Insurance Agency and Business Networking

Speaker 1 0:30

My name is Landy Patton. My business is King Street Insurance. It's a state farm agency here in town and we do insurance, financial services, basically anything you can think of when it comes to insurance, except medical.

Speaker 2 0:47

Okay.

Speaker 1 0:48

Group medical. I don't play with that space.

Speaker 2 0:51

Yes, but auto and home Auto and home and workers' comp.

Speaker 1 0:54

You know all the business insurance that you need, and your employee benefits and life insurance and 401K, all that sort of stuff.

Speaker 2 1:02

All of that good stuff. How did you get into insurance?

Speaker 1 1:06

I have a master's in geoscience, so I went into geology and my first career was oil and my first career was oil, so I was out in the Midwest and then most recently up in Alaska right in 2016, which was the oil crash, and I was bored.

Speaker 2 1:26

I was working about had a little time on your hands, yeah.

Speaker 1 1:29

I was working about 20 hours a month and I needed some change, something else different, so I thought I'll be a financial advisor in 2016. Yeah, and my wife's best friend has a insurance agency in DC, so I was talking to him and he was like, hey, why don't you do this? I said I can do that, so yeah, you're like that seems simple enough, yeah. I was always giving my employees in the oil field financial advice, I thought, well, might as well get paid for it, right yeah?

Speaker 2 2:01

Did you have someone that kind of mentored you through this process, like changing from? The oil industry into insurance.

Speaker 1 2:07

Yeah, he did for sure. Like he's got a massive agency.

Speaker 2 2:11

He's very well established, so that was really helpful to have him a massive agency who's very well established, so that was really helpful to have him absolutely. Did he give you any good advice? It's like constant.

Speaker 1 2:23

Well, I mean, I'm fairly stubborn, so if if you if you focus on something long enough, then you'll you'll make it happen. So, um, it was more sort of the day-to-day sort of what do I do in this situation? That sort of stuff. Less of the day-to-day sort of what do I do in this situation? That sort of stuff, less of the overarching direction.

Speaker 2 2:39

if that makes sense, it does make sense. Yeah, what do you find most rewarding about what you do?

Speaker 1 2:44

I get to meet tons of people and, even if it's a short period of time hearing their story, what they do, how they do it, things like that it's pretty interesting.

Speaker 2 2:54

Yeah.

Speaker 1 3:00

Do you have a favorite story? I wouldn't say I have a favorite story necessarily. It's hard to keep track of everyone, but just I'm curious about how a lot of different industries work. Um, you know, most people don't know where their gas comes from, but you know, I worked in the north slope so I've seen firsthand like the downstream and the upstream cycles on making uh petroleum to put in your car. So, hearing from other people who start cyber security firms or, um, you know, I've got big clients who have, um, they, they do the site prep for construction where, specifically, if you're building a high rise and you need pilings that go into the ground and they'll prep the ground to accept those and be structurally sound. So I mean all sorts of really interesting ways to make a living.

Speaker 2 3:48

Yeah, meeting interesting people with career paths yeah, that's what I love about being here too. Same thing yeah, meeting people and hearing the backstories of details of things that you would never think of right, like where we get our gas from to put in the car right, and you know all about it not some I know enough enough to be dangerous right yeah, what do you find challenging about the insurance industry?

Speaker 1 4:16

Challenges. So you have different challenges depending on which avenue you go into insurance. There's different acquisition models, whether it's captive agencies or independent agencies or direct to consumer, like Geico or USA. They don't have an agency. For us, as a captive agent, the biggest challenge is probably maintaining a positive mindset when rates aren't in your favor. A lot of people still you know price is important to them, right? So when, as a captive agent, I only offer state farm products?

Speaker 2 5:00

and can you tell me what a captive agent is? Can you describe that to me?

