Building a Rural Insurance Agency with Jeremy Stepp

Jeremy Stepp: Yeah, Sure. So ⁓ about twenty twenty when COVID happened and the world sort of shut down. ⁓ you know, Tanya was a ⁓ dental assistant and so can't really go and dental assist when ⁓ the world is shut down. And so during that time when it was like the apocalypse happened, right? You go outside and there's no one on your street. And if you ventured out to the convenience store, you're like the only one there with a mask. Like no one else is there. but anyway, she ⁓ she was approached by ⁓ our sister-in-law about learning to sell ⁓ life insurance. And so she went ahead and got her life and health license here in Arizona. ⁓ being the supportive husband I am, I went ahead and got my life and health license as well. And she really enjoys life and health. Not me, not so much. I mean I still have the license, right? But ⁓ over the years as I've watched her build her business, I've kept saying for a long time, I'm like, you know what? So many people fail in life and health. because selling life insurance is really a hard a tough nut to crack for a lot of people. And ⁓ so you sort of need an easy way in. And the easy way in ⁓ that I finally in September of twenty twenty four decided to go ahead and and do it is through property and casualty.

Ben Shaw: Interesting. So how do you get into life and health through property and casualty?

Jeremy Stepp: Well, because legally, if you own a car, you've got to have insurance. If you own property and you owe money on it, you've got to have insurance. If you're doing anything professionally, like selling insurance, you've got to have insurance. ⁓ you know, if you own a business, you've got to have general liability insurance, you've got to have workman's comp insurance, that these type of things. So basically The idea was and still is you get them with the easy sell, right? The the low hanging fruit, right? Not the not the six seven, but the low hanging fruit. And With the car insurance, the homeowners insurance, renter's insurance, business insurance, things like that. And now once you've done that and if you've renewed them a few times and you've built a relationship, they they know you. Now they're part of now they're part of your warm circle, right? And so it helps have that convers having that conversation to be much easier, right?

Ben Shaw: course. What were you doing before you joined Tonya in that endeavour?

Jeremy Stepp: So ⁓ I'm actually my my regular J O V 'cause we're still building the agency so that I can go full time, I'm a special education teacher.

Ben Shaw: ⁓ interesting, okay nice. And then you decided that soon or later you're going to do full-time P &C?

Jeremy Stepp: Yeah, actually in July of twenty twenty four I I just had a really challenging moment. We were living in a in a community that the management ⁓ it was like HO an HOA on steroids, right? And ⁓ it wasn't like we weren't earning decent money, we were. It was just though that we were sort of in that middle class rut, right? That ⁓ we had enough money to to live comfortably, we had enough money to, you know, maybe go on a vacation here and there, you know, once every year, two years. But when it came down to, okay, well, how do I handle this situation with this homeowners association? ⁓ I didn't have I didn't have the money to go and and get the the legal advice and the help that I n that I really needed And so I felt like I was backed into a corner. Like I was painted into a corner. And at that point, I'm like, you know what? I don't want to ever be in this situation, especially, you know, I'm not old, and I'm gonna be fifty this year, especially as as older as I get, that I'm like, I don't want to be in this situation ever again. And so what I did, I reflected back on I had owned a service business for eleven years and then I had closed it in two thousand eight when the economy had collapsed. ⁓ I'm sorry?

Ben Shaw: business. What was the service business that you owned?

Jeremy Stepp: ⁓ it's clock repair. Yeah. My grandfather ⁓ my grandfather had learned from a clock and watch maker who loved to repair watches but he hated clocks. And then my grandfather started teaching my dad when he was twelve and my dad kicked me out of bed when I was ten and started teaching me. And ⁓ when my dad retired in nineteen ninety seven I took over from him.

Ben Shaw: I don't know why. Interesting.

Jeremy Stepp: If he had concentrated primarily on retail and repair, I just concentrated on repair. But one thing I learned reflecting back on that experience was the time that, because of all the tax deductions and things like that, you get when you're a business owner, the time that I ever had the most freedom, the time I ever had the most money was when I owned my own business. And so I'm like, okay. What's the easiest way for me to get from where I'm at now to where I want to be? And ⁓ at that moment I'd actually let my life and health license lapse. ⁓ it wasn't that long and so with the state of Arizona I just had to do some ⁓ CEs and pay the pay the fee and it got reinstated. ⁓ and then I was hooked up ⁓ by one of Tanya's business partners I was hooked up with ⁓ a lady in Texas who I didn't know who this lady was. She ended up becoming my mentor and a really good friend, ⁓ Kristen Heisler in Texas. She owns ⁓ Think Pink Insurance and Universal Wealth Property and Casualty Insurance. And She's like, hey, you what, if you get your Arizona license and your Texas license, I'll throw some work at you because she was so busy. Right? And so I did that, and that was in September of 2024. So, you know, from nothing and no way to now we're we have we have a physical office. ⁓ you know we

Ben Shaw: That's awesome.

