everything I can to make our client's lives easier, I can rest easy knowing they're taken care of.
How has ASAP supported your personal and professional growth?
ASAP has been a key tool in my position. Because we're an office of only four team members, gaining knowledge of new skills is extremely difficult. Before discovering ASAP, I would often fumble my way through new situations with random information from internet searches. I discovered ASAP when searching for administrative certification options. I spent hours looking through the information over the following weeks. It was amazing how much was at my fingertips and knowing that I suddenly had thousands of new peers. Now when I have a question or am faced with a new situation, I immediately turn to ASAP.
What is your professional superpower?
My ability to say no! I spent years being afraid to say no which ultimately impacted my family and led to a decline in my mental and physical health. Once I learned how to set boundaries and how to do so effectively, it was a game changer. Now when I'm presented with a new task, I evaluate the task to determine the time and effort needed then decide if I'm able to fit that task into my existing to-do list. If it's going to set me back on other tasks, I either delegate or let the person who assigned the task know that I'm not able to fit that task into my current scope of work. I often handle this situation by asking, "Which of my current tasks would you like for me to set aside to work on this new task?" This lets the person know that I'm not simply saying no but that I'm physically not able to take on another task without negatively impacting other tasks. Once I learned how to properly approach saying no, it made a tremendous difference in my work and professional life.
Looking for more tips and opportunities from ASAP?
Want to nominate someone for Admin of the Month? Email Lydia Davidheiser, Content Coordinator, at [email protected].
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