In this episode, Kamran and Sadia welcome Lynn Peachey, director of business development at Arete, to talk about Lynn's life, being a woman in cyber, and perfecting the work-life balance.
In this episode of Unauthorized Access, Kamran and Sadia welcome Lynn Peachey, director of business development at Arete. The three talk about Lynn's life, being a woman in cyber, and perfecting the work-life balance. Welcome to the human element of cybersecurity.
Unauthorized Access: Inside the Mind of Lynn Peachey
Posted: February 22, 2023
Kamran Salour:
Hello and welcome to season two of Unauthorized Access. We are excited to be back in 2023 for a couple of reasons. First, we thought for sure that this podcast would've been canceled by now, so we're excited to be here for season two. And secondly, and certainly more importantly, we have a very special guest today. She is someone in the IR space that really needs no introduction, but of course, give me a minute here to introduce her for all of you.
She is a lawyer. She is a former claims specialist. She holds a CIPP/US certification. She is a current director of business development. In her college days, you may have found her in the scrum as a rugby player, and while she may be loath to admit, she is a friend and truly in my eyes, I consider her a ray of sunshine. Anytime I hear from her, it always brightens my day. Please join me in welcoming the incomparable Lynn Peachey to the podcast.
Lynn Peachey:
Thanks very much, Kam.
Kamran Salour:
I'm very happy that you could join us today. We are very excited to have you. Today we're going to try something a little bit different with our podcast and it's really a special edition of the Unauthorized Access Podcast. Today we're really going to go into the mind of Lynn Peachey. What our viewers can't see, but Lynn is seated next to a machine with some electrodes posted, really digging deep into what Lynn is thinking about. I'm going to go straight over to Sadia and let her fire away because this is going to be a rapid-fire situation here.
Lynn Peachey:
Love it. Sounds good.
Sadia Mirza:
Okay, so Lynn, we are going to get started. I remember we described this as like a speed, it's not speed dating, but essentially, we wanted to ask you like a million questions, and I'll only give you a couple seconds to answer them. We'll see where the conversation goes.
We know that you are at Arete right now. Can you just describe your role for us?
Lynn Peachey:
My title is the Director of Business Development, specifically for the Cyber Insurance Channel. What it means to me is I'm managing the relationships, with not just the insurance carrier partners that we serve, but also with the law firms that serve those carriers. It is a small ecosystem. It is just as important as the insured and client receiving our services. Equally important to understand the folks that you're working with day in and day out vis-a-vis the carriers and any attorneys.
It can be anything from providing threat intel on a discrete topic. It can be meeting with a carrier and offering some sort of educational presentation. Same for the attorneys. It could be reaching out to new clients or discussing retainer options with prospective clients. Just fielding all sorts of inquiries about the business, what we do, how we do it, and how we can help service the parties that are coming to us.
Sadia Mirza:
Lynn, I think what's really unique about you, and this goes to our second question about where were you before Arete, and what were you doing. Because I think you have a different perspective that not a lot of people in the IR space have. Can you tell us about your roles before Arete?
Lynn Peachey:
Prior to joining Arete, I actually performed the same role at each of the insurance companies I worked for. Started my insurance career at AIG in the cyber claims department and then moved on to AXA XL, also in their cyber claims department. Each of those carriers have pretty similar and robust first party cyber forms in that they're covering all angles of a cyber incident, as well as errors and omissions, liability insurance, specifically technology, errors and omissions, and then finally, no one really knows why. I'm sure someone knows why, but the add-on of media claims, which would be copyright infringement, intellectual property, rights issues, things like that, often tacked onto those policies as well.
Handling the full kind of suite 360 of a cyber incident, and then those other types of third-party liabilities that were on both of the AIG and AXA forms. That is what I did prior to coming to Arete, and because I started at AIG when a lost laptop was the claim of the day, and then moving into to 2019, 2020 into the ransomware epidemic, certainly was able to observe the market changes in what was happening from the actual security perspective. Then how the policies were responding and what changes they thought about making, which they have made in the recent past to better understand and manage that risk that has emerged as a result of the changing threat landscape.
