Building a Rural Insurance Agency with Jeremy Stepp

[00:00] And thank you so much for taking the time. I think when you look for information on independent

[00:07] agents, you really just don't find that much online. So what better opportunity is there than

[00:11] to launch a podcast to talk about this in more detail. Tell me about how you and Tonya decided to

[00:16] build your own agency. Sure. So about 2020 when COVID happened, the world sort of shut down.

[00:23] You know, Tanya was a dental assistant and so can't really go and dental assist when the world is shut down.

[00:31] And so during that time when it was like the apocalypse happened, right?

[00:36] You go outside and there's no one on your street.

[00:38] And if you ventured out to the convenience store, you're like the only one there with a mask.

[00:41] You're like no one else is there.

[00:43] But anyway, she she was approached by our sister-in-law about learning to sell life insurance.

[00:50] And so she went ahead and got her life and health license here in Arizona.

[00:54] Being the supportive husband I am, I went ahead and got my life and health license as well.

[00:59] And she really enjoys life and health.

[01:02] Not me, not so much.

[01:03] I mean, I still have the license, right?

[01:05] 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?

[01:12] So many people fail in life and health because selling life insurance is really a hard, tough net to crack for a lot of people.

[01:19] And so you sort of need an easy way in.

[01:23] And the easy way in that I finally, in September of 2024, decided to go ahead and do it is through property and casualty.

[01:33] Interesting. So how do you get into life and health through property and casualty?

[01:37] Well, because legally, if you own a car, you've got to have insurance.

[01:40] If you own property and you owe money on it, you've got to have insurance.

[01:44] If you're doing anything professionally, like selling insurance, you've got to have insurance.

[01:50] You know, if you own a business, you've got to have general liability insurance.

[01:53] You've got to have workman's comp insurance, these type of things.

[01:56] So basically, the idea was, and still is, you get them with the easy sell, right?

[02:03] The low-hanging fruit, right?

[02:05] Not the 6-7.

[02:07] The low-hanging fruit.

[02:09] with the car insurance, the homeowner's insurance,

[02:12] renter's insurance, business insurance, things like that.

[02:16] And now once you've done that

[02:18] and if you've renewed them a few times

[02:20] and you've built a relationship,

[02:22] they know you, now they're part of your war circle, right?

[02:27] Of course.

[02:28] And so it helps having that conversation

[02:32] to be much easier, right?

[02:34] What were you doing before you joined Tonya in that endeavor?

[02:38] So I'm actually in my regular JLB because we're still building the agency so that I can go full time.

[02:45] I'm a special education teacher.

[02:48] Okay, nice.

[02:49] And then you decided that sooner or later you're going to do full time PNC?

[02:52] Yeah, actually in July of 2024, I just had a really challenging moment.

[02:58] We were living in a community that the management, it's like an HOA on steroids, right?

[03:05] And it wasn't like we weren't earning decent money.

[03:09] We were.

[03:09] It was just, though, that we were sort of in that middle class rut, right?

[03:13] That we had enough money to live comfortably.

[03:17] We had enough money to, you know, maybe go on a vacation here and there, you know, once

[03:21] every year or two years.

[03:23] But when it came down to, OK, well, how do I handle this situation with this homeowners

[03:29] association?

[03:29] I didn't have, I didn't have the money to go and get the legal advice and the help that I really needed.

[03:37] And so I felt like I was backed into a corner.

[03:40] I was painted into a corner.

[03:42] And at that point, I'm like, you know what?

[03:44] I don't want to ever be in this situation.

[03:47] Especially, you know, I'm not old.

[03:50] And I'm going to be 50 this year.

[03:52] Especially as older as I get.

[03:54] That I'm like, I don't want to be in this situation ever again.

[03:57] And so what I did, I reflected back on, I had owned a service business for 11 years, and then I closed it in 2008 when the economy had collapsed.

[04:07] Service business?

[04:08] I'm sorry.

[04:08] What was the service business that you owned?

[04:11] It was clock repair.

[04:12] Oh, no way. Interesting.

[04:13] Yeah. My grandfather, my grandfather learned from a clock and watchmaker who loved to repair watches, but he hated clocks.

[04:20] And then my grandfather started teaching my dad when he was 12, and my dad kicked me out of bed when I was 10 and started teaching me.

[04:26] And when my dad retired in 1997, I took over from him.

[04:30] If he had concentrated primarily on retail and repair, I just concentrated on repair.