Speaker 1 5:05

essentially that. Uh, I'm an independent contractor for state farm, so I pretty much only represent State Farm when it comes to insurance policies. So if the price isn't in my favor at that time then it makes it harder to overcome that barrier to bring on a new client. So, staying positive when you hear a lot of no and you have to quote and work so many more policies and more conversations with more people to bring on the same amount of clients, so that's probably the hardest. On the captive channel and on the independent channel, you have access to a lot of different carriers but there's oftentimes less support and from the carriers themselves you have to keep track of changes for so many different companies and also sometimes the rate is not in your favor. Right right, like right now it's great state farm you, the rate is in our favor, so it makes it very easy to bring on more clients.

Speaker 2 6:18

And the rates are always changing.

Speaker 1 6:21

Right, it's a saturated market. Everyone theoretically should have insurance, right? So if the pool has 100% participation, then the companies are just competing over market share. Then the companies are just competing over market share. So if one company is like, hey, I want to increase market share at the expense of more claims or whatever, then they'll maybe reduce their prices to bring on more people.

Speaker 2 6:45

And vice versa.

Speaker 1 6:46

If claims are going up, then maybe they chop all the people who are getting into accidents, right.

Speaker 2 6:51

Yeah.

Speaker 1 6:51

So it's not personal when an insurance company drops you.

Speaker 2 6:56

It's just business.

Speaker 1 6:57

They're playing the game.

Speaker 2 6:58

Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, we've never been dropped by our insurance.

Speaker 1 7:04

But yeah, I've got two teenage drivers, so maybe it's just a matter of time. Well, if you have teenage boys and they start smashing into people, then yeah, that's happened too.

Speaker 2 7:13

Yeah, we got through it, though, but yeah, the insurance went whoop, and they start smashing into people. Then, yep, that's happened too, oh ouch. Yeah, we got through it though, but yeah, the insurance went whoop, Not surprising right. Yep, yep, so I understand all of that. What do you do for advertising and marketing to get people in?

Speaker 1 7:30

At this point it's referrals and word of mouth. Chamber of Commerce helped a lot. Networking a lot in the community has really introduced me to some folks who've made big impacts. Linkedin in 2018 was really good.

Speaker 2 7:50

Yeah.

Speaker 1 7:50

Apart from that, it's all referrals and word of mouth for the most part. Google At the very beginning. When you open an agency like mine, where I started with zero clients, you have to grow fast and a lot of times you have to rely on internet leads and stuff like that to do so. So at the beginning, internet leads, which is brutal.

Speaker 2 8:20

Yes, I know You're looking at that spreadsheet with all these names to call.

Speaker 1 8:24

Exactly, and they don't want to hear from you and they're like why are you calling? And you have to call people multiple times and no one answers their phones anymore.

Speaker 2 8:31

Yes, but if you can get them on the phone.

Speaker 1 8:36

Get them on the phone and keep them on the phone it's a hard part. So don't put your information online.

Speaker 2 8:44

It's a good tip. So do you find the networking events to be helpful, like the community? Yeah, it's just fun.

Speaker 1 8:51

You get to meet more people and then the county seems smaller, right Like now. Pretty much any room I walk into I'll probably know someone there, and isn't that interesting yeah. You know I'm more introverted, so if I you know, it helps a lot to know someone there so I can pick out that person and go and talk to them and they can introduce me to somebody else.

Career Transition and Insurance Industry Insights

Speaker 2 9:12

Yeah, it kind of goes from there. Yeah, I know you said you're local in Leesburg. I am too. We've been here for 14 years and I learned that Nice Kind of the longer you're here and, like you said, meeting different groups of people, that it is funny the connections they're like where do I know you from? I'm sure we've spoken before.

Speaker 1 9:29

Well, that's a challenge too right. If you meet too many people and you're like oh no, I know, I know you, but where from?

Speaker 2 9:44

I know, I know I'm pulling a blank, though. We talked a little bit about your pivot from the oil industry to insurance. Did you feel like any of those skills in your previous job were able to transfer over, or was it just like kind of a completely different?

Speaker 1 9:56

I was, uh, mostly autonomous. I was by myself in the arctic circle working uh sophisticated um tools with that in in alaska I was doing pulse neutron imaging, so I was running tools that generate huge clouds of neutron radiation and it's very specific and the data that you're collecting is, you know, there's no interaction with other people for the most part.