Kamran Salour:
I have a quick question for you, Lynn. Can you get us on the AIG panel? I joke of course, but I wanted to know, I guess, what inspired your transition from AIG and AXA, more on the cyber claims side into the business development role?
Lynn Peachey:
I think like any good story, there's probably a lot of thought that this happened as a result of an intentional career choice, but it really came about as I think a lot of things do just through connections and networking and discussions. I really wasn't even looking to leave AXA. It was a great home for me and I still tell them that, save a seat for me. It was a great group, a great company to work for. There was really nothing negative about it.
It was really just a kind of time and place, some things going on in my personal life that spurred the need to think a little bit differently. Just knowing the lovely Brookes Taney who I knew really from his epic days and working with him at AIG, someone that always was so responsive, so helpful, cleaned up a decent number of messes that we dealt with on the notification side. Certainly, a trusted partner in many respects and conversations evolved and all of a sudden, this role was presented to me.
It was not a great story of, oh, there's all this to say and I worked really diligently to try to find the right place in this space. It was a fortunate time and place and occurrence type situation.
Kamran Salour:
I think Sadia would say just the opposite of me coming here to Troutman. It was a confluence of unfortunate situations for her, but I agree wholeheartedly. If you are with the right type of people and you mentioned your relationship with Brookes, a trust that you two have together as partners. Obviously, that is such an important facet of anything you do. If you're working with the right people, then you'll do whatever work, even if you weren't expecting to do it because you are working with the right group of people. That story certainly resonates with me. What is your most favorite part of what you do at Arete now?
Lynn Peachey:
I think the business education that I received from working at a growing professional services company, something that is not as entrenched and I guess corporatized as a large insurance carrier. I have just been able to even apply my legal education in a different way than I thought, again, in more of that business mindset. That for me has been very enriching from a career perspective.
Whether it's customer service, whether it's handling things with a softer touch instead of being on the defensive from a legal perspective. I think just having different conversations, getting to know people on different levels, all of those things have helped me learn more about how you project sales numbers or things like that, that I really would never have had to do in a strictly legal career or even on the claim side.
Kamran Salour:
The next obvious question is what's your least favorite part about Arete, but I'm not expecting you to answer that, so we will jump over that one.
Because you have experience as both on the carrier side where you were being wooed by different vendors, and now part of what you do is you're doing some of the wooing. You're trying to get on the radar of certain carriers. What would be something that you wish you knew before you started your role at Arete. Now, I wish I knew this information about business development with respect to carriers?
Lynn Peachey:
I actually think that it's not so much the interaction with carriers that surprised me. I think I maybe like many others, had a different view of the market in terms of what it looks like when things are really spiking threat activity-wise versus when things are more calm and quiet.
I think judging the market based on where we were at in 2019 and 2020 was certainly not the barometer for the go forward. That was something that was surprising, and then you worry about what's the quality of our work? Are we doing something or anything wrong? Should we be doing something better? I think it is easier to have self-doubt about your abilities and the value that you're bringing to the carriers when the market has slowed down from the threat landscape perspective.
For me, my approach is different because really, I value so many of the people that I have met and worked with. I have loved every minute of meeting new carriers, meeting people that I would have never had access to being at just one insurance carrier because there really are a lot of more talented than I people around me. I hope that by proxy, their talent rubs off on me.
I would just say that it really has become difficult to predict where the market is going, what threat actors are going to do, and I think with that then comes the uncertainty as to what makes sense to offer the carriers. How can you provide value to them? And that's something that's constantly evolving. It helps keep me on my toes and helps me be better but is something way different than I would've ever thought I was worrying about, at least when I was on the claims side.
Sadia Mirza:
What are some of the creative BD things that you've done in your role at Arete or otherwise? When the market is just slower, what's the value add? What do you think vendors should be doing at this point? If there's not just a million claims floating around, what would be your suggestion?
Lynn Peachey:
Don't ask for business. I don't do this. I don't do that. I usually will just be like, “Did we do anything wrong? Did we mess up?” But don't go begging for business. That is the number one thing. Carriers can't control the claims that they get or don't get. There is obviously a recognizable slowdown in the market that everybody is experiencing, so that has to be measured with how you're going to approach carriers.