Jeremy Stepp: The ⁓ PNC part of the business is part of an aggregator or insurance network group, whatever you wanna ever send an ⁓ you want to attach. ⁓ it's called Pacific Crest Services, they're out of Idaho. and for me personally, out of looking at a lot of different ones, you know, I've I felt the most comfortable with them.

Ben Shaw: What was the network called?

Jeremy Stepp: And I primarily did that to get access to more markets here in Arizona, specifically in Arizona because that's where I live. You know. So

Ben Shaw: You mentioned that it's hard to find people for the life and health side and for P &C it's easier because more people need P &C insurance products. How do you do customer acquisition for P &C right now?

Jeremy Stepp: So ⁓ our office is in a town of about twenty thousand people and yeah in Coolidge, Arizona. And ⁓ so that's in Pennell County, and Pennell County is s is the the the swath of of land that's between Maricopa County where Phoenix is and Pima County where Tucson is. And ⁓ so

Ben Shaw: Is this Coolidge? No? Yeah.

Jeremy Stepp: where we live, we live in Arizona City, which is just south of Casagran, which Casagran is the bigger city in that area. and then our office is about eighteen miles from where we where we live, which in Phoenix, like in California, distance is nothing. You know. but the area we're in in Pennell County is hugely rural. agriculture based, a lot of ⁓ you know hard working families. and so the way that we advertise, one we have our website, two we have our signs on our on our business, for our office, but we actually advertise a lot through ⁓ the Penau County newspapers. the Casagrande Valley ⁓ newspapers. And we advertise in print, which then also goes online with their their setup, right? And so we've gotten quite a few customers. We've been doing it now about three months. So now we're starting to see, you know, the customers that are coming in from that.

Ben Shaw: That's a man. And so if you've done it for three months, historically, the majority of customers wouldn't have come through that channel. They would have come from, is it referrals mostly?

Jeremy Stepp: well and that's the thing, we get a lot of referral I get a lot of referrals. I mean a lot. So I write a lot of ENO insurance because ⁓ you know, within Tanya's ⁓ life insurance group, right? You bring on the new agent, I'm generally probably gonna write their their ENO. You know? I don't have a problem writing ENO, but you end up writing a lot of ENO to

Ben Shaw: Interesting.

Jeremy Stepp: To make ends meet, but you know what, if I had to ride it all day long I'd ride it. It's very easy, it's not it's not difficult, it's easy money, right? ⁓ and then what I

Ben Shaw: Is it its insurance agent, you know, in particular? Yeah.

Jeremy Stepp: Yeah, correct. For life insurance. ⁓ I have a a customer right now that I just had done a quote for today that she also is life insurance and P and C licensed. So went ahead and ran ENO insurance for that individual. obviously she found out what I found out when I decided to add property and casualty to my E and O insurance, which wasn't more than double.

Ben Shaw: you

Jeremy Stepp: You know, there's a lot more risk there with property and casualty than life in hell. But you know, the other th the other way we get that we get our customers and this I have people ask me all the time, especially in the industry, well where do you get your customers? Where do you get your customers? And it sounds so weird, but it's the truth. Dude, it is like they fall out of the sky.

Ben Shaw: ⁓ really?

Jeremy Stepp: I mean we have a you know we have a sign a big sign on the front window of our of our office and then we have this you know plastic A frame like you see at restaurants and stuff like that and we take it out and we put it out in front of our office on Central Avenue, which is the main drag through ⁓ Coolidge as far as going through downtown. And So just the other day a guy calls me and he's and I I asked him, I said, Well, where did you hear about us? He said, Well, I saw your sign, your A-frame sign. I went to your website and I'm like, hey, they can probably help us. I've had people call me and say, Hey, I saw I saw you ⁓ I saw you on Google. Now this is even before I had we had a physical office when we were just doing remote agency stuff.