[04:34] But one thing I learned reflecting back on that experience was the time that, because

[04:41] of all the tax deductions and things like that you get when you're a business owner, the

[04:45] time that I ever had the most freedom, the time I ever had the most money was when I owned

[04:49] my own business.

[04:50] And so I'm like, okay, what's the easiest way for me to get from where I'm at now?

[04:56] to where I want to be. And at that moment, I'd actually let my life and health license lapse.

[05:02] It wasn't that long. And so with the state of Arizona, I just had to do some CEs and pay the

[05:08] fee and it got reinstated. And then I was hooked up by one of Tanya's business partners. I was

[05:14] hooked up with a lady in Texas who I didn't know who this lady was. She ended up becoming my mentor

[05:20] and a really good friend, Kristen Heisler in Texas. She owns Think Pink Insurance and Universal

[05:25] So Wealth Property and Casualty Insurance.

[05:28] And she's like, hey, you know what?

[05:29] If you get your Arizona license and your Texas license,

[05:31] I'll throw some work at you because she was so busy, right?

[05:34] And so I did that.

[05:37] And that was in September of 2024.

[05:38] So, you know, from nothing and no way to now where we have a physical office,

[05:45] you know, the PNC part of the business is part of an aggregator

[05:50] or insurance network group, whatever you want to ever send an email.

[05:54] What's the network called?

[05:55] it's called Pacific Crest Services. They're out of Idaho. And for me personally, out of looking

[06:02] at a lot of different ones, you know, I felt the most comfortable with them. And I primarily did

[06:06] that to get access to more markets here in Arizona, specifically in Arizona, because that's where I

[06:12] was, you know. So you mentioned that it's hard to find people for the life and health side.

[06:20] and for P&C, it's easier because more people need P&C insurance products.

[06:26] How do you do customer acquisition for P&C right now?

[06:29] So our office is in a town of about 20,000 people.

[06:33] Is this Coolidge?

[06:35] Yeah, in Coolidge, Arizona.

[06:37] Yeah.

[06:38] And so that's in Pinellas County.

[06:40] In Pinellas County is the swath of land that's between Maricopa County,

[06:46] where Phoenix is, and Pima County, where Tucson is.

[06:49] And so where we live, we live in Arizona City, which is just south of Casa Grande, which Casa Grande is the bigger city in that area.

[06:58] And then our office is about 18 miles from where we where we live, which in Phoenix, like in California, distance is nothing, you know.

[07:06] But the area we're in in Pinal County is hugely rural, agriculture based, a lot of, you know, hardworking families.

[07:16] And so the way that we advertise, one, we have our website, two, we have our signs on our business for our office.

[07:25] But we actually advertise a lot through the Pinal County newspapers, the Casa Grande Valley newspapers.

[07:32] And we advertise in print, which then also goes online with their setup.

[07:38] And so we've gotten quite a few customers.

[07:41] We've been doing it now about three months.

[07:42] So now we're starting to see, you know, the customers that are coming in from that.

[07:47] So if you've done it for three months, historically, the majority of customers wouldn't have come through that channel.

[07:53] They would have come from, is it referrals mostly?

[07:56] Well, and that's the thing, we get a lot of referrals.

[07:58] I get a lot of referrals.

[07:59] I mean, a lot.

[08:00] So I write a lot of E&O insurance because, you know, within Tanya's life insurance group, right?

[08:06] You bring on a new agent, I'm generally probably going to write their E&O.

[08:09] I don't have a problem writing E&O, but you end up writing a lot of E&O to make ends meet.

[08:15] But you know what?

[08:16] If I had to write it all day long, I'd write it.

[08:18] It's very easy.

[08:19] It's not difficult.

[08:21] It's easy money, right?

[08:22] Is it insurance agent E&O in particular?

[08:26] Yeah, correct.

[08:27] For life insurance.

[08:29] I have a customer right now that I just had done a quote for today that she also is life

[08:35] insurance and P&C licensed.

[08:37] so went ahead and ran you know insurance for that individual obviously she found out what i found out

[08:44] when i decided to add property and casualty to my e and o insurance which wasn't more than double

[08:49] you know there's a lot more risk there with property and casualty than life and now but you know the

[08:55] other the other way we get that we get our customers and this i have people ask me all the

[09:02] time especially in the industry where do you get your customers where do you get your customers and

[09:06] it sounds so weird but it's the truth dude it is like they fall out of the sky really i mean we have

[09:13] a you know we have a sign a big sign on the front window of our of our office and then we have this

[09:19] you know plastic a-frame like you see at restaurants and stuff like that and we take it out we put it

[09:24] out in front of our office on central avenue which is the main drag through coolage as far as going

[09:31] through downtown and so just the other day a guy calls me and he's and i i asked him i said well

[09:37] where'd you hear about us he said well i saw your sign your a-frame sign i went to your website and

[09:42] 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

[09:49] you on google now this is even before i had we had a physical office when we were just doing remote

[09:54] agency stuff i said i saw your ads on google we're in the car and i look at my wife and i mouth to

[10:01] I'm like, they don't have hats on Google.