My advice: still do still take people out. You still see people. Maybe you're not doing a huge private yacht party or something like that when business is slower, but you still have to make sure that you're showing the love even when there's not a crazy flow because number one, there's so much movement in this industry. You never know where anyone is going to wind up.
Number two: don't forget to do the fun stuff just because you might be stressed on the vendor side. Everybody is still looking for that break. You have to remember that on the claim side, a lot of folks are dealing with not just first party claims that are going on in perpetuity because of BI loss or things like that. But also, third-party claims where maybe your insured client has demanded that you be present for a mediation in two days and they want a million dollars.
There's different stressors and there's always a decent workload for claims people. Everybody always needs a break, whether you do it virtually and do something that's more cost effective, or you're able to get a group together, do a breakfast, lunch. Just all of those team building type activities are always worth it because you never don't leave without learning something new.
Sadia Mirza:
These are conversation that Kamran and I have with vendors, carriers, just all the time about what's the best way, how do you develop that work? You coming out and saying, “Don't ask for work.” It's not like people are just sitting with claims waiting for someone to say, “Oh, hey, do you have a claim to hand it out?”
One, I want to apologize to Adam Smith from Coalition for my last email, but two, it's so important, and that's something that I think I've been learning and recognizing more that it goes to your point about how you got to where you're at. It's the relationships that you form.
For me, it's like the most organic way to grow personally, but also, I guess to develop, to grow as a company too. Create genuine real relationships because then I think at the end of the day, you really want to help your friends out. I want to work with the people that I'm friends with and that's who I'm inclined to give more work to. How do you become friends? We're not going to become friends by you emailing me and saying, “Do you have claims?” We're going to become friends if we're hanging out and doing things, something that isn't related to IR. That to me is effective and something that I'm learning more and more and appreciating more and more every day.
Lynn Peachey:
I would just finish that up by saying I know that I'm not for everyone. I know that not everyone is going to like me and not everybody's going to vibe with me, and that is totally okay. I'm still going to be my genuine, honest self and I am not going to harass someone that clearly there's not a relationship there.
I think that's also important to know is just be aware of your surroundings and read the room. Just be respectful of other relationships that folks have with other vendors. That's important. Some of these relationships are decades long. Just be respectful and kindness. But again, always nice to get to know people on levels that aren't just about work, and to also put yourself out there because that's how you'll know if you guys are going to work well together or not.
Sadia Mirza:
Wow, this goes to the inside the mind of Lynn Peachey. What are some of your favorites — if you're going to hang out or do something with someone — what do you genuinely enjoy doing and what kind of activities? I hate virtual happy hours with my life. I never want to get on camera. I'm not going to be able to bond with someone through that. But what do you enjoy, and what do you hate?
Lynn Peachey:
Let's start with what I hate first. You know what, I hate really large events where it's impossible to get much quality one-on-one time. I hate that so I'm not going to go further than that. But there are some venues and some industry-wide things that are just not my speed, not my style. I like keeping things to a smaller group. I love good food, so I'm usually going to pick drinks, and then a really good restaurant. It's probably going to be Michelin starred. I'm sorry, I'm going to be annoying. It's going to be something special that the folks that I'm taking, I know that they're into.
Similarly, a lot of carriers, and again, this is where you have to be the most respectful, have certain dollar amounts that vendors can actually gift or spend on them. You want to be cognizant and respectful of those people that might have a bunch of hoops to go through just to meet with you that, okay, let's do a coffee in the park, or let's just take a walk, or let's go to a museum or something like that where there's not a big financial outlay because again, it's not about me.
I will never be buying someone a Gucci bag. That's not how it works. It's about having an activity together where you're sharing experiences, getting to know one another. Sure, if business comes up and there's a question or there's a case that you're actively working on together that you want to talk offline about, great opportunity to do that.
It's not the place for the hard sell. To sum that up, because I did go off the rails on that. I hate big events where just everybody's preying on everyone. I think that has to be the most awful thing for a head of claims to know that you're the meat at the watering hole. I know that that's horrible because it makes them feel bad too if you can't give someone time. You have to just have a little bit of empathy there.