Ben Shaw: you Thanks

Jeremy Stepp: I s I saw your ads on Google. We're in the car. And I look at my wife and I mouth her. I'm like, You don't have ads on Google. You know, ⁓

Ben Shaw: you

Jeremy Stepp: So it's it's literally people that just drop out of the sky. You know, and ⁓ I'm a spiritual person, so I I I I thank God for that, you know. Cause it's not me. I mean granted I sit there and I do my my I read my goals at least twice a day and repeat my affirmations multiple tim you know, but ⁓ help keep my mind right that it's ⁓

Ben Shaw: you

Jeremy Stepp: It's really interesting and then we just went ahead and signed up to be a sponsor for ⁓ the Coolidge High School ⁓ football team for this coming year. So we're gonna have a six six foot by three foot banner on the field facing the ⁓ homestands. So you know that type of stuff. it

Ben Shaw: Are there other insurance agencies in Coolidge?

Jeremy Stepp: ⁓ yeah, we have a state farm agent and we have we have another independent agent. ⁓ the state farm agent and I, after we did our grand opening, I went over to their office and at their request and we met. they refer business to me that they can't write, you know.

Ben Shaw: Okay. Do they, because they can only do State Farm. Can you write with State Farm? Probably not.

Jeremy Stepp: I can't write state forum because they're capped in.

Ben Shaw: Who are the main markets that you tend to go to? Is it like a long list or is it shorter? What are the considerations that come in selecting your markets?

Jeremy Stepp: I think it just depends. So my so our business's tagline is yes we can ensure that because no isn't a strategy. And you know, ⁓ because when I first started this, I would have customers that would say, Hey, can you do this? And then I'd go and I'd contact my friend Kristen in Texas and I'd be like, Can we do this? You know. ⁓

Ben Shaw: Okay, now...

Jeremy Stepp: And finally I got tired of saying that, so I just started saying yes. You know, figuring that, well, either we're gonna f either we have the carrier, we're gonna find the carrier, or we're gonna partner with somebody who can write it. You know. I'm just I'm gonna I'm gonna get the job done as long as it's ethical and legal, if you want to pay me fine. Right. ⁓ so with if it's like personal property and casualty type stuff, then It depends on on the individual all this depends on the individual, but if you're a good you know, if you're a good driver, if you're good risk, so you don't have any any tickets, any accidents, any claims, your credit's good, you've not skipped around, so you have good insurance scores as far as longevity and things like that. You know And if you own if you own a home or a condo or whatever, I'm probably going to be able to write you like with foremost signature or travelers. ⁓ because they're gonna bundle and they're those those check boxes, that's what they're looking for, right? Very low to no claims, good MVR, all these things. ⁓ progressive as well. ⁓ progressive loves customers like that. my unfortunately right now because Progressive has, like a lot of carriers, has put a hold on adding ⁓ agencies to their home to their home you know their home company. So we can't really we can't bundle homeowners, I can bundle manufactured home, I can bundle rental, I can bundle condo, that type of thing. ⁓

Ben Shaw: you

Jeremy Stepp: GEICO ⁓ in a way GEICO is a step down. I've learned over over my time now, is a step down from progressive. and part of that I think is because they just within the last year and a half or so started allowing independent agencies. ⁓ because before then if you wanted GEICO, you had to go GEICO direct to the company. You know. ⁓

Ben Shaw: Yeah, like stay fun.

Jeremy Stepp: So you know again Geico partners with separate companies like travelers for homeowners and stuff like that, but ⁓ they they also do some other commercial thing, commercial lines and stuff like that. But then if you're somebody that ⁓ has had some mistakes, you know, like we all make make mistakes. Say your your motor vehicle record isn't that great. ⁓ you have lots of claims, your credit isn't good, you know, or you're struggling in that area. I get it. I've been there. We've probably all been there at one point in our lives. And you know then we have what we would consider non-standard companies that we can run through.

Ben Shaw: Yeah

Jeremy Stepp: you know, like Gainesco. Now Gainesco is owned by State Farm, but Gainesco is specifically meant for ⁓ individuals in those situations. and other o off-brand that you may not even recognize the name, you know. but then you know personal stuff in general is pretty easy for that. But then it's the commercial stuff that really gets weird, you know. ⁓ because

Ben Shaw: Yeah, yeah. Who do you go for for an insurance agent, you know?

Jeremy Stepp: I'm sorry.

Ben Shaw: Which carrier do you go to for insurance? ⁓

Jeremy Stepp: ⁓ for Eano, if you fit within certain certain boundaries, I'll go to Ergo next. ⁓ it's relatively easy to quote. it's relatively what's that?

Ben Shaw: They changed their name, It was Next up until recently. think they only recently changed it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jeremy Stepp: Yes, and then Ergo bought them and or merged with them. ⁓ which really I mean allows Next to have a lot more power. It actually increased their ⁓ insurance rating score. You know, ⁓ which is good. But Next offers very much an entry level, you know

Ben Shaw: ⁓ interesting.

