I joined State Farm in 1986 and stayed for 32 years, working my way into a role most people have never heard of: Business Architect. My job, at its heart, was translation — turning the tacit, hard-won knowledge in someone's head into something an entire organization could rely on.
Over those three decades, I supervised underwriting teams, redesigned processing audits, and built an internal platform for capturing business knowledge before it walked out the door with departing experts. I developed a curriculum that trained 160 business architects and built a coaching program that cut new architects' learning curve in half.
But the work that stayed with me most was quieter than any of that: sitting across from someone who'd spent 20 or 30 years mastering something, and simply listening long enough for them to realize how much they actually knew.
Listening is a prerequisite to understanding, and understanding is a prerequisite to analyzing. You cannot apply knowledge without understanding it — and you cannot understand it without truly listening first.
Outside of work, my life is full in the ways that matter most. I especially love spending time outdoors — helping friends with their landscaping projects has become one of my favorite ways to stay active, useful, and grounded. There's something deeply satisfying about digging in and helping something grow, in a garden or otherwise. I also travel across the country whenever I can to visit family and old friends, which keeps me refreshed and reminds me what all this work is really for.