[10:04] You know, it's literally people that just drop out of the sky, you know,

[10:10] and I'm a spiritual person.

[10:12] So I thank God for that, you know, because it's not me.

[10:17] I mean, granted, I sit there and I do my, I read my goals at least twice a day

[10:22] and repeat my affirmations multiple times, you know, but help keep my mind right.

[10:27] But it's really interesting.

[10:29] And then we just went ahead and signed up to be a sponsor for the Coolidge high school football team for this coming year.

[10:39] So we're going to have a six foot by three foot banner on the field facing the home stands.

[10:46] So, you know, that type of stuff.

[10:48] Are there other insurance agencies in Coolidge?

[10:53] Yeah, we have a State Farm agent.

[10:54] We have another independent agent.

[10:59] And the State Farm agent and I, after we did our grand opening, I went over to their office at their request and we met.

[11:06] They refer business to me that they can't write.

[11:09] Because they can only do State Farm.

[11:10] Can you write a State Farm?

[11:12] Probably not.

[11:12] I can't write State Farm because they're capital.

[11:16] Who are the main markets that you tend to go to?

[11:19] Is it like a long list or is it shorter?

[11:23] What are they considering selecting your market?

[11:25] So my, so our business is tagline is yes, we can ensure that because no, isn't a strategy.

[11:33] And you know, because when I first started this, I would have customers that would say,

[11:38] Hey, can you do this?

[11:39] And then I'd go and I'd contact my friend, Kristen in Texas.

[11:42] And I'd be like, can we do this?

[11:44] You know?

[11:44] And finally I got tired of saying that.

[11:46] So I just started saying yes, you know, figuring that, well, either we're going to find, either

[11:52] we have the carrier, we're going to find the carrier, or we're going to partner with somebody

[11:55] who can write it. You know, I'm just, I'm going to, I'm going to get the job done as long as it's

[11:59] ethical and legal. If you want to pay me, fine. Right. So with, if it's like personal property

[12:04] and casualty type stuff, then it depends on, on the individual, all this depends on the individual,

[12:10] 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,

[12:14] any tickets, any accidents, any claims, your credit's good. You've not skipped around. So you

[12:21] have good insurance score as far as longevity and things like that you know and if you own if you own

[12:26] a home or a condo or whatever I'm probably going to be able to write you like with foremost signature

[12:31] or travelers because they're going to bundle and they're those those check boxes that's what they're

[12:38] looking for right very low to no claims good in vr all these things progressive as well progressive

[12:46] loves customers like that.

[12:49] Unfortunately, right now,

[12:50] because Progressive has,

[12:51] like a lot of carriers,

[12:53] has put a hold on adding agencies

[12:55] to their home,

[12:57] to their home company.

[13:00] So we can't really,

[13:01] we can't bundle homeowners.

[13:03] I can bundle manufactured home.

[13:04] I can bundle rental.

[13:05] I can bundle condo,

[13:07] that type of thing.

[13:09] Geico, in a way,

[13:10] Geico is a step down.

[13:12] I've learned over my time now

[13:14] is a step down from Progressive.

[13:16] And part of that, I think, is because they just, within the last year and a half or so,

[13:21] started allowing independent agencies.

[13:25] Because before then, if you wanted Geico, you had to go Geico direct to the company.

[13:29] Yeah, like State Farm.

[13:29] You know, so again, Geico partners with separate companies like Travelers for homeowners and stuff like that.

[13:37] But they also do some other commercial things, commercial lines and stuff like that.

[13:42] But then if you're somebody that has had some mistakes, you know, like we all make mistakes.

[13:50] Say your motor vehicle record isn't that great.

[13:53] You have lots of claims.

[13:55] Your credit isn't good.

[13:57] You know, or you're struggling in that area.

[13:58] I get it.

[13:59] I've been there.

[14:00] We've probably all been there at one point in our lives.

[14:02] And, you know, then we have what we would consider non-standard companies that we can run through.

[14:09] You know, like Gaines Co.