Jeremy Stepp: So if you're just starting out, or if you're somebody that's been in the business for years, but you you're very limited in what you do, right? then as you grow, as I found out, next has so many exclusions a lot of times that it you outgrow that policy. You know? So if you're doing a lot of excess and surplus lines writing for risks that just can't be placed with an admitted carrier on the business end. ⁓ if you're using premium financing for that type of stuff, those those risks ⁓ are excluded by next. Right? So then we would look at somebody like Biberk or his cox, you know, that type of thing. ⁓ The the biggest challenge that not for me but for for other people is that ⁓ you end up with it with a higher price, right? But because part of my part of my the agreement for me to join my aggregator was that I needed to get rid of next and I needed to get ⁓ I need to go with Biberk fine. You know, I wrote my own policy through my access to Biberk now.

Ben Shaw: Yeah. Yep. you

Jeremy Stepp: So I'm getting paid for my own for my own policy. ⁓ and I think it went up maybe ten dollars a month compared to what I was paying next for both life and health and property and casualty. And but Biberg has very few exclusions. I mean it's like here you go, you wanna write whatever, like go and write it. ⁓

Ben Shaw: That's great. Yeah, that's fascinating. I think a lot of people really underestimate where insurance agents spend the most of their time. know, like, could you sort of walk me through when you get up on a Monday morning to start your day, know, assuming this is for PNC and not in your previous role as a teacher, then like, what does the first hour normally look like where you check in with your role?

Jeremy Stepp: Yeah, so I mean it's making some Facebook posts just that's the one thing that I've been doing since December is being consistent about you know interacting with ⁓ educational type Facebook posts every day. you know and but then I I get up and I I start to

Ben Shaw: Yeah, very interesting.

Jeremy Stepp: prioritize ⁓ what's what are because it you know yes I work with Tanya but she's doing the life and health side and the PNC side are totally different, right? Because life and health is very slow and methodical, right? and P and C is very fast, fast, fast, fast. I need a quote now. so I s I break things down into or I've started to really learn

Ben Shaw: you

Jeremy Stepp: Break things down into well, what's this? What's the end result of this? Okay, so is this revenue generating for me? So one thing I do that a lot of insurance agents don't do is I go and I actually check on my clients every every month to make sure that they've paid their bill. I go into the into the system for each carrier. And I check and people are like, that's a lot of time. Yeah, but how much time are you gonna spend to try and rewrite that client if their stuff cancels? Because I used to be that guy, right? ⁓ so that to me, that's revenue producing. But then the other thing I look at is okay, what's more revenue producing? Because I can sit there in general and check stuff at night when I'm at home in my recliner, right?

Ben Shaw: Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Stepp: more revenue producing is ⁓ you know what? I have live quotes. I have people that like the gentleman who saw my sign and he's like, I have I need I need some business insurance. ⁓ those you know live quotes, customers, existing customers that are like, Hey, can you can you requote this? Hey, can you ⁓ do you do this? Yes I do. Will you quote that for me? Because to me That stuff is money just hanging on the tree. Right? I I don't want that stuff to go cold. ⁓ and with especially with business stuff, it may be more challenging to place the risk. So it's important, I found, to one, find out if if the customer has a timeline idea of a turnaround time that you're looking for on this, and communicating that, and then looking and then checking back with them, even if it's every couple days. ⁓

Ben Shaw: Yep.

Jeremy Stepp: Hey, I haven't forgotten about you. Right? I'm still looking. ⁓ soon as I find more

Ben Shaw: What do you, when a client calls and asks you, let's say as an example, like for a home and auto bundle, right? Something like that. Like what would be the first thing you would do once that request comes in?

Jeremy Stepp: So if a customer contacts me general I mean through through ⁓ phone or text or email, ⁓ I'm surprised somebody hasn't done it through smoke smoke signals, you know, but if the if they did then ⁓

Ben Shaw: Yeah.

Jeremy Stepp: I'm going to go and I'm going to want to send them a link to a Google form that we have. That's an intake form. One of the things that I've learned over time, and I keep being reminded, and I keep being reminded so it's a lesson I'm still learning, ⁓ is that I really don't have the time anymore to go into not have the majority of people not use that. Right? I'm not saying that I'm gonna have every answer that I need Then I'm not gonna ever have to go back to the customer and get a clarifying question answer. But in general, I've gotten to the point where it's like, look, here's my auto quote intake form. Go and fill that out. As soon as I get it, I'll go ahead and start working on quotes for you. And if the customer is not willing to do that, ⁓ which I've had them and I used to get really butthurt about it because, you know, ⁓ man. But now I'm to the point where I'm like, you know what, next. I if you're not going to go and make this easier for me too, so that I can give you an accurate quote that's not just me

Ben Shaw: What? What does when the customer doesn't want to do it like what how do they think you can get the information?

