What made you want to do the work you do? Please share the full story.
I got into insurance almost by accident, working an entry-level role at an agency while I was still figuring out what I wanted to do long term, and what kept me there was watching how differently two agents could treat the same customer. One would rush someone through a policy just to close the sale, and another would actually sit with them and explain what they were buying and why. I gravitated toward the second kind of work because it felt like the job was supposed to be about protecting people, not just moving paperwork.
That’s what eventually pulled me toward Insurance Navy specifically. Being able to compare multiple carriers instead of pushing one company’s product meant I could actually do the kind of advising I wanted to do from day one, instead of working around the limits of a single insurer’s offerings. Licensing across Fire, Casualty, Life, and Accident and Health gave me the range to help with more than just auto, which mattered to me because most people’s insurance needs don’t stay in one lane for long.
Tell us 3 surprisingly easy and 3 surprisingly difficult things about your business.
Surprisingly easy: explaining coverage differences to customers once you strip out the jargon, since most people just need someone to translate rather than lecture. Building trust with repeat customers also comes easier than expected once the first claim goes smoothly, because that one experience does more convincing than any sales pitch could. And comparing quotes across carriers, which sounds tedious, is actually one of the simpler parts of the job once you know each insurer’s underwriting quirks.
Surprisingly difficult: getting first-time buyers to slow down enough to actually understand what they’re signing, since most want the fastest number and skip past the coverage details entirely. Managing customer expectations after an accident is harder than the claims process itself, because people are emotional and want certainty faster than an investigation can honestly give it. And staying current across licensing requirements in 12 different states takes more ongoing effort than most people outside the industry would guess.
What are the 3 things you like best about your work and why?
I like the moment a customer realizes they were underinsured somewhere else and we caught it, because that’s the job actually working the way it’s supposed to. I like the variety that comes from being licensed across multiple lines, since no two weeks look the same between auto, life, and accident and health conversations. And I like working somewhere that isn’t tied to one carrier, because it means I get to be honest with customers instead of steering them toward whatever the company wants sold that quarter.
What do you think are your 3 biggest weaknesses and how are you overcoming them?
I used to over-explain policies to customers who just wanted a quick answer, which came from wanting to be thorough but ended up making some conversations longer than they needed to be. I’ve gotten better at reading the room early and adjusting how much detail someone actually wants. I also used to take on too many manual comparisons myself instead of trusting the team to handle routine quotes, which I’ve fixed by delegating more and only stepping in on the complex cases.
The third is patience with the pace of claims processes that are outside our control, since I want resolution for customers faster than insurers sometimes move. I’ve had to get better at setting realistic timelines up front so people aren’t checking in every day expecting news that isn’t there yet.
Tell us about a time you were dead wrong about something.
Early on I assumed customers with clean driving records and no accidents didn’t need much guidance, since their risk profile looked straightforward on paper. One long-time customer with a spotless record ended up in a total loss accident and I realized during that claim that I’d never actually walked him through what his policy covered beyond the minimums, because I’d assumed a low-risk customer meant a low-effort conversation.
He was underinsured for the replacement value of his car, something a fuller conversation early on would have caught. That changed how I approach every new policy now, regardless of how clean someone’s history looks, because the point of the job isn’t predicting who will file a claim, it’s making sure whoever does is actually covered when it happens.
What is the biggest challenge you face each day and how do you handle it?
The biggest challenge is balancing speed with accuracy, since customers want a quote fast but insurance decisions deserve more thought than a fast answer usually allows. I handle it by front-loading the important questions early in the conversation instead of rushing to a number, so the speed comes later once I actually understand what someone needs covered.
Some days that means a quote takes longer than a customer expected, and I’ve learned to just say that plainly instead of pretending the process is instant. People respect honesty about the timeline more than they respect a fast answer that turns out wrong.
What do you value most and why?
Honesty in a conversation where the other person doesn’t have the expertise to catch you if you’re not being straight with them. Insurance is one of those industries where a customer usually can’t tell if they’re being sold the right coverage or just the most profitable one for the agent, and that gap is exactly why I take it seriously.
I value it because the entire business only works long term if people trust that we’re comparing carriers honestly instead of steering them toward whichever one benefits us most. Lose that and referrals stop, and referrals are what actually built this agency.
What achievement are you the proudest of and why?
Building out licensing across Fire, Casualty, Life, and Accident and Health instead of staying narrowly focused on auto. It took real time and effort to get there, and it means I can actually follow a customer’s changing life instead of handing them off to someone else the moment their needs shift beyond a car policy.
I’m proud of it because it changed what I’m able to offer someone who’s been a customer for years. Watching someone go from a first auto policy to trusting me with life or accident coverage later on is the kind of long-term relationship that made the extra licensing worth it.
What is your favorite movie and why?
The Pursuit of Happyness sticks with me, partly because of the persistence it depicts and partly because of how it captures someone doing everything right and still hitting circumstances outside their control. That’s a dynamic I see constantly in insurance work, people who did nothing wrong and still end up dealing with an accident or a loss they didn’t cause.
It’s a reminder that the work I do exists precisely for those moments, when someone’s effort and good decisions still weren’t enough to prevent something bad from happening, and having the right coverage in place is what determines how much that moment costs them afterward.
What advice would you give to your younger self and why?
Don’t wait until you feel like an expert to start being direct with customers, because the hesitation to give a clear answer read as uncertainty even when the underlying knowledge was solid. Younger me softened recommendations more than necessary out of fear of being wrong.
I’d tell him that customers don’t need a perfect agent, they need an honest one who’s willing to say plainly what coverage makes sense and why, even before every possible detail is memorized. That confidence, paired with honesty, builds trust faster than waiting to feel fully polished ever would.
Who has been your biggest mentor in life (personal or professional) and how have they helped you?
An early manager at Insurance Navy took the time to walk me through how to compare carrier underwriting guidelines instead of just handing me a script to follow, and that shaped how I approach the job even now. He treated every quote as a puzzle worth solving properly rather than a transaction to close quickly, and that mindset stuck with me long after I stopped needing his direct guidance.
What helped most wasn’t the technical knowledge itself, it was watching him stay patient with customers who asked the same basic questions over and over. He never made anyone feel behind for not understanding insurance jargon, and that’s the standard I try to hold myself to with every customer now.
Just for fun, what is your favorite ice cream flavor?
Pistachio, no contest. Most people are surprised by that answer since chocolate or vanilla usually wins by default, but pistachio has a flavor that doesn’t need anything else added to it to be good.