Show up.
Focus.
Move forward.
And be fearless.
Kathy Conley-Jones uses these action steps to guide her financial services firm toward success.
Conley-Jones will not discuss the annual revenue of The Conley Financial Group. But she said the 27-year-old company, which serves 3,500 clients, is part of the Million Dollar Round Table International organization, whose members represent the world’s most successful life insurance and financial services professionals.
In 2002, it was reported that Conley-Jones performed $4 million in sales.
“Success is not about money,” Conley-Jones said. “It’s living in a way that you don’t hurt other people.”
The Conley Financial Group is a multi-line insurance and financial services firm. Her company offers life, health, home and auto insurance, in addition to commercial services, retirement, estate and financial planning, among other products and services. She also teaches financial empowerment classes for women.
Her client list is extensive and includes municipalities, law firms, medical providers, school districts, “high net-worth individuals and everyday working people,” she said.
But Conley-Jones said she doesn’t consider her job to be selling insurance.
“My job is to hear your story and … come up with a strategy. I sell solutions,” Conley-Jones said.
As Conley-Jones prepares to partner with a billion-dollar financial services firm to bring quality insurance to working-class residents, she said it is an opportunity created because of “showing up” and being prepared to move forward.
“There is nothing like having change when the bus is coming,” Conley-Jones said.
Conley-Jones met Vikki Pryor, president and chief executive officer of SBLI USA Mutual Life Insurance Company, Inc. at the Salute to Excellence in Business luncheon that The St. Louis American Foundation hosts each year. Conley-Jones introduced herself, and the two exchanged contact information.
“God puts in our midst individuals,” Conley-Jones said. “But it is up to you to know what to do with that.”
‘We all need support’
Sitting in her office on the ninth floor of the Bank of America building downtown, Conley-Jones said, “I’m just Kathy.”
She adjusted her hearing aids and moved her chair closer to her desk. Constant tonsillitis and infections caused her to lose her hearing as a child. “Without these I cannot hear anything,” she said. “They are my support. We all need support.”
Her walls are filled with strategically placed motivational items: Her degree from Saint Louis University is on one wall. She has art that depicts women on the other wall, along with Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Her numerous awards and picture with President Barack Obama are placed on the opposite side of the room.
Nothing hangs on the wall above her desk.
She is waiting for a framed print of Norman Rockwell’s depiction of a young girl, Ruby Bridges, attempting to integrate a school in Louisiana. She is carrying her schoolbooks, flanked by four U.S. Marshals, while protesters throw tomatoes. The print is named “The Problem We All Live With.”
The print reminds Conley-Jones of her mother, who grew up in the Deep South.
“The very most important thing she wanted was to become educated,” Conley-Jones said of her mother, Myrtle Cosby, who died in 1993 at the age of 94. Her father, William Cosby, died three months before Conley-Jones was born.
Her mother was a “praying woman,” who would always increase a prayer once one prayer was answered. Conley-Jones calls it “praying up.”
The print also reminds her of African Americans’ past. “Here, I can think about the dream and how far we’ve come,” she said. “The girl has her books. She’s ready. She’s moving forward.”
Conley-Jones quit her teaching job with the St. Louis Public Schools in 1982 when a fellow teacher left to sell tax shelters and annuities. The teacher won a trip to Hawaii at her new job.
“I came into this business purely for materialistic reasons,” Conley-Jones said – “to win a trip to Hawaii.”
Her first client’s name is U.Z. Robinson. They still meet or talk every four months. He was an astute businessman who eventually owned four gas stations. At her 25th anniversary party, Robinson told Conley-Jones she made the difference in his life because introduced him to a certified public accountant and helped him develop a retirement plan for himself and his employees.
“He retired well, and that made all the difference,” she said.
That is her hope for all of her clients: that her work makes a difference. “I deal with their lives, so I’m always trying to think how I can help them … how I can make a difference in their lives,” she said.
When she was a child, her mother dreamed that she would become a secretary and a wife. But Conley-Jones attended the all-girls St. Mark’s High School where they learned to be courageous and fearless.
“If you stand still because of fear, you won’t go forward,” she said. “But if you make one step, you strengthen your legs and you move toward your focal point.”
She hasn’t been afraid very often. But during a pending divorce in 1984, fear crept in because she had a new business, a young son and a major operation that nearly killed her. She relied on her faith and said, “I am either going forward or going down, and forward sounded so much better.”
She works to instill that fearlessness in others, too.
She remarried in 1999 to Michael Jones, chief policy adviser for St. Louis County government. During a Saturday morning breakfast near their Central West End home, the Joneses talked about music as it relates to their professional careers.
People are either classical or jazz, Michael Jones said. Classical is structured. And in jazz, structure and discipline exist. But there is room for creativity through improvisation.
“The question is, ‘Which one are you?’” he asked. “You have to figure out who you are in this.”
Conley-Jones said her husband’s analogy and his insight have helped her business. “He has been instrumental in my business, taking it from the approach of jazz,” she said.
At a recent gathering of young college students from throughout Missouri who have been deemed likely to succeed, Conley-Jones offered a presentation on financial planning. But her passion for teaching and educating others shone through. As she spoke, some young women’s backs straightened, as if she breathed courage into them.
“The first rule of life is to show up,” she said at The Sue Shear Institute for Women in Public Life at the University of Missouri- St. Louis.
“I am so proud to see women of every color, creed and national origin working together and moving forward. You represent my future.”
She had each of the attendees turn to each other and say, “I am not afraid.” They repeated this exercise until their lifted voices resonated throughout the room.
“If you’re not afraid, you have the courage. It takes courage to plan,” she said.
She taught them the power of negotiating their first salary. And of course, she taught them the importance of financial planning.
Ramanda Hicks, who attended the seminar, said Conley-Jones’ presentation was helpful.
“The information she gave us was pertinent. She gave us enough knowledge to make an informed decision about personal and financial decisions,” said Hicks, who traveled from University of Missouri- Kansas City to participate in the seminar.
“Everything she said was on target.”
Conley-Jones said educating others is not a choice. “I have a responsibility to pass this knowledge on before God calls me home,” she said. “Knowledge is the only thing we can give away and still keep.”