Jeremy Stepp: Well, there's ⁓ I've gotten information from people many different ways, you know. ⁓ it's

Ben Shaw: They would give it to you on the phone, is that what they're hoping for?

Jeremy Stepp: I've had people give it to me on the phone. I've told people, hey, an easy way that you may find to give me the information would be to take pictures of your of all the driver's licenses for all the drivers, send them to me. ⁓ take a picture of your insurance cards, that way I have the VIN for every car. ⁓ if you have an app go on your app and take screenshots of your of your coverages. That way I make sure that I'm giving you an apples to apples comparison, that type of thing.

Ben Shaw: How many of your submissions do you think come by the intake form versus some other creative way? Or are you saying that you've completely blocked off all the creative ways now?

Jeremy Stepp: No, ⁓ there's still a lot of creative ways. And I'm not and I and I on one hand, see this is like the balancing act, right? I I want to make sure that I don't forget that my job is to get and keep customers. And if I get and keep customers, then profits will take care of themselves and my business will grow and this and that. And if I put too many obstacles up, then I'm not going then I fail in the job, right? I'm not going to get and keep customers because I make it too difficult. So it would be nice to use the intake form because of the amount of time it saves.

Ben Shaw: is abandoning it. Yeah.

Jeremy Stepp: That being said, when I was down the street from my office at a secondhand store, and the owner was like, Hey, do you do you insure box trucks? And I'm like, Yeah, sure do. And she said, Great. And I'm like, Okay, let me text you this link, and then you can fill it out. And she said, You know, when I get home, I'm tired, I don't want to get on the internet and do stuff like that. Now For a lot of people, they may hear, ⁓ well, well for me, because of having been raised in a family business, then my service business for eleven years, I hear opportunity, right? I'm like, okay, ⁓ do you have your do you have your ⁓ your license with you? Yes, I do. Great, may I see it please? Yeah. She gives it to me, I put it on the counter, I bring my phone out. Take a picture of it, right? Is that the box truck you're talking about out there? Yes, it is. Great. Is it unlocked? Sure. May I go open it and get the VIN? Yep. So I go, take a picture of it. And ⁓ I ask her, I'm like, is the is the address on your license accurate for your for your residential address? She said, yeah. And I said, and the business card here, does that have your right address for here? And she said, yeah. Said, okay, I'll be back later today or tomorrow with a quote. So where a lot of people in this industry have told me you spend way too much time with people like that. Like, well guess what? I wrote her business. I I you know ⁓ and there's the opportunity for me to potentially write her personal vehicles, her ⁓ business insurance, you know, those type of things because we should never look at

Ben Shaw: Yeah, of course.

Jeremy Stepp: Even the intake form idea, we should never look at it as a one size fits all tool, right? You know, meet customers where they're at.

Ben Shaw: Yeah, it does seem the common thread in all these conversations does seem to be that the most success is had by being patient and being willing to, you know, sometimes be a bit scrappy, right? Just it's not, it's not one size fits all by any shot. So. So yeah, do you, how do you, do you feel like insurance has at all changed since you started? I know that you said COVID was the first time you sort of started thinking about it. And you know, now this is now sort of five years ago that Tonya started her business at least like any reflections you have on how it's evolved since then.

Jeremy Stepp: Yeah. it's not the hardest work I've ever done. I'll tell you that. ⁓ it's still a lot of hard work. a lot of mental just mental work in myself and leaning into it and really grinding. And grinding for me, 'cause you know, in my service business I ground and ground for years, you know, but I was also single and wasn't dating anybody and this and that. And I mean, I'm a dad, I got two teenage kids and stuff like that. But for me it it may be grinding today may be okay. ⁓ because we live an hour away from Phoenix, if my wife is driving or my daughter's driving, I'm a I'm in the passenger seat, I'm I'm running quotes. I'm researching stuff. I'm emailing clients. grinding for me maybe, you know what, somebody just like this happened last night, a good customer texted me and said, Hey, we're buying a new car. Would you please here's the information with the VIN, would you please run some quotes for us? So, you know, I brought out the computer. I'd already shut everything down, but I brought out the computer and went ahead and normally when I'd be going to bed, you know, I spent a little extra time and got that information out. because I realize if I want things to change, I have to change, right? If I want to be in a different place, then I have to act in a different way. it doesn't mean that I personally will have to do that type of stuff in the future because hopefully I'll w be able to get some automations that'll take care of that type of thing, you know. But I

Ben Shaw: Do you have any observations already?

