Meet Lawrence Holzberg

The following is an excerpt of Holzberg’s 2022 Presidential Remarks that were given on December 6, 2021, at the National Leadership Conference. Following several heartfelt thanks to previous leaders, Holzberg outlined his platform for 2022 and identifying the areas in which he will lead the association.

There are two areas I want to cover tonight — one is joy and one is the opposite — and one that we all know too well when dealing with our clients — and that is the pain, or fear, of being alone. If we can all be big enough to admit it, we would all agree that one of the top drivers of production is fear — the fear of not achieving, the fear of being left out, the fear of being last. Whatever the fear, it is one that often gives us an edge and helps to get us up every day and moving. For me, I want to talk about a fear that many of us have that we perhaps don’t discuss publicly, but we should because it is one of the keys to growing our membership at NAIFA. I’m talking about the fear of being alone, the fear of not belonging, the fear of not having a support system, a solid family, a home. Unfortunately, in today’s world, we all have pre-conceived notions of what things like “Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion” mean. Typically, we all have different definitions for this, but I want to introduce a concept to you on which we can all agree. First, let’s acknowledge the pain of being alone and unprepared. It is what our clients most fear, isn’t it? Personally, I know what it’s like to not belong. Sure, I’m from New York and I’ve got thick skin on the surface, but as a real man, I’ll admit — it hurts and it doesn’t change with age — to be overlooked, pushed aside, avoided, derided, chided. It hurts because it leaves me vulnerable and alone. As an individual with my own identity, I am only so strong. I am on my own to fight every battle, prop myself up constantly, and try and keep myself motivated.

But that all changes when you introduce the concept of belonging to a team. Let’s now acknowledge the security one has when one knows that they will never be alone and will always have ready help to turn to in hard times. Let’s reframe everything we’re thinking: let’s reframe all our divisiveness, and let’s reframe all of our differences into the joyful concept of what it is to belong. Let’s reframe diversity, equity and inclusion, which can be off-putting to one that draws you in, and instead, let’s see it as an invitation for all to belong.

Over 93% of our NAIFA Leaders are Leadership in Life Institute (LILI) graduates, so you will understand this reference to one of my daughters’ favorite movies, Miracle, and how I want to challenge you to think of NAIFA.

In the pivotal scene that is the metamorphosis from individual — the me — to the team — the we, the coach has the players run drills over and over, periodically interrupting them to ask “Who do you play for?” At first, the players answer with their individual universities and states from which they came. Again, more drills. Over and over. The players are exhausted. They are falling down. Again, the coach says get back on that line and run it again. Whistle blows. Players take off. Again, and again. The lights go off. There is utter discomfort in the players and in the other assistant coaches who understand that that the coach is trying to change the players, but unsure of how much to push — what is too much? What is too lenient? Unclear of when the moment comes where the player goes to the next level of performance.

Finally, on his own, one individual stops skating and answers the call announcing the city and state from which he plays. The coach stops and says, “What team do you play for?” and the player says, “The United States of America.” We all know how powerful that scene is and as soon as this player broke through, so did the team. That team went on to accomplish what no one had done — winning gold and bringing back pride to the USA in a time that it so desperately needed it.

Does anyone see the parallels to NAIFA?

This is our story. We are those players. This is our team.

Just like in Miracle, the work before the U.S. Hockey team was much bigger than winning a medal. They were literally a symbol of defending democracy. Like them, belonging to NAIFA today has a much bigger meaning. It means defending our profession. Just as Team USA put fire in every American’s belly when they watched this young group of hockey players get tested and overcome one challenge after another, it is our call to go out into the industry and inspire more people to join the NAIFA team and defend our profession. It is our call to go out and inspire more members to get involved in grassroots, to get involved in our programs, our PAC, and it’s our personal call to go out and inspire more people to do what you are doing — to lead this team forward into the future.

As Coach Herb Brooks stated, “You have to be uncommon.”

We must be uncommon.

But we have a jump start because all of us in this room are uncommon. If you’re sitting in this room tonight, you have beaten the odds of making it in the financial services profession. None of us are common in this room tonight.

Can we agree that we are all different? We come from all towns, coasts and states. We disagree on issues, we don’t have the same tastes, way we talk, way we walk, or practice areas — and this is all just fine because we are these uncommon people that have made it in financial services. The difference in our success is that we all have a team that we know and love called NAIFA.

The truth is that most of us think about NAIFA in terms of our local or our chapter. The challenge — the part where we need to be uncommon now — is to think of all of us leaders as playing not just for our state or local, but playing, in addition, at the highest level, for NAIFA Nation.

This is our work for 2022 and beyond. This has been the point — and will continue to be the point — of the National Leadership Conference: to bring our leaders together from all of their requisite chapters to come together to play together as NAIFA Nation. We are ready