Speaker 2 10:28

Very science-based.

Speaker 1 10:29

Yes, like three people you talk to on a daily basis, and now I've got to talk to you know, hundreds right? Yeah, so I would say it was not. I'm not transphobic at all. Really, my skills with Excel and things like that just make it easier to visualize data, but I've had to learn a whole entirely new skill set, yeah.

Speaker 2 10:53

We talked to a lot of people that have pivoted careers like that. What advice do you have for someone that might be facing the same situation that their hours are low, they've gotten laid off and they need to make a change, and it's scary, it's hard. What advice do you have for someone like that?

Speaker 1 11:15

I think it depends a lot on what stage of life you're at. When I made my switch, I didn't have kids. When I made my switch, I didn't have kids we had it was myself and my wife and a mortgage and that was it, like no other responsibilities really, so it was very easy to dig in.

Speaker 1 11:38

Like, I worked 100 hours a week for my first year. So if you're in that stage of life then it's easy for me to relate and I just say you know work more and harder than everyone else. Um, now I don't know what I'd do if I had to change careers.

Speaker 2 11:54

Yeah, you're pretty settled in.

Speaker 1 11:56

Yeah, and it's pretty nice to be home every day and make my own schedule and you know, be there for you know, dropping the kids off or picking them up from school, as needed, and things like that.

Speaker 2 12:05

How old are the kids?

Speaker 1 12:07

They'll be seven and four.

Speaker 2 12:08

Oh, yeah, yeah, so you're in the thick of it, yeah.

Speaker 1 12:11

I'd say so yeah.

Speaker 2 12:15

What do you like to do for fun outside of?

Speaker 1 12:17

work, oh, any outdoor activity, yeah, and I do a lot of house projects and building things like that. So, but if I can build something with my hands or if I can be out in the woods, then that's.

Speaker 2 12:34

That's a pretty good day. That's probably what I'll be doing. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 12:37

A lot of gardening things like that.

Speaker 2 12:39

Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. Tell me a little bit about insurance in general and what advice you might have for someone. I know we talked about career change, but what advice would you have for someone getting into the insurance industry in general, maybe a young kid graduating from college that wants to? Get into insurance.

Speaker 1 13:01

It would be that it gets easier the longer you're in it, you know. So it's the. I found that with most of the folks that I've hired, the six month mark is really kind of where you're less, uh, you've overcome that, uh, that, I guess, nervousness around calling or whatever right, and you just say, oh, it's just somebody else. So around six months people start hitting their stride, um, but around three years is probably you know, where you start feeling a little bit more comfortable. So it's just, if you want to make it, it's a good industry long term, but you gotta stick it out, you gotta stick it out do you's a good industry long term, but you've got to stick it out through the hard times.

Speaker 2 13:46

Do you find a lot of people kind of throw in the towel? Absolutely yeah.

Speaker 1 13:50

I mean, in my first three or four years I probably hired about 50 people Wow, and two of them are with me now, wow. So most people don't, even though I'm brutally honest with everyone who comes in.

Speaker 2 14:05

I'm like your likelihood is you're not going to make it. You have a 10% chance.

Speaker 1 14:10

And people are like no, I could do it. And I'm like okay, if you want to do it, I'll give you a shot.

Speaker 2 14:14

Yeah, how do you weed those people out? I don't, you don't.

Speaker 1 14:18

I give people a shot if they want it. If they want it, I set the expectation. I say, hey, look, this is what I did. This is what other folks have done. These are the ones that were successful, these are the ones that weren't. This is what it takes, and if you want to give it a shot, I'll give you a shot, but you're the only one who's going to make it happen, because no one in order to push you as hard as you probably need to at the beginning. It's just going to be a horrible work environment. So I just put it on themselves and say, hey, look you, you prove that you can do it.

Speaker 2 14:49

It's like sink or swim.

Speaker 1 14:51

Absolutely yeah.

Speaker 2 14:52

What coaching advice do you have for them?

Speaker 1 14:56

I should say skills Like what?

Speaker 2 14:58

what kind of skills are you giving them to to to get through that Well?