[14:10] and a gains co is owned by state farm but gains co is specifically meant for individuals in those

[14:17] situations and other off brand that you may not even recognize the name you know but then you know

[14:24] personal stuff in general is pretty easy for that but then it's the commercial stuff that really

[14:30] gets weird you know yeah yeah because you get for insurance agent you know i'm sorry which carrier

[14:36] do you go to for insurance for you know if you fit within certain certain boundaries i'll go to ergo

[14:43] next it's relatively easy to quote it changed it's relatively what's that it was it was next up until

[14:51] recently i think they only recently yes and then ergo bought them yeah yeah and emerged with them

[14:57] which really i mean allows next to have a lot more power it actually increased their insurance rating

[15:03] score, you know, which is good. But Next offers very much an entry level, you know, if you're

[15:10] just starting out or if you're somebody that's been in the business for years, but you're very

[15:14] limited in what you do, right? Then as you grow, as I found out, Next has so many exclusions a lot

[15:21] of times that you outgrow that policy, you know? So if you're doing a lot of excess and surplus

[15:28] lines writing for risks that just can't be placed with an admitted carrier on the business

[15:33] in if you're using premium financing for that type of stuff those those risks are excluded by next

[15:40] right so then we would look at somebody like bybrook or his cox you know that type of thing that the

[15:47] biggest challenge that not for me but for other people is that you end up with it with a higher

[15:55] price right yeah but because part of my part of my or the agreement for me to join my aggregator

[16:02] was that I needed to get rid of Next and I needed to get, I needed to go with ByBurk.

[16:07] Fine.

[16:07] You know, I wrote my own policy through my access to ByBurk.

[16:10] So I'm getting paid for my own, for my own policy.

[16:14] That's great.

[16:15] And I think it went up maybe $10 a month compared to what I was paying Next

[16:20] for both life and health and property and casualty.

[16:23] And But ByBurk has very few exclusions.

[16:26] I mean, it's like, here you go.

[16:28] You want to write whatever, like go and write it.

[16:30] Yeah, that's fascinating.

[16:31] I think a lot of people really underestimate where insurance agents spend the most of their time.

[16:37] You know, like, could you sort of walk me through when you get up on a Monday morning to start your day,

[16:42] assuming this is for PNC and not in your previous role as a teacher,

[16:47] then, like, what does the first hour normally look like where you check in with your role?

[16:52] Yeah, so, I mean, it's making some Facebook posts.

[16:54] Just that's the one thing that I've been doing since December is being consistent about, you know,

[17:00] interacting with educational type Facebook posts every day.

[17:06] Very interesting.

[17:08] You know, and, but then I get up and I start to prioritize what's,

[17:14] what are, because it, you know, yes, I work with Tanya,

[17:17] but she's doing the life and health side and the PNC side are totally different,

[17:21] right?

[17:21] Because life and health is very slow and methodical, right?

[17:25] And PNC is very fast, fast, fast, fast.

[17:28] I need a quote now.

[17:30] So, I break things down into, I've started to really learn, 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 month to make sure that they've paid their bill.

[17:53] I go into the into the system for each carrier and I check and people are like, that's a lot of time.

[17:59] Yeah, but how much time are you going to spend to try and rewrite that client if their stuff cancels?

[18:04] Because I used to be that guy.

[18:06] Right. So that to me, that's revenue producing.

[18:08] But then the other thing I look at is, OK, what's more revenue producing?

[18:13] Because I can sit there in general and check stuff at night when I'm at home in my recliner.

[18:18] Right. More revenue producing is, oh, you know what?

[18:21] I have live quotes.

[18:22] I have people that, like the gentleman who saw my sign and he's like, I need some business insurance.

[18:30] Those, you know, live quotes, customers, existing customers that are like, hey, can you, can you re-quote this?

[18:36] Hey, can you, do you do this?

[18:38] Yes, I do.

[18:39] Will you quote that for me?

[18:40] Because to me, that stuff is money just hanging on the tree, right?

[18:44] I don't want that stuff to go cold.

[18:46] Yeah.