Best events, a really good meal. Some drinks. I love mini golf. That's going to be, whatever my next event is. But I always joke with someone else. You do what people like. I was at a lunch with a couple of folks and we were laughing and I was like, oh, so you guys just want me to get a party bus and go to the Cheesecake Factory? They were like, oh my God, yes. It's like just talk to people and find out what they like, but just be open. I like smaller events, and like everyone will say, they think my job is to be a professional partier, and maybe that's true. I don't know. I wouldn't like that reputation forever, but I do enjoy myself when I go out. That is true.
Kamran Salour:
I think you touched upon something very important there, which is this industry is really based on trust. You're not going to be able to build that trust with anybody, whether it's a vendor or breach coach or anybody without really being able to speak with them in a one-on-one or small setting. Getting to know them, getting to know what their philosophies are, what their likes and their dislikes. Certainly, I think you speak for all of us when you say, don't beg somebody and beg for business because I agree with you. That approach must work somewhere because people constantly do it, but I'm yet to find anybody that I know that finds that approach effective.
Certainly, I will say this. Last year when we were starting out this group, there were certain times where Sadia and I were desperate really for building up our caseload. I think, I'm sure some people will say, I was guilty of reaching out maybe too much just to get a sense of, hey, what you got for us? But I think we've learned not to do that and not to chase. Some people aren't going to resonate with your approach, like you said, Lynn. Although you're much more mature, I still take it personally. I feel like I've done something to offend them and I get my feelings hurt. But it will come with time, I'll realize that I'm not everybody's cup of tea either. But I think you touched upon some really important philosophies there, so I think our audience is really going to like that.
Lynn Peachey:
What is even nicer about this industry? Everyone has had the poise to, at least if they're talking about me negatively, they are saying it behind my back, so I haven't heard it yet, so that's great. For those that I'm not jiving with, I haven't fortunately heard that back, but you just have to know that you're not just generally in a personality scheme of things. Not everyone is for everyone.
Sadia Mirza:
Kamran, just so you know. If someone doesn't really click with us, I just assume that it's your personality that's the issue.
Lynn Peachey:
Yes.
Kamran Salour:
Of course.
Lynn Peachey:
I think that it just makes me feel a lot better.
Kamran Salour:
It has to be. Any time I'm out with Sadia, somebody invariably comes up and approaches her and says, I've never met you, but I feel like I know you because of either they saw her speak somewhere or her post or something. I can't tell you how upsetting it is to me because I get very jealous and I'm like, I'm standing here too. What about me? What about me? Just a little trout. Yeah, no, a hundred percent. If we're not meshing with somebody, it's a Kamran issue, not a Sadia issue. There's no dispute there.
Lynn Peachey:
I think to solve that, Kam, you can let Sadia's personality shine and then maybe you can hand out the swag, the Troutman swag. I think that could also get you a little extra attention with some folks. It could be a good idea.
Kamran Salour:
We did that, actually. I know you're saying this half somewhat facetiously, but actually Sadia did a presentation and as part of the presentation there was a question and answer, and if people answered questions correctly, they would get a Troutman Pepper sweatshirt and they had to come see me at the end. I've never been more inundated with people just running up trying to get something from me. But that was the only reason why I was the most popular man in the room because I had sweatshirts.
Lynn Peachey:
Love it, so it's already been tried and tested.
Kamran Salour:
Happy to have that role of the sweatshirts passer outer. That's perfectly fine with me.
Lynn Peachey:
Maybe the next conference, maybe at NetD, you can show up with the guns that they have at the Knicks games and then you can shoot out the Troutman swag out of the crowd. I think that could also be an option.
Kamran Salour:
Okay. No, that's good.
Lynn Peachey:
Shoot it out amongst the crowd. No one will be expecting it.
Kamran Salour:
Okay. No, that's the T-shirt gun, right?
Lynn Peachey:
Yeah, there you go.
Kamran Salour:
Good. Yeah, good idea.