Speaker 1 15:03

it's more just um, uh, at the at the point of call or whatever, like right after they get off a call or something, or if they have questions about certain plans. Um, you know, there's a general process that we follow, so, um, teach them the process and then after that it's um coaching them on how to talk on the phone, what questions you should be asking, how to, you know, relate or break the tension and things like that, less you know. Less general advice, more specific yes.

Speaker 2 15:37

Did you find that as a coach and mentor, did you find that kind of defleating?

Speaker 1 15:43

With people leave. Yeah, you're like man.

Speaker 2 15:46

I just poured my heart and soul into this person and they're gone.

Speaker 1 15:50

I mean, I think it does wear on you a little bit. I mean, I haven't hired someone in three years now, yeah, but it sounds like you found your people.

Speaker 1 16:03

Yeah, I mean you can always hire more and grow right. But just in the last few years we made some personal changes like selling house, moving house, some larger scale renovation projects and things like that so I didn't have as much time to dedicate to training new folks. So we sort of kept our lean team. But I don't know. I interviewed someone last week and offered them a position, so we'll see what happens there. But yeah, I think it goes in waves. You can certainly get burnt out if you're coaching and mentoring and working somebody up and then they leave after six months because they can't hack it, yeah, and you're trying to train them and get your own stuff done, and it can be challenging yeah, a lot of it is basically I give them everything that I would do so it just takes a lot longer to get through the day yeah, so you just hired somebody, so that means means that there's some growth.

Speaker 1 17:05

I haven't. I offered them a position, I haven't hired them yet. So in progress so they have some things they have to do.

Speaker 2 17:11

first, Got it. Where do you see the growth of your company going in your business?

Speaker 1 17:18

I don't know.

Speaker 2 17:19

Are you planning on expanding, bringing in more people?

Speaker 1 17:22

Oh for sure. Yeah, we'll definitely grow staff, but you know, nowadays everything is remote. You know, my employees left in COVID, so you know, we bought our office building in 2019 and yeah, Then everyone left, so I was like I have this huge building by myself. Everybody come back. What am I? Yeah, so I mean, we work well remote. So now I basically subdivided my office and gave myself one room. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 17:50

Leased out the other spaces in the building and I have one room and you know I have space for two other people and I need to train them up. Let them go remote if they want, and so on and so forth.

Speaker 2 18:03

Yeah, I feel like a lot of businesses went through that in COVID that they were giving up their spaces because they're like we can operate pretty efficiently on Zoom calls and remotely and not pay for this huge space Right.

Speaker 1 18:17

Yeah, I mean. Well, I mean, look at Tyson's and DC and stuff. They have huge commercial office buildings that are empty for the most part. But I found that there is a demand for people who want space, but they don't want 2,000 square feet. They want 100 square feet right.

Speaker 2 18:38

Right.

Speaker 1 18:38

Yeah, they don't want to be spending $3,000 a month in rent.

Speaker 2 18:41

Efficiency, or even renting a smaller one of those little work hub places. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 18:47

So we've had no problems at all filling the building. I have two to four people a month reach out looking for a space. I'm like I've got to buy more buildings. I guess Keep renting them out.

Speaker 2 19:00

Make some revenue. It's smart. Do you have a favorite avenue of?

Speaker 1 19:07

insurance that you like working in the most. Not really. I mean. It's more fun talking with business owners because it's more complicated, there's more aspects to it and a lot of times people have grown a lot or made mistakes in the past, so there's more value to add, essentially right. If it's just your homeowners and car insurance, which we do all day long with your umbrella and all that, it's pretty simple, pretty standard. But with the business it's more fun, right.

Speaker 2 19:35

Yeah.

Speaker 1 19:36

Like how many thousands of dollars of cameras are surrounding us, right?

Speaker 2 19:40

Yeah, a little bit right.

Speaker 1 19:41

Yeah, a little bit right.

Speaker 2 19:43

Yeah, you have to invest sometimes to get back. Yeah, for sure. Is there a favorite story like client story you have? That was super rewarding to you, someone that you were able to help, something that kind of stuck with you. That was like I'm going to continue on this path and continue giving that amazing customer service to my clients.