[18:46] and with especially with business stuff it may be more challenging to place the risk so it's

[18:52] important i found to one find out if if the customer has a timeline hey do you have a turnaround time

[18:57] that you're looking for on this and communicating that and then looking and then checking back with

[19:03] them even if it's every couple days hey i haven't forgotten about you right i'm still looking as soon

[19:10] as i find you when a client calls and asks you let's say as an example like for a home and auto

[19:15] bundle right something like that like what would be the first thing you would do once that request

[19:22] comes in so if a customer contacts me generally i mean through through phone or text or email i'm

[19:29] surprised somebody hasn't done it through smoke signals you know but if if they did then i'm going

[19:36] to go and i'm going to want to send them a link to a google form that we have that's an intake one of

[19:42] the things that I've learned over time, and I keep being reminded, and I keep being reminded,

[19:48] so it's a lesson I'm still learning, is that I really don't have the time anymore to go and to

[19:54] not have the majority of people not use that, right? I'm not saying that I'm going to have

[20:00] every answer that I need. I'm not going to ever have to go back to the customer and get a clarifying

[20:06] question answer. But in general, I'm getting to the point where it's like, look, here's my auto

[20:11] a quote intake form go and fill that out as soon as i get it i'll go ahead and start working on

[20:15] quotes for you and if the customer is not willing to do that which i've had them and i used to get

[20:21] really butthurt about it because you know yeah and now i'm to the point where i'm like you know what

[20:26] next if you're not going to go and make this easier for me too so that i can give you an accurate quote

[20:33] that's not just what what does when the customer doesn't want to do it like what how do they think

[20:39] you can get the information? Well,

[20:41] there's, I've gotten information from people

[20:43] many different ways, you know.

[20:47] They would give it to you on the phone?

[20:49] Is that what they're hoping for? I've had people give

[20:51] it to me on the phone. I've told people

[20:53] hey,

[20:55] an easy way that you may

[20:57] find to give me the information would be to

[20:59] take pictures of your, of all the driver's

[21:01] licenses for all the drivers. Send

[21:03] them to me. Take a picture of your insurance cards

[21:05] that way I have the VIN for every

[21:07] car. If you have an app, go in your app and take screenshots of your coverages. That way I make sure

[21:13] that I'm giving you an apples to apples comparison, that type of thing. How many of your submissions

[21:19] do you think come by the intake form versus some other creative way? Or are you saying that you've

[21:26] completely blocked off all the creative ways now? No, there's still a lot of creative ways.

[21:32] And I'm not, and I, on one hand, see this is like the balancing act, right?

[21:38] I want to make sure that I don't forget that my job is to get and keep customers.

[21:45] And if I get and keep customers, then profits will take care of themselves and my business will grow and this and that.

[21:51] And if I put too many obstacles up, then I'm not going, then I fail on the job, right?

[21:56] I'm not going to get and keep customers because I make it too difficult.

[21:59] So it would be nice to use the intake form because of the amount of time it saves.

[22:07] That being said, when I was down the street from my office at a second-hand store and the owner was like,

[22:13] hey, do you insure box trucks?

[22:16] And I'm like, yeah, sure do.

[22:17] And she said, great.

[22:20] And I'm like, okay, let me text you this link and then you can fill it out.

[22:23] And she said, you know, when I get home, I'm tired.

[22:26] I don't want to get on the internet and do stuff like that. Now, for a lot of people, they may hear,

[22:32] well, well, for me, because of having been raised in a family business, in my service business for

[22:37] 11 years, I hear opportunity, right? I'm like, okay, do you have your, do you have your, your

[22:44] license with you? Yes, I do. Great. May I see it, please? Yeah. She gives it to me. I put it on the

[22:49] counter. I bring my phone out, take a picture of it, right? Is that the box truck you're talking

[22:52] about out there yes it is great is it unlocked sure may i go open it and get the vin yeah so i go

[22:59] take a picture of it and i asked her i'm like is this is the address on your license accurate for

[23:06] your for your residential address she said yeah and i said in the business card here does that have

[23:10] your right address for here and she said yeah said okay i'll be back later today or tomorrow with

[23:14] quote so where a lot of people in this industry have told me you spend way too much time with people

[23:21] like that, well, guess what? I wrote her business.

[23:26] And there's the opportunity for me to potentially

[23:29] write her personal vehicles, her business

[23:33] insurance, you know, those type of things, because we should never

[23:37] look at, even the intake form idea, we should never look at it as

[23:41] a one-size-fits-all tool. Meet customers where they're at.

[23:46] It does seem, the common thread in all these conversations does

[23:49] seem to be the most success is had by being patient and being willing to you know sometimes

[23:56] be a bit scrappy right just it's not it's not one size fits all by any shot so yeah do you how do you

[24:03] do you feel like insurance has all changed since you started i know that you said covid was the

[24:07] first time you sort of started thinking about it and you know now this is now sort of five years ago

[24:12] that Tonya started her business, at least.