Sadia Mirza:
This reminds me, and it's something that we want to talk to you about Lynn, and then Kamran. We can talk about whether or not this needs to be cut from the podcast later on, but it's an important topic. But I'm going to raise it and then if we need to edit this out, we can edit it.
But I remember, Kamran, you know exactly what I'm talking about. That one time Kamran and I were somewhere together. I was taking care of the swag, I was like folding. I know Kamran was on a call, looking very busy. He was wearing a suit, just looking incredibly busy. I think I was on the side, just folding some sweaters and doing something that doesn't look very important at that moment. I say this because I know it wasn't intentional and maybe it wasn't even what was meant, but I remember feeling like this and there was a group of men that had come in and they could just bypass me and they went over to Kamran to talk to him.
I'll tell you how I felt at that moment was it felt like to me like, oh, I was just like the woman folding the clothes on the side, and so they didn't really think that I was the person to talk to. I was like, okay, well I'm not going to bother to make an effort, and maybe that wasn't the best way, but I just remember feeling that way at that moment.
We were talking and we were joking about Kamran handing out the swag and things like that, and so that's what made me think about this. Lynn, but you are incredibly successful and so well-known. I think so many people would aspire to be like you in this space. I wanted to ask, as a woman coming up, were there any obstacles or anything you've seen in the IR space? At least in the insurance space. There's more women in power than I think in other industries, and so I give credit to the industry for that. But were there any specific struggles on your side or anything that we could improve on or anything like that?
Lynn Peachey:
I am so fortunate. I really did not face any of the roadblocks, certainly that women of the past faced, but none even of what maybe colleagues had also dealt with, which still happens, who work in the realm of being talked down to in a meeting with other folks around. There are things that definitely still occur and I will give a shout-out because I know he will never listen to it because he refuses to go on LinkedIn. I don't even know if he has a LinkedIn profile. But Brad Vatrt, who is still at AIG and was my manager the entire time I was there. He was, when you talk about a male ally. I mean, he was, or just an ally in general. He really was all of that. He was supportive, he was understanding. He pushed for my promotions at every turn.
To that credit, even Jim McQuaid and Rob Jones, and there are more senior managers there and the upper echelon of the cyber group, just all of them. I really never felt any type of blocking or anything like that in the advancement of my career. For that, I am very grateful and I know that some peers and some women that are maybe a few years older than me that have really gone through the channels of the insurance world since they were in their twenties, their story's different. I'm just so glad that they trust me to share that with me.
I think that there is still, without career advancement aside, I think there are still, IR in particular is still male-dominated. Whenever a woman applies there, I'm always like, hi. We love it. Obviously, we want that, and I don't think that there's any company that doesn't want that. It's just the available talent pool based on historical segregation of where careers were tracked and what was maybe advertised to women at younger ages. Obviously in that sort of science and math field historically lower, now uptick. But I think those things have all contributed to the talent pool that we see now.
I continue to think it's better. Arete does have more women than the standard, which I'm proud of, but we can always do better. Wouldn't it be great if it was 50/50? I think that that goal and benchmark is still something that's really important and critical to visibility and transparency for women in this industry. There are still some creepy things that go on, just people hitting on people in uncomfortable situations. I still hear those stories from fellow women in the industry every time we get together. It's sad that it's still happening, but at least in my case, I was very fortunate that none of those types of issues impacted my career advancement.
Sadia Mirza:
A lot of the stories that you've told I think we're similar in one. I'll say, you know how I got to where I'm at. It was a series of really fortunate events and people that I know it was not planned at all. As a child, I wasn't saying I want to be an IR attorney. I got here and I'm thankful for it.
But again, I think we're similar in the sense that I've also had the right male allies and the one person I credit, I'll say two, but one person. The first thing I was about to say wasn't Kamran and then I looked up and I saw Kamran's face.
But Kamran is, he is obviously very much a big part of my story, but coming to Troutman, the person that hired me, he chairs our privacy and cyber practice at Troutman. His name's Ron Raether and he has just been the most incredible ally to me. Up until probably a year ago, I would say that I never even knew what the challenges were for women because I was so incredibly blessed and fortunate. Someone just made it possible for me and kept me sheltered from some of the other obstacles that I think that women have to face.