Speaker 1 20:07

I think a lot of agents at some point have a like death claim that really impacts them. You know they've sold life insurance to somebody that maybe didn't want it or need it and then something happens to them and you're able to support their family, um, by delivering the claims check or whatever. I haven't had any of those. None of my I've been in this eight years, none of my um, none of the clients that I've written life insurance have passed away, thankfully. So probably the most impactful ones is you know when people are, you know paying too much or their insurance is all wrong and you get to make that fix and probably the I saved somebody probably $1,000 a month once, which was impactful for them, that's huge.

Speaker 1 21:01

And that's probably like the, the top end of the range, right.

Speaker 2 21:05

Yeah, a couple times it's been like three or four hundred dollars or five hundred dollars, and people are pretty excited about that but even just the ability to kind of look at what they have and assess what they have and assess what they need to add or maybe remove.

Insurance Policy Maintenance and Networking

Speaker 1 21:17

You can help them with that, yeah it's a lot of times where people think everything's good because they've had it the same way forever. And then you're like well, hey, you know, like, did you know that you're covered for 25 grand in a liability claim or something? And they're like what? The most common question I ask anybody when they come to me for personal lines insurance is I ask anybody when they come to me for personal lines insurances If you were in a hypothetical accident, you hit somebody and they sued you for 400 grand, how much do you want the insurance company to pay? And almost everyone says all of it. And almost every time they're covered for 100 grand or, you know, in the worst cases, 25 or 30 grand.

Speaker 2 22:03

How often?

Speaker 1 22:05

should people be assessing their insurance? I mean, like independent agents will tell you every year. The problem is insurance companies like look at how often you're switching, and stuff too. So I don't know I'm thinking about too, so I don't know. I would say if you have a company you trust and an agent that you like and trust, then let it ride unless something crazy happens, right?

Speaker 1 22:31

There's an inflation rider on most of your policies. So the premium is going to increase each year with inflation and stuff like that, especially on the home, as long as it doesn't get out of control. And then you know, maybe every few years or so you reach out and be like, hey, let's take a look and is everything right, Like we've had life changes.

Speaker 2 22:50

Well, you're making me think of my own, that I'm like I really can't tell you the last time that I've looked as you're talking. I'm like I have not looked at our policies in a long time. I'm like I have not looked at our policies in a long time. You have teenage drivers right, so probably the last time we looked at it was when we added them, yeah, so it's good to assess that at least once a year.

Speaker 1 23:10

Why not, I'll take a look for you. Yeah, I know, right, let's chat after this.

Speaker 2 23:16

Are there any last parting words you'd like to leave us with? It can be something in regards to your business life, or like a just kind of a mantra that you can live your life by oof I know putting you on the spot here yeah, I probably should have thought of that beforehand.

Speaker 1 23:31

Yeah, um it can be business related to just something about work ethic I would say that from my experience at the and as an ambassador at the Chamber of Commerce and stuff, I see a lot of new folks coming in and they're maybe a little introverted as well and not as confident walking into the room, which makes sense. So my advice to those folks is basically just keep showing up. You know it's the same thing for everybody, but the more often you show up, the more people you meet. The more people you meet, the more people you know, and the more people you know, the easier it is to walk into a room yeah, and you were in those shoes before, so yeah absolutely and and it's okay to um, you know you.

Speaker 1 24:21

You see the people in the room who are extroverts because they have big personalities and everything, and it's okay to not be, that that's not going to impact you. I just find that you can absolutely fake that. It just might take more energy.

Speaker 2 24:34

And you don't need to be the loudest person in the room. No, yeah.

Speaker 1 24:38

Just meet people, make friends, you know, and, um, just everything gets easier. I find when, when you can, when you know the names of the people that you walk down the street and see, yeah, it's nice having a small, nice, having a small world, but, you know, also leave from time to time.

Speaker 2 24:55

So yeah, it is yeah. I love that well, thank you for being here today.

Speaker 1 25:00

Loved hearing your story thank you, yeah, it's fun.