Jeremy Stepp: we're working on it. We're working on it. You know.

Ben Shaw: Do you use any system? Nice. do you use any, I think there's like agency management systems, right? Things like that. Do you have anything like that already?

Jeremy Stepp: Yeah, so I mean we have Hawksoft that's through our our aggregator. ⁓ I also use ⁓ a program that ⁓ my friend and mentor Kristen Heisler in Texas that she uses in her agency called Digital Mentors. And ⁓ that it's it's a really good CRM generically, but the main reason I got it was

Ben Shaw: Yep.

Jeremy Stepp: because it has an amazing task reminder system. Now Hawksoft has that too, but I like the digital mentors one because the whole purpose of that is so that eventually

Ben Shaw: Amen.

Jeremy Stepp: I can get rid of this tickler file. Right? This manual tickler file. So that I'm not spending time printing stuff, making s you know, short notes on there, hey, you know, here's the date, did so and so contact me back. those types of things. So i in that way that's an automation. You know, i it's just a matter of time.

Ben Shaw: If you could wave a magic wand on what you would love to automate even more, what would it be?

Jeremy Stepp: If I could wave a magic wand I defin I would if I could wave a magic wand, I would have a virtual assistant. I would

Ben Shaw: So someone who takes the photo that you took of the driver's license and can produce the quote for you, something like that.

Jeremy Stepp: Yeah, and if they're not licensed, ⁓ they can at least do the low-hanging fruit that doesn't require a license, like checking to make sure that ⁓ people made their payments, ⁓ contacting customers when renewals are coming up, things like that. ⁓ my wife has a co-worker that she and her significant other just got a a re a ⁓ a notice from their insurance agent.

Ben Shaw: So yeah.

Jeremy Stepp: ⁓ that hey this your insurance company isn't renewing you in June. And so when my wife's coworker reached out to them in the meantime, you know, I'm I'm requoting their stuff too, to try and earn the business, she reached out to them and their response in her text to me today was We'll we'll get around to it in a couple weeks. Now I my response to her in the text was ⁓ in my opinion, especially because they know and told you that you're not getting renewed in June, and you're an existing customer that's been with them for over a year, I would be bending over backward to make sure I kept you. Because it's easier to keep a customer than it is to try and go out and get a new one. And to go and to say, ⁓ we'll get to it in a couple weeks. Look, don't get me wrong, I don't want to come across as being hypocritical. I have stuff in my stack of stuff for requotes from stuff that I've quoted before for people that I didn't write the business for. Right? So lost opportunities, trying to regain lost opportunities, and that stuff will get taken care of. But we're not talking

Ben Shaw: Okay. Yeah.

Jeremy Stepp: A customer, an existing customer, like my customer last night. Hey, we're buying a car. He called me on Christmas Eve. Hey, I'm buying my wife a car. Can you give me a quote? You know, it's Christmas Eve. And I brought my computer with me, you know, and

Ben Shaw: Yeah. How long on Christmas Eve, how long do you try and turn a quote around for a customer?

Jeremy Stepp: What was that?

Ben Shaw: How quickly do you try and turn around a quote for a customer when they ask you on Christmas Eve?

Jeremy Stepp: If it's something like that, I mean that particular one took a little while because there were some challenges. Geica was having some challenges with its system. But ⁓ in general I try to get if it's a straightforward quote, I try and get it out in no less than an hour, depending on what I have ahead of it, right? 'Cause so I have a queue and that's one one c that's one thing I'm working on, right? Is the idea of this queue system that Great. I'm glad that you want me to give you a quote that I have five other customers ahead of you. And so then it's like, okay, I may have a really difficult like business quote. So I work a little bit on that. And then, okay, let me knock this one out because I know it's gonna be quick.

Ben Shaw: When you think about what will take longer and what will be faster to quote, are there various different ways in which you get to a quote? What are the sort of most common ways in which you can produce a quote?

Jeremy Stepp: So I mean if it's if it's personal lines, right, then I just use ⁓ easy links, which is our comparative online writer. ⁓ and that works great most of the time. If if you if you own a manufactured home that's not gonna work, I have to manually do it. but I've gotten really before I joined my aggregator, I got really good at at being doing quick quotes. with multiple carriers without an online aggreg without an online ⁓ rater because I didn't have one. And so I started noticing I would I would use the rule of three because I started noticing like, well wait a second, if I'm getting three quotes, and these quotes are a pretty good representation, like this one's high, this one's low, this one's in the middle, and they're all pretty much the same, I'm gonna stop. There's no reason for me to continue looking at that point because I'm going to save the customer five dollars a year if I keep looking, you know? And at that point it's like, look, I've done my due diligence, right? And then I send them out the quote, hey, this is the best we have.