But I think as I continue to grow in my career, I think I start seeing a little bit more of it. I think when it comes to discussions about moving up and expanding, I start to notice a little bit more. But then again, I keep thinking about, wow, I was shielded from this for so long as I had the right male allies and it started with Braun.
But Kamran, you know I say this and that's why Kamran, when he was talking about handing out the swag at that event that I spoke at. He first got a standing ovation at that event because I talked about Kamran. I told them how much he has supported me, and even this podcast, if you rewind and listen to all of the jokes that I have made about Kamran, but in response, Kamran has came back and said something so incredibly positive about me. Every chance he gets, he raises and elevates me. Every chance I get, I'm stepping on a little bit. It's not... I know Kamran knows how incredibly grateful I am, but it's people like Ron, it's people like Kamran who have really allowed me to become what I am.
I hear your story, Lynn, and I think that's what people need. That's why I feel like I made it. It sounds like that's why you made it is because we had the right male allies that recognized that it's an issue and helped elevate us.
Lynn Peachey:
I can't agree more, especially with what you said about Kamran. I've obviously heard of Ron and know about his role in the industry and always positive. But for Kam, exactly. I mean I have no better personal cheerleader. It's almost on a daily basis, and if we could all be so lucky to have a friend like Kam, I definitely feel that way.
Kamran Salour:
This is turning from....
Lynn Peachey:
This is going to be the most viewed podcast.
Kamran Salour:
The mind of Lynn to praising Kamran, which listen, I'm eating this up because I love credit and praise. Nobody else will care to hear about this, but certainly I thank you to both of course, and I tell Sadia this all the time. Obviously, our group is where it is because of her, and certainly if she was not here, we would not be anywhere near the stature where we are now. Certainly, we wouldn't have this podcast if it wasn't for Sadia. She is invaluable, and certainly between the two of us, she is by far the more important piece of what we do. Of course. And then certainly...
Lynn Peachey:
I know he almost can't accept a compliment without giving one in kind and then also adding a little bit of self, being a little self-deprecating.
Kamran Salour:
Listen, these are my own... You've highlighted and identified my many mental issues, Lynn, so you're very astute there. I will give credit to my father here, so certainly someone that will never ever listen to this podcast so I can be kind to him now, which is when my father went to engineering school in London in the sixties, women were not allowed in the engineering school.
I always think of that environment in which my father grew up. He's a Middle Eastern man growing up in Iran in the fifties, sixties, and I guess seventies. He has a very forward-thinking attitude when it comes to women, and so I always credit part of my viewpoint to my father. Of course, as a father to three women, I always tell everybody, I find women to be pretty much vastly superior to men in pretty much every single way possible. The things that my wife and daughters are capable of doing versus what I'm capable of doing, it's not even close.
But let's turn it to something a little bit more lighthearted here if we can. We want to get even more into your mind, Lynn. We want to talk about stuff that you do outside the scope of your work. I know you mentioned that you live to work and work to live type of situation. I think we're both in that same boat, but when you are not working, what is your favorite thing to do?
Lynn Peachey:
Probably nature walks. I'm pretty boring and I'm a bookworm, so I love to read. I love historical fiction books. Like I said, my nature walks every day. That's really crucial. Walking out the anxiety and keeping balance. Then because I feel like I just feel woefully I'm not contributing to society. That's been on my mind lately and so I try to do something to change that.
I have been mentoring an 11-year-old and it's all virtual right now. I think just a carryover from COVID obviously. She lives in Manhattan also. She's in school. Because I don't have kids, it's been pretty fun to just learn more about what kids these days can think and their emotions and all that. That is something that's also important to me. Other than that, like I said, I'm pretty boring. It's books, walks and then trying to volunteer. I need another activity though too, or a hobby. I'm still hung up on that. 2023 goals.
Kamran Salour:
The mentoring sounds wonderful. I think Sadia and I have six kids that we can send your way if you want, between the two of us here. You're right, that 11-year-old age is a fun age actually, because you can have some nice mature intellectual conversations, and at least in my experience, they still have a pretty good attitude. When they get a little bit older, and I speak from experience, it becomes a little bit more trying. But what a lucky girl to have you as a mentor. That's fantastic.
