Panic, Purpose, Networking and Risk with Amy C. Waninger

Welcome to RIMScast. Your host is Justin Smulison, Business Content Manager at RIMS, the Risk and Insurance Management Society.   In this episode, Justin interviews Amy C. Waninger, CEO of Lead at Any Level, about her more than a decade in the insurance industry and then moving into leadership development and consulting. They discuss what makes someone effective at leading through uncertainty. Amy explains what "leading at any level" looks like for someone who doesn't have a leadership title. She delves into navigating change, networking, leadership, and cultivating the talents you choose so you can bring forward the best value you have to offer to others.   Amy talks about the human side of change and how to adapt to it internally before leading others through it. Amy tells about her experience as the closing keynote at the RIMS Texas Regional Conference 2026.   Listen for Amy Waninger's advice for one practical way you can start building a stronger and more intentional professional network. Key Takeaways: [:01] About RIMS and RIMScast. [:16] About this episode of RIMScast. Our guest is Amy Waninger. She was a keynote speaker at the RIMS Texas Regional 2026, and she is here to discuss how networking can provide a path to leadership and opportunities in the risk management profession. Before we get to our interview… [:51] Webinars: On Nov. 5th, Riskonnect returns to deliver the session "Signal Over Noise: Smarter Risk Analytics." [:59] Origami Risk returns on December 10th to present "Managing Insurance Programs at Scale: What Complex Portfolios Require." This session was rescheduled from October, and if you were registered for that one, you are automatically registered for the new date in December. [1:15] We will close out the year with two webinars from the RIMS Advocacy and External Affairs Committees. On November 10th, we will host a session about the "Terrorism Risk Insurance Act and Program: an update on Federal Developments." [1:31] On December 3rd, we've got "Third-Party Litigation Financing: What Nuclear and Other Verdicts Mean for the Industry and Your Bottom Line." Find all webinars at RIMS.org/webinars. [1:41] RIMS on YouTube! RIMS is back on YouTube. Our handle is @RIMSOfficialChannel. We've got plenty of videos there, including RIMScast, RIMScast Canada video podcasts, and other informative and entertaining content from RIMS. Subscribe to the channel today! [1:58] On with the Show! Amy C. Waninger is the author of Moving from Panic to Purpose: Surviving and Thriving During Unrelenting Change at Work, and she was the closing keynote for the RIMS Texas Regional 2026. [2:13] In this episode, we discuss how risk professionals at all levels can access frameworks that they can use, and the confidence to lead through whatever comes next. [2:28] Since Amy was an insurance professional for 10 years, she has unique insight into what many of you are going through right now. We'll talk panic, purpose, networking, and leadership today. We're going to have a lot of fun! Let's get started! [2:44] Interview! Amy C. Waninger, Welcome to RIMScast! [3:00] Justin says it's a cool opportunity to have Amy on the podcast, as this is the unofficial Networking Month in the U.S. [3:36] Justin notes that Amy is a former insurance industry professional. She calls herself a recovering insurance nerd. [3:53] Amy had an IT career first. In her career in information technology and software development, she was in a consulting role for a major insurance carrier for a couple of years. She transitioned into management at that carrier. She was there for almost 10 years. [4:19] Amy worked in Business Systems and IT Systems across Claims, Underwriting, Analytics, and Actuarial, in both Personal and Commercial lines. She has had exposure to a lot of things. She has a CPCU and "a whole bunch of other letters" after her name in that space. [4:58] Amy had been working for a very small consulting firm. It was a good insurance year, and Amy joined the insurance company for the bonuses. Then she fell in love with the industry. [5:29] Amy says when she worked for a major carrier, it was the first time she got real training on what to do as a leader in an organization. Up to that point, she had been reading books and cobbling together her own leadership philosophy. [5:47] Amy says that seeing that there was good training available to leaders in big organiza