Ben Shaw: Yeah. Yeah. How many carriers do you get via EasyLinks?

Jeremy Stepp: How many carriers what?

Ben Shaw: How many carriers do you get via Easy Links?

Jeremy Stepp: So I mean Easy Links has a pretty good amount of carriers that use that either require andor just use Easy Links. personally right now our agency has about 10, but ⁓ that's mainly because we're new to the aggregator. We're still growing, we have to we have to, you know, show our worth. And so and I get it. But I just really like the number three because like I would like it's like I'd like three non-standard car carriers, I'd like three classic car carriers, I'd like three preferred car carriers, and I'd like three, you know, really preferred like traveler, safe co and foremost signature. Because In general, again, if I have one, it's hard to compare anything. If I have two, I can compare stuff, but if I have three, I have you know, it's like triangulation. I have a pretty good idea then of where things are gonna go. And so but easylinks is a powerful tool.

Ben Shaw: Of course. Where do you- Yeah, that makes sense. Is the other quotes typically on the carrier portal where you type in information and then it just produces a quote for you?

Jeremy Stepp: Yeah. Either I have a direct appointment to the carrier or I have a subappointment through a managing general agency, an MGA. ⁓ something like that. ⁓ I also have a couple appointments that are broker counters. ⁓ and in those situations, yes the percentage of commission isn't as good, but For example, like travelers or Liberty Mutual, okay, for for commercial, right? These companies, because they're preferred, they're like highly preferred companies, they have they have writing requirements where you need to write at least this much premium a year, you know, like fifty thousand dollars in premium a year per company, so many packages a month. that type of thing. Where if you're able to use a broker counter, then you're yes you're losing some of your commission, but you're not bound you're not bound to those requirements. You know, which is great for a for an agency, a newer agency like like mine that's that's in a very you know young growth pattern.

Ben Shaw: Who do you use as an RPS mostly? do you use as a broker counter like ⁓ risk placement services? Is that typically?

Jeremy Stepp: Who do I use what? ⁓ yeah, ⁓ I've used RPS quite a bit. especially for ENS but the biggest so this was a this was something I learned going along. And it wasn't until ⁓ later that I I realized, ⁓ I'm supposed to be doing due diligence. I'm supposed to be having these customers sign these forms that understand that this is an ENS place, you know. all these things a long time ago. and so where I used to use RPS for a lot of things or that type of thing, like Eastern underwriting, whatever that deals with a lot of ENS, I don't as much anymore. unless it fits that specific need where okay I've totally like I've got my th I've done my due diligence, I've got my three admitted carriers, and they're not wanting to do it. And so ⁓ you know I'll go to to RPS, I'll go to Eastern Underwriting, any of these companies, whole whole sure, whatever, and I'll I'll do that.

Ben Shaw: Yeah.

Jeremy Stepp: But one thing that I like about RPS, and it's the same thing true about Eastern Underwriting or even Holster is they have they have admitted companies too. You know, and in their own way they have their own sort of broker counters set up too. ⁓ so it's like okay Well in the past I haven't had Safeco. Well I had a guy who had a motorcycle and Safeco was the only place that would ride it and I wrote it through RPS standard wise. Right? So was the percentage as good? No. But guess what? I had access to Safeco. I was able to do it without getting a direct appointment to Safeco and without needing to meet all those all those premium requirements. So it's

Ben Shaw: Yeah.

Jeremy Stepp: There's so many ways, you know, so many different it's to to work it, right? You just have to have an open mind and be willing to to see the good and know that ultimately you're learning, right?

Ben Shaw: Yeah. Of You mentioned so many different parts of your, of what the job entails, know, what would you say now that we've talked about most of them, like what would you say is the most painful part of your...

Jeremy Stepp: The mo one of the most painful parts to me is finding or has been finding answers to questions.

Ben Shaw: ⁓ like what?

Jeremy Stepp: ⁓ like builder's risk, for example. Okay. So I've worked with this ⁓ hard money lender here in Arizona, and they they work nationwide. ⁓ and I'm licensed in 26 states, so you know, over halfway there. And ⁓ but they would keep coming to me with, hey, we have this

Ben Shaw: Uh-huh.