Lynn Peachey:
I hope so. I hope she feels the same. I know I'm doing better because at least when our time is up every week now, she's like, oh wow, it's already over. Versus she was on her iPad the first time we met and I'm like, oh my gosh, she hates me. She hates this. Learning and growing, it's good.
Kamran Salour:
That's wonderful.
Sadia Mirza:
I'm renaming. I'm sorry, Kamran.
Kamran Salour:
No, go for it, Sadia.
Sadia Mirza:
I was just going to say, I'm going to rename this podcast to Inside the Mind of the Incredible Lynn Peachey, because you are such a wonderful human being and I'm glad Kamran asked that question because I didn't know these things about you. But I want to know, I need to know more about your nature walks. I have been telling myself that I'm going to, I have tried to create an office challenge, just to get myself to go outside and do something. Do you walk every day? What do you do?
Lynn Peachey:
I do. I walk like three to four miles every day. There's a couple of parks that I go to. I'll go by the water. It all depends on where I am. I'm bouncing between Jersey and the City right now. When I'm out in Jersey, I take advantage of all the beautiful parks around where I grew up and there really are some pretty ones. I get to see some water and horses and great pure-bred dogs, which I'm super into dogs. Sometimes I'll listen to music, sometimes I won't. It all depends on really what my amp level is in terms of what I need to do to calm down from whatever has happened in a given day.
There's so many articles now coming out, walking, reducing anxiety, and that's something I've always struggled with. It's definitely been a good and positive addition to my daily routine. Just force yourself to do it, but pick a place where you are going to really be able to enjoy what's around you and appreciate a beautiful sky, a beautiful tree, a nice animal. Whatever it is that takes you outside of the analytical strategic mind. Just something to really actually dissociate from that.
Because I think while this type of work consumes so much of our existence, it is not what our existence is to be, right? We're supposed to have a more well-rounded understanding of the world and appreciate the experiences that we're having here. It's definitely something that helps me do that because I never want to not be grateful, that's for sure.
Sadia Mirza:
Inside the Mind of the Incredible and Grateful Lynn Peachey. It's just going to keep getting longer and longer.
First of all, these are the three initiatives that I'm like, okay, we're going to talk more about diversity this year. We're going to talk more about promoting mental health and balancing life. These things are important. We're going to talk about mentorship, and me and Kamran are going to do. I don't know if you've heard of CASA. It's a, I think, okay, here I am so horrible. We have a training session on it, but it's a Court Appointed Special Advocate for Children, for basically children in the foster system and being the constant in their life.
But these are all the things that I've been thinking about that I want to do more of in 2023. One, because I think it gives back, but two, it's a personal thing for myself where I think it's going to help my own mental health a lot. I guess it's what you said, feeling like you haven't done enough. You get some personal growth from it and satisfaction as well.
Lynn Peachey:
Absolutely. I'm the champion at Arete and I always make sure that my engagement leads like it is a high to be someone that is running the cases every day. I cannot stress to you enough. It is constant because it does not matter if you are not the one that has to jump on the midnight scope. That's almost the easier thing. You've got anywhere from five to 20 cases going at one time. Everything is just as important as the other. Balance is so important and also so hard to achieve in that role.
I like to think of myself as like the PTO fairy because I will just ping people and say, when did you put in to take a day off? Are you going to be taking a day off? Did you take a day off? When's your next vacation? Because all of that stuff, if you can prepare yourself and plan ahead, you can make sure that you have good notes to hand over to your buddy and you can actually unplug for a couple of days, and ideally once a year, you can actually take a full week off.
I think those things are just super important, and yes, they apply most heavily to a 24/7 business like that we are in. Particularly those roles for my Arete peeps where they're on the ground doing these cases, but just important for everyone to really think about your breaks because I hear it across the industry. I have other friends that just did not take a vacation, have been working so hard and just not getting any of that unplugged time, which is crucial and I'm guilty of it too.
