Shyla Lankford
Lipscomb Insurance Group
When Shyla Lankford was promoted to partner and chief operating officer of the Lipscomb Insurance Agency in Dallas, she became the first non-family member in leadership in the agency’s 70-year history. Today, Lipscomb is larger than ever, yet has fewer staff than when Shyla joined the firm in 2010. How? By promoting a culture of learning, growing, and finding efficiencies, starting with resources from NetVU.
Shyla remembers her first experience with NetVU, attending the Red River Chapter meeting in Dallas with her friend and agency peer Debbie Ivie, now a NetVU staffer. The CE class presented that day was eye-opening. Shyla had been using Vertafore products since the early 2000s, but the user group experience with AMS360 led her to want to know more. Soon she was attending national events, taking classes, and even teaching a few herself.
“I love to learn, dig in and figure out how something works,” Shyla said. “These meetings and classes allowed me to find more efficient ways of working. I considered myself a solid user. But that first meeting, I realized how little I really knew!”
While Shyla admitted some of these meetings and conferences were, at first, like drinking from a firehose, she was able to apply what she was learning with her team at Lipscomb. Thanks to what was learned and applied with her team, the agency grew but the need for more office staff didn’t. Shyla has attended 13 Accelerate conferences and always looks forward to the event.
“Through NetVU, we met people, made friends, learned from others, and it was amazing,” she said. “Could we have done this ourselves? Sure. But it would have been absolutely so much harder than it needed to be. We have all grown as a result.”
During the 2024 Accelerate Conference, Shyla was awarded the peer-nominated Leadership Award in Memory of Louie E. Woodbury Jr. for the leadership and impact she has made on NetVU members.
“I am not sure how they were able to keep this from me,” she exclaimed. “I was on the steering committee for the event! It was a complete surprise! I truly believe in this organization. It’s been so helpful in my career and I hope to leave everything a little bit better for others.”
Shyla is committed to continuing to volunteer for NetVU.
“My favorite word is growth,” she explained. “The day we stop learning is the day we become obsolete. NetVU will help you grow your agency with better resources and insight from your peers, and hopefully, you will give back to others, as well.”