[24:17] Like, any reflections you have on how it's evolved since then?

[24:20] Yeah, it's not the hardest work I've ever done.

[24:22] I'll tell you that.

[24:24] It's still a lot of hard work,

[24:26] a lot of mental, just mental work in myself

[24:29] and leaning into it and really grinding.

[24:32] And grinding for me, because, you know,

[24:34] in my service business, I ground and ground for years, you know,

[24:37] but I was also single and wasn't dating anybody and this and that.

[24:41] I mean, I'm a dad. I got two teenage kids and stuff like that.

[24:44] But for me, it may be grinding today may be okay.

[24:49] Because we live an hour away from Phoenix.

[24:51] If my wife is driving or my daughter's driving, I'm in the passenger seat.

[24:55] I'm running quotes. I'm researching stuff.

[24:59] I'm emailing clients.

[25:00] Grinding for me may be, you know what, somebody just, like this happened last night.

[25:05] A good customer texted me and said, hey, we're buying a new car.

[25:08] Would you please, here's the information with the VIN, would you please run some quotes for us?

[25:13] So, you know, I brought out the computer.

[25:15] I'd already shut everything down, but I brought out the computer and went ahead.

[25:18] And normally when I'd be going to bed, you know, I spent a little extra time and got that information out.

[25:24] Because I realized if I want things to change, I have to change, right?

[25:27] If I want to be in a different place, then I have to act in a different way.

[25:31] It doesn't mean that I personally will have to do that type of stuff in the future,

[25:35] because hopefully I'll be able to get some automations

[25:38] that will take care of that type of thing.

[25:40] You know, but...

[25:41] Do you have any automations already?

[25:44] Do you use any systems?

[25:45] We're working on it.

[25:46] We're working on it.

[25:47] Nice.

[25:47] And do you use any...

[25:49] I think there's like agency management systems, right?

[25:52] Things like that.

[25:52] Do you have anything like that already?

[25:54] Yeah, so I mean, we have Hawksoft that's through our aggregator.

[25:58] Yeah.

[25:58] I also use a program that my friend and mentor,

[26:03] Kristen Heisler in Texas that she uses in her agency called Digital Mentors.

[26:07] And that it's it's a really good CRM generically.

[26:12] But the main reason I got it was because it has an amazing task reminder system.

[26:20] Hawksoft has that, too.

[26:22] But I like the Digital Mentors one because the whole purpose of that is so that eventually I can get rid of this tickler file.

[26:30] right this manual tickler file so that i'm not spending time printing stuff making you know short

[26:37] notes on there hey you know here's the date did so and so contact me back those types of things so in

[26:43] that way that's an automation you know it's just a matter of time wave a magic wand on what you

[26:50] would love to automate even more what would it be if i could wave a magic wand i def i would

[26:55] if I could wave a magic wand, I would have a virtual assistant.

[26:59] So someone who takes the photo that you took of the driver's license

[27:02] and can produce the quote for you, something like that?

[27:05] Yeah, and if they're not licensed, they can at least do the low-hanging fruit

[27:09] that doesn't require a license, like checking to make sure that people made their payments,

[27:15] contacting customers when renewals are coming up, things like that.

[27:19] my wife has a co-worker that she and her significant other just got a a notice from

[27:25] their insurance agent that hey your insurance company isn't renewing you in June and so when

[27:33] my wife's co-worker reached out to them in the meantime you know I'm I'm re-quoting their stuff

[27:39] too to try and earn the business she reached out to them and their response in her text to me today

[27:45] was, we'll get around to it in a couple weeks.

[27:48] Now, my response to her in the text was,

[27:51] in my opinion, especially because they know

[27:56] and told you that you're not getting renewed in June

[27:59] and you're an existing customer that's been with them for over a year,

[28:03] I would be bending over backward to make sure I catch you.

[28:07] Because it's easier to keep a customer than it is to try and go out and get a new one.

[28:11] And to go and to say, oh, I'll get to it in a couple weeks.

[28:13] So look, don't get me wrong.

[28:15] I don't want to come across as being hypocritical.

[28:17] I have stuff in my stack of stuff for re-quotes from stuff that I've quoted before for people that I didn't write the business for.

[28:26] Right?

[28:26] So lost opportunities, trying to regain lost opportunities.

[28:29] And that stuff will get taken care of.

[28:31] But we're not talking a customer, an existing customer, like my customer last night.

[28:37] Hey, we're buying a car.

[28:38] He called me on Christmas Eve.

[28:40] Hey, I'm buying my wife a car.