Jeremy Stepp: This fix and flip, or we have this new build from raw dirt, right? And the general contractor will not allow the owner to be put on as an additional insured on their on their ⁓ certificate of insurance. And so then trying to find companies that would actually do it. Not personal liability, but actually general liability where the where it says general liability because the the lenders wouldn't take personal liability. And ⁓ finally one day, one day, it was about six months after I've been struggling with this, right? I get I get smart. You know, the light the last light and the chandelier comes on, the elevator goes all the way to the top, probably some squeaking, you know. And I I reach out to the to the lender and I'm like, Hey, you know, I really want to solve this problem. Do you have any old policies or quotes laying around from companies that were able to do this? I said, Not not insurance agents, but carriers And so they sent me a couple and As soon as they sent me a couple, I talked to my aggregator and they're like, ⁓ yeah. Here, let's give you US assure. Man, it was like I was Indiana Jones and I found the holy grail. You know, because not only could I do the builders risk with them, but then I could go and I could do the general liability that actually says general liability with them. And it was like the movies. You know, they lit up You know, after all these months really hammering at this thing,

Ben Shaw: Yeah.

Jeremy Stepp: I know there are a lot of people out there that would just say, Forget it, man, just move on to the next thing. My in my life, my pattern has always been if I follow the hard things and figure them out, there's gonna be a there's gonna be a a major payoff for that.

Ben Shaw: Yeah, if you follow the hard things, the easy things will follow, for sure. So interesting. All right, I think I only have two more questions. the first one is, where do you see your agency in like five to 10 years? Do you have sort of a vision for what success would look like for Jeremy or Jeremy and Tonya?

Jeremy Stepp: Yeah, ⁓ I would like I would like to buy a piece of land that is on Arizona Boulevard, which is the main sort of state highway through Coolidge and build a build a very unique building. it was a building that my dad wanted for his clock shop, he never saw it, you know. And But build it so that on the exterior it looks like the Glockenspiel in Munich. And has the moving people and everything like that. That way it's not just that way it's a destination. It's another way of drawing people in, right? ⁓ But also want to dedicate it to my folks, you know? ⁓ and then really growing the idea of what

Ben Shaw: Yeah. There we

Jeremy Stepp: synergy wealth, insurance and planning is, right? That wealth is one part and there's so much involved in that insurance is another part. Planning is a totally different thing. And I would like to see us ⁓ expand in truly into all 50 states, including, you know, Alaska and Hawaii. and be able to expand physically into each of those states. I mean, you know, my first my first office that I'm going to open outside of Arizona is going to be in Hawaii because man, I need that tax write-off.

Ben Shaw: That's how we do it.

Jeremy Stepp: You know. You know. ⁓ but that's one big one big challenge that a lot of people f that I've noticed a lot of people have when they try and scale outside of their state is if is if you don't have a physical location in that state, and by physical location, even if it's a a Regis office, right, that in an agent of record or whatever that in places like California, Texas, Louisiana, Florida ⁓ you're just not gonna get access to the carriers that are the good carriers that are gonna wanna write in those states and you're gonna find that you struggle. so I figure I don't wanna just do it to do it. I wanna do it to do it and expand and leave a legacy for my for my family, you know.

Ben Shaw: Yeah, will be off the record so I'll cut this out of the recording but is there any other agency owner you think I should be talking to? Someone who has like strong opinions about all the things we just spoke about?

Jeremy Stepp: Kristen Heisler

Ben Shaw: Yeah? Okay, I'll reach out to Kristen. Or, ⁓ or yeah, if I don't get hold of her, I'll ask you to connect me. And then I think...

Jeremy Stepp: ⁓ if you if you go on Facebook you'll find her.

Ben Shaw: ⁓ Okay, sounds good. I'll have a look. ⁓ Okay, even better.

Jeremy Stepp: I can give you her office number right now.

Ben Shaw: So I'll fast forward.

Jeremy Stepp: You enjoy talking with her.

Ben Shaw: Okay, guys.

Jeremy Stepp: She'll blow your mind. She blows my mind and I've known her for almost two years.

Ben Shaw: Nice.

Jeremy Stepp: ⁓ the phone number is eight one seven three zero one two six eight three

Ben Shaw: Okay.

Jeremy Stepp: That's her office number in in Texas.

Ben Shaw: I will try that. Thank you so much. I think we've the whole gambit of I think what we could cover. Is there anything in particular you think I missed asking about?

Jeremy Stepp: Not that I know those, right?

Ben Shaw: Well in that case, Jeremy, thank you so much for joining me and yeah, hopefully speak again soon.

Jeremy Stepp: You're welcome. Have a great day.

Ben Shaw: You too.