I was on a vacation this past summer and I was like, “You know what? I'm going to unplug. I'm going to do it.” It was great because where the resort I was at, in our rooms could not get wi-fi. Well, as soon as I figured out that I could in the restaurant area and some of the general meeting rooms, I was absolutely checking my email on my teams and I was just like, God, I suck. I can't even do that.
But it is so important to do that, so even if I can't practice what I'm preaching, I am going to try to do that. I actually am going on vacation this weekend with my very dear friend, my life best friend Tasha, who actually works at Beazley, also in this industry. I'm actually going to not look at my phone and I'm going to force her to do the same. She initially told me she was going to be potentially on weekend watch while we were there and I said, are you kidding me? I said, switch with someone else. I think she has figured that out.
But it's just the fact that I think we all want to show up for our jobs. We all want to be the most responsive, good at what we do, help everybody. You can't do that without sacrificing something, and so it is about balancing that need for a little bit of quiet time, unplugged time, and the ability to do a good job at your work.
Kamran Salour:
Now I just feel horrible about myself because I have access to tons of parks that I just drive by and I haven't taken a vacation in six years, I think. So, I need to do...
Lynn Peachey:
Yeah, this is definitely a shame on you.
Kamran Salour:
Yeah.
Lynn Peachey:
This is definitely fill you with guilt and shame. No, I actually don't believe in either of those emotions as a tactic to incentivize anything. They're both extremely negative in my view. All I would say is, let's turn it around, make it a more positive affirmation. I will take a vacation this year. I will take more time for myself.
Kamran Salour:
Your point about balance, you're right. It's so crucial, but to me that's one of the hardest things to achieve just between work, friends, family, and then your own personal time. That's one that I struggle with as well. I will, in light of the grateful and great mind of Lynn Peachey, that we have been so fortunate to get a glimpse of.
Sadia Mirza:
I've added PTO fairy to that.
Kamran Salour:
PTO fairy. That's a good... I could use a PTO fairy here.
Lynn Peachey:
You can just shoot some emails over at a regular cadence and just say, what was your PTO this quarter? Did you take any days off? That's fine. It's just a note that goes in my calendar and then I'm on you.
Kamran Salour:
We could benefit from some fairy dust.
Lynn Peachey:
Yeah.
Kamran Salour:
Absolutely. This has been certainly a very enlightening discussion. I learned a lot, not only about you Lynn, but also just some good information about the role of people in the industry and the importance of valuing people and not looking at people as this is a potential revenue source and just trying to sell. I think that's a really important piece of information and I'm really thankful for your time and you devoting an hour to us today on the podcast. I want to thank you before I turn it over to Sadia.
Lynn Peachey:
Happy to be here, Kam, and appreciate that anyone is actually interested enough to know. Like I said, I am expecting a very low hit rate on this podcast, so I apologize to your internal stakeholders and feel free to edit out whatever you need.
Sadia Mirza:
But Lynn, and this was my abs- and I say that again, but now we're thinking about all of my other friends who have been on the podcast, but I loved this topic, because it really does show the human side of IR. I think you raised all the right issues and we didn't get to talk about it enough, but I think at some point they're going to cut us off.
With that, at the end of every single podcast, we end the session with the trivia question for our listeners. The trivia question for this episode is going to be, what sport did the incredible grateful PTO fairy Lynn Peachey play in college? The first person that can answer that question and send their response to incident.response@troutman.com will win the prize. Again, the question is what sport did Lynn play in college? The email address is incident.response@troutman.com.
Lynn, I hope you have the best weekend. It sounds like it's going to be a blast. It sounds like, have you seen Violet's breach hotline eye masks. It sounds like you guys need some of those for the vacation.
Lynn Peachey:
No, it does sound like we would need them. You know what? She's so kind that even though we're competitors, I'm sure she would send me one if I asked her.
Sadia Mirza:
I know. I want to make that announcement now. It's one, it's a trick to see if Violet even listens to our podcast, but...
Lynn Peachey:
Oh, I love that.
Sadia Mirza:
Violet, please go ahead and send Lynn a couple of eye masks. Thank you so much. It was really a privilege having you on this. We really appreciate it.
Lynn Peachey:
Likewise, thank you.
Kamran Salour:
Thank you so much.
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