[28:42] Can you give me a quote?

[28:43] You know, it was Christmas Eve, and I bought my computer.

[28:47] On Christmas Eve, how long do you try and turn a quote around for a customer?

[28:52] What was that?

[28:52] How quickly do you try and turn around a quote for a customer when they ask you on Christmas Eve?

[28:57] If it's something like that, I mean, that particular one took a little while because there were some challenges.

[29:02] Geico was having some challenges with its system.

[29:04] but in general I try to get if it's a straightforward quote I try and get it out in

[29:09] no less than an hour depending on have it right because so I have a queue and that's one one

[29:16] that's one thing I'm working on right is the idea of this queue system that great I'm glad that you

[29:22] want me to give you a quote but I have five other customers ahead of you and so then it's like okay

[29:28] I may have a really difficult like business quote so I work a little bit on that and then

[29:33] okay let me knock this one out because i know it's going to be quick when you think about what will

[29:38] take longer and what will be faster to quote like do you are there various different ways in which

[29:46] you get to quote what are the sort of most common ways in which you can produce a quote so i mean if

[29:51] it's if it's personal lines right then i just use easy links which is our comparative online writer

[29:57] and that works great most of the time if if you if you own a manufactured home that's not going to

[30:02] work I have to manually do it but I've gotten really before I joined my aggregator I got really

[30:07] good at being doing quick quotes with multiple carriers without an online aggregate without an

[30:13] online reader because I didn't have one and so I started noticing I would use the rule of three

[30:21] because I started noticing like well wait a second if I'm getting three quotes and these quotes are

[30:26] a pretty good representation like this one's high this one's low this one's in the middle and they're

[30:31] all pretty much the same i'm gonna stop there's no reason for me to continue looking at that point

[30:36] because i'm going to save the customer five dollars a year if i keep looking you know and at that point

[30:42] it's like look i've done my due diligence right and then i send them out the quote hey this is the

[30:48] best we have how much many carriers do you get by easy links so i mean easy links has a pretty good

[30:55] amount of carriers that use that either require and or just use easy links personally right now

[31:02] our agency has about 10 but that's mainly because we're new to the aggregator we're still growing

[31:08] we have to we have to you know show our worth and so and i get it but i just really like the number

[31:16] three because i would like it's like i'd like three non-standard car carriers i'd like three classic

[31:24] car carriers i'd like three preferred car carriers and i'd like three you know really preferred like

[31:31] traveler safeco and foremost signature because in general again if i have one it's hard to compare

[31:38] anything if i have two i can compare stuff but if i have three i have you know it's like triangulation

[31:44] i have a pretty good idea then of where things are going to go and so where do you yeah that makes

[31:51] sense. Is the other quotes typically on the carrier portal where you type in information and then it

[31:56] just produces a quote for you? Yeah. Either I have a direct appointment to the carrier or I have a

[32:01] sub-appointment through managing general agency at MGA, something like that. I also have a couple

[32:07] appointments that are broker counters. And in those situations, yes, the percentage of commission isn't

[32:13] as good but for example like travelers or Liberty Mutual okay for commercial right these companies

[32:22] because they're preferred like highly preferred companies they have they have writing requirements

[32:29] where you need to write at least this much premium a year you know like fifty thousand dollars in

[32:34] premium a year per company so many packages a month that type of thing where if you're able to

[32:40] use a broker counter then you're yes you're losing some of your commission but you're not bound you're

[32:46] not bound to those requirements you know which is great for a for an agency a newer agency like

[32:52] like mine that's it's in a very you know young growth who do you use is it rps mostly yeah

[33:00] i've used rps quite a bit especially for ens but the biggest so this was this was something i learned

[33:07] going along and it wasn't until later that I realized I'm supposed to be doing due diligence

[33:13] I'm supposed to be having these customers sign these forms that understand that this is an ENS

[33:18] place you know all these things a long time ago and so where I used to use RPS for a lot of things

[33:26] or that type of thing like eastern underwriting whatever that deals with a lot of ENS I don't as

[33:32] much anymore unless it fits that specific need where okay i've totally like i've got my i've done

[33:40] my due diligence i've got my three admitted carriers and they're not wanting to do it and so

[33:45] you know i'll go to to rps i'll go to eastern underwriting any of these companies whole whole

[33:51] sure whatever yeah and i'll i'll do that but one thing that i like about rps and it's the same thing

[33:58] true about Eastern Underwriting or even Holscher is they have they have admitted companies to you

[34:04] know and in their own way they have their own sort of broker counters set up too so it's like okay

