Welcome to RIMScast. Your host is Justin Smulison, Business Content Manager at RIMS, the Risk and Insurance Management Society.

In this episode, Justin interviews Johnell Holly about growing up in Compton, serving in the military, and eventually becoming one of the most senior leaders at FM. They discuss experiences that shaped his mindset and lessons from his early years that still guide his leadership. They discuss what Johnell learned in the military that influences his decision-making. Johnell explains why he left the military and how he started working for FM. Johnell shares his life advice: choose the hard things; they will prepare you for opportunities to improve yourself. Johnell relates his early experience in sales and how it shaped his career. Lastly, they discussed the Spencer Educational Foundation and how Johnell became involved.

Listen for advice on overcoming hard circumstances and showing up at your best.

Key Takeaways:

[:01] About RIMS and RIMScast.

[:16] About this episode of RIMScast. Our guest is Johnell R. Holly, the Executive Vice President for U.S. and Latin America Operations at FM. He is also the Board Chair for the Spencer Educational Foundation. We will learn about his career and leadership philosophies. But first…

[:47] RIMS Virtual Workshops. The next RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep with PARIMA will be held virtually on July 21st and 22nd. Registration links are in this episode's notes.

[:58] We have a summertime webinar. On July 16th, Zurich will present "Too Hot to Ignore: Heat-Related Injuries and Workers' Compensation." Register at RIMS.org/webinars and via the link in this episode's show notes.

[1:13] Also on the webinars page, you will see a two-part series hosted by the RIMS Membership Department. The "Classroom to Career" webinar series highlights how RIMS equips students with the knowledge, skills, and connections needed to thrive in risk management careers.

[1:28] Participants will gain insights into industry trends, career pathways, and practical tools that help them confidently step into the evolving world of risk management after graduation. These sessions will be hosted on September 1st and 9th.

[1:42] These sessions are member exclusives and are complimentary for RIMS members, of course. So, if you are interested in becoming a member, this would be the time. Visit RIMS.org/membership.

[1:52] You can enroll now in the RIMS CRO Certificate Program in Advanced Enterprise Risk Management hosted by the famous James Lam. Beginning July 15th, workshops will be held bi-weekly from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The registration link is in the show notes.

[2:16] The RIMS ERM Conference 2026 will be held on November 19th and 20th in Columbus, Ohio. The deadline for session submissions was extended through June 26th. Visit RIMS.org/ERM2026 to get those final submissions in. Registration will open in July.

[2:37] 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!

[2:56] On with the Show! Our guest today is Johnell Holly. He is the Executive Vice President for U.S. and Latin America Operations at FM. He is also the Board Chair for the Spencer Educational Foundation.

[3:10] Johnell caught my attention last year at the Spencer's Funding Their Future Gala, which this year will be held on September 17th at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City.

[3:21] I found Johnell's career journey to be incredibly inspiring. He is here to discuss his path from humble upbringings to the military to the risk and insurance space and ultimately to philanthropic missions and leadership with Spencer.

[3:36] I'm confident this dialogue will resonate with anyone who feels the odds are against them and is looking for extra motivation to overcome and choose the hard challenges in life and career. Let's get to it!

[3:39] Interview! Johnell Holly, Welcome to RIMScast!

[4:10] Johnell says he is absolutely thrilled for the Spencer Funding Their Futures Gala. It's one of the premier events of the year. Every year, it seems to get better and better, and it continues to achieve new heights. Johnell is excited to see where it goes this year and into the future.

[4:51] Johnell comes from Compton, a rough neighborhood. Johnell wanted something different from how he grew up. He wanted to get a very good education. So he went to the United States Military Academy to get a very good education from a very high-profile institution.

[6:01] Johnell started at the Academy in 1990 and graduated in 1995. In 1995, Johnell went into the Army as a commissioned officer and was in the Army until 2001. His last day of Active Duty was the week prior to 9/11.

[6:47] Justin thanks Johnell for his service.

[7:07] Johnell says there's a lot of what he does today that relates to his military education. He says there's also a lot from his childhood that helped him along his career, including his desire to improve himself.

[7:27] Johnell says some things in the military resonated with him that made it very easy to be more successful outside of the military, such as the work ethic and making the choice to do the harder things when they present themselves.

[7:52] Johnell says, it's like doing the harder military school. Once you get that done, everything else is a bit easier. Johnell says that taking a tough assignment or job within FM, he knows that if he does a job that no one else wants to do, he will have what most people won't have.

[8:11] Johnell says he did things like that deliberately over the years. His mantra would be, Always choose hard, and hopefully, you get to a point where that no longer has to happen.

[6:25] Justin heard a speaker say that if you have six things coming up, one of them is the tough one, and five of them are easy ones, people will choose the five easy ones first, before they get to the tough one. Justin says Johnell chooses the hard one first before the five easy ones.

[8:55] Johnell agrees, not just in his career; he learned it very young. When he was young, he didn't like how he was showing up. He knew he needed to position himself with more strengths.

[9:17] The only way Johnell was going to get those strengths was to do all the things he was afraid to do or hated to do. He had to face fears, get over them, and get through the hard stuff. He teaches his kids that today.

[9:32] Johnell has five kids. The three oldest are girls. The oldest also graduated from Wespoint and is serving. The daughter below her is on a destroyer right now in the Mediterranean, so she's in the war.

[10:02] Johnell has two sons. Both of them are in the top 15 or 20 in the nation for football. One is a redshirt freshman at Michigan, and the other will head out to FSU and Georgia in the next week for his official visits. He'll pick one of them.

[10:31] Johnell talks to his daughters in the service regularly.

[10:42] Justin asks about NIL deals for Johnell's sons. Johnell says the NIL deals are peanuts compared to the insurance negotiations he does daily.

[11:07] When Johnell left the Army, insurance was definitely not on his radar. He was being asked by the military to go back and get his Master's. That meant leaving the state of Washington, where he was assigned. He didn't want to leave; he had things to take care of.

[11:38] Johnell needed to look and see what other options were out there. He went to a headhunter. He interviewed for five or six companies, and all of them made an offer. One of them had a position in Seattle, where he wanted to be.

[12:05] After some negotiation, Johnell decided to give it a go as a consultant engineer, an entry-level position, for FM. He wasn't aware it was an insurance company. He thought he was going into engineering. Coming directly from the military, he wasn't familiar with business.

[12:36] Once Johnell got into FM, he realized that it was an insurance company. Once he saw that, he was very interested in that side of the business and wanted to get over to it very quickly. By 2002, Johnell had moved to the insurance side of FM.

[13:31] Johnell says, early on, risk management and insurance had been thought of as a secondary thought to business. Understanding of the hazards and operating to reduce those hazards didn't exist at the levels that it does today.

[14:11] Today, thinking about risk and ensuring that you are resilient is no longer optional. You cannot just hope that things aren't going to go wrong. You have to assume that things are going to go wrong. Those who do that well will be more successful.

[14:35] A Quick Break! There are so many other wonderful RIMS events coming up in 2026. The Annual Florida RIMS Educational Conference will be held from July 28th through August 1st at the lovely Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Florida. A link to the event is in this episode's show notes.

[14:53] Register now for the Second Annual RIMS Texas Regional Conference, which will be held from August 10th through 1...