[34:11] well in the past I haven't had Safeco well I had a guy who had a motorcycle and Safeco was the only

[34:17] place that would ride in I wrote it through RPS standardized right so was the percentages good no

[34:22] but guess what I had access to Safeco I was able to do it without getting a direct appointment to

[34:26] safe go and without needing to meet all those all those premium requirements yeah oh it's there's so

[34:34] many ways you know so many different it's to work it right yeah you just have to have an open mind

[34:40] and be willing to to see the good and know that ultimately you're learning right you mentioned so

[34:47] many different parts of your of what the job entails you know what what would you say now that

[34:52] we've talked about most of them like what would you say is the most painful part of your

[34:56] One of the most painful parts to me is finding or has been finding answers to questions.

[35:03] Like what?

[35:04] Like BuildersRest, for example.

[35:06] So I've worked with this hard money lender here in Arizona, and they work nationwide.

[35:13] And I'm licensed in 26 states, so, you know, over halfway there.

[35:17] But they would keep coming to me with, hey, we have this fix and flip.

[35:22] Or we have this new build from raw dirt, right?

[35:26] And the general contractor will not allow the owner to be put on as an additional insured on their certificate of insurance.

[35:36] And so then trying to find companies that would actually do it.

[35:41] Not personal liability, but actually general liability where it says general liability because the lenders wouldn't take personal liability.

[35:49] And finally, one day, it was about six months after I've been struggling with this, right?

[35:55] I get smart, you know.

[35:57] The last light in the chandelier comes on,

[36:00] the elevator goes all the way to the top,

[36:02] probably some squeaking, you know.

[36:04] And I reach out to the lender and I'm like,

[36:07] hey, you know, I really want to solve this problem.

[36:10] Do you have any old policies or quotes laying around

[36:14] from companies that were able to do this?

[36:16] I said, not insurance agents, but carriers.

[36:19] And so they sent me a couple.

[36:21] And as soon as they sent me a couple,

[36:23] I talked to my aggregator and they're like, oh, yeah, here, let's give you U.S. Assure. And it

[36:28] was like I was Indiana Jones and I found the holy grail, you know, because not only could I do the

[36:34] builder's risk with them, but then I could go and I could do the general liability that actually

[36:40] says general liability with them. And it was like the movies, you know, it lit up, you know,

[36:47] after all these months really hammering at this thing. I know there are a lot of people out there

[36:53] that would just say, forget it, man, just move on to the next thing.

[36:56] My life, my pattern has always been if I follow the hard things

[37:01] and figure them out, there's going to be a major payoff for that.

[37:05] Where do you see your agency in like five to ten years?

[37:09] Do you have sort of a vision for what success would look like

[37:11] for Jeremy or Jeremy and Tonya?

[37:14] Yeah, I would like to buy a piece of land that is on Arizona Boulevard,

[37:21] which is the main sort of state highway through Coolidge

[37:24] and build a very unique building.

[37:27] It was a building that my dad wanted for his clock shop.

[37:30] He never saw it, you know, but build it so that on the exterior

[37:34] it looks like the Glockenspiel in Munich.

[37:37] It has moving people and everything like that.

[37:41] That way it's not just, that way it's a destination.

[37:43] It's another way of drawing people in, right?

[37:45] Yeah, that's cool.

[37:46] But also want to dedicate it to my folks, you know,

[37:49] And then really growing the idea of what Synergy Wealth Insurance and Planning is, right?

[37:55] That wealth is one part and there's so much involved in that.

[38:00] Insurance is another part.

[38:01] Planning is a totally different thing.

[38:03] And I would like to see us expand truly into all 50 states, including, you know, Alaska and Hawaii.

[38:11] And be able to expand physically into each of those states.

[38:15] I mean, you know, my first office that I'm going to open outside of Arizona is going to be in Hawaii because, man, I need that.

[38:24] You know, but that's one big challenge that a lot of people, that I've noticed a lot of people have when they try and scale outside of their state is if you don't have a physical location in that state.

[38:35] And by physical location, even if it's a Regis office, right, that an agent of record or whatever, that in places like California, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, you're just not going to get access to the carriers that are the good carriers that are going to want to write in those states.

[38:51] And you're going to find that you struggle.

[38:53] So I figure I don't want to just do it to do it.

[38:56] I want to do it to do it and expand and leave a legacy for my for my family.

[39:02] you know jeremy thank you so much for joining me and yeah hopefully speak again soon you're welcome

[39:08] have a great day