Unwrapping the Unexpected: Hidden Gifts of the Insurance Industry

In this Christmas Eve episode, Shane and Tonya explore how independent insurance agents make a meaningful difference, turning unexpected challenges into opportunities to serve. From protecting families to creating lasting impacts, this episode unwraps the true value of what agents bring to their communities. 

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Transcript

Announcer: [00:00:00] This is IA Forward, your playbook for success as an independent insurance agent. Here to help you knock it out of the ballpark are your hosts, Shane Tatum and Tonya Lied. 

Tonya: Welcome to IA Forward and Merry Christmas. 

Shane: Merry Christmas Eve. 

Tonya: My house, that means it's Christmas. People do stuff on Christmas Day, I get it, but we're a Christmas Eve household.

Shane: For years, we were Christmas Eve when I was younger, and my grandparents, we were always at Christmas Eve, because we had Christmas Day at our house, but that has moved to more Christmas Day for us. The girls do pajamas on Christmas Eve. They get to open a Christmas Eve gift, which is cool. 

Tonya: We open all of our gifts on Christmas Eve.

And then do Santa Claus and stockings on Christmas Day. Which means you get to eat all of the candy and all the junk food out of your socks in front of the dead tree. I 

Shane: love to hear different perspectives, how people do it. And what's really interesting is my wife's family, with her dad being [00:01:00] in the restaurant business when she was growing up, it was always different.

And it was always like, when we can, and when people can come in town. And her extended family was three hours away in Dallas. And so it's just a A lot of different perspectives from like her side versus my side, which my side of the family was all within about a 45 minute distance from each other, like we were always here.

When we got married and we started having kids and we did things, Christmas morning became bigger and we always had Christmas morning at home when I was a kid. But. And we always then on the heels of a Christmas Eve big extended family thing and kind of miss that. That was fun as a kid because you had the cousins.

You had the extended cousins thing going on. 

Tonya: We have a very small family. So the cousin consortium is not as big a thing for us. But growing up, my family was in Louisiana and in Pennsylvania. So it wasn't one of those situations where you could do [00:02:00] Christmas Eve with one side and Christmas Day with the other.

You had to choose, and we would flip flop Thanksgiving and Christmas normally. That was what we were supposed to do. But I will tell you we did spend more Christmases in Louisiana and more Thanksgivings in Pennsylvania because Christmas is a much bigger deal for my family anyway, down south. And Christmas Eve was always a giant party that started at my grandmother's house, and then it moved to mom's house, and then historically it has been at my house for the last decade or so.

But big huge giant party, all the friends, all the neighbors, 30, 50, 60 people at the house. And this year, with the passing of my father, This will be the first time that we don't have the big Christmas party tonight, and it's a little bittersweet, but, uh, this is more of a Christmas of quiet reflection, but maybe, just maybe by [00:03:00] twelfth night, I'll be ready to kick off the Mardi Gras season.

Shane: Things do change, and going back to the memories of An East Texas Christmas of 75 degrees and yet my grandfather deciding that he needed a fire in the fireplace and baking everyone inside and so everybody spilled out of their small ranch style house that everybody came into and it was never enough room for all the people which was what made it fun.

It probably drove my grandparents insane. Things have happened and the patriarchs of our families pass on and we get into this new mode. And that's where we've gone over the last eight or nine years as my grandfather and then my dad have passed on. And it's having those memories, which is really awesome.

And then at the same time, we have so many new things that have happened over the last nine year, eight or nine years. That have made me really excited [00:04:00] about this is an exciting time, no matter what your situation is, because it is Christmas, and obviously it's my favorite time of year, and I'm sure we're going to talk about.

Some fun insurance things around Christmas Eve today. 

Tonya: Speaking of insurance, we're going to talk about the gift that is insurance. Unwrapping the unexpected. How do you like that one? 

Shane: I love that one. 

Tonya: Thinking about things that can go wrong and things that can go wrong at Christmas, especially Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and that really give us an opportunity to serve whether we want to or not.

I can remember her. Several years ago, we had a Christmas Eve hard freeze in Northeast Louisiana, very rare. And when I tell you this was a hard freeze, nobody had water. And when you are trying to plan a Christmas Eve party, For 60 to 70 of your closest [00:05:00] friends, and you don't have water on Christmas Eve, it is a challenge.

And I was younger. I was in high school or college, so I wasn't yet of the age where I got to make dressing. Because in dressing years, You're late teens. You're barely born. There's a certain age you have to be to get to actually cook for Christmas Eve. And my job was to go outside with the extension cords hooked together, cords hooked together, and the hair dryer with the water hose in the yard.

and try to get the water flowing through a water hose while not melting the hose itself and jumping up and down on it to try to make it where we could have water through the water hose. Into the kitchen, through the kitchen window. That was Christmas Eve. 

Shane: We have not had that problem. Fortunately, my Christmas experiences, I just [00:06:00] have had it very well.

I will be open and admit, I have one responsibility when it comes to gift buying, and that is to buy for her. House, is that sad? 

Tonya: No, because you can take weeks and weeks and plan for the perfect gift. 

Shane: But you can't really do that anymore because if you do that, and you try to pop the Amazon app open, and you may not be able to get that thing here on time.

I used to like really push the envelope on this, and really wait to the last minute. I've gotten a little better as I've aged. But I'm going to be full disclosure here. What you describe with your Christmas Eve freeze, my world just has not ever been stressful around the Christmas season. And I credit all of the females in my life for making my Christmas through the years, even to this day, all the way down to my two

Tonya: I love the Christmas [00:07:00] season. And like Julie, I start decorating right after Halloween, but this year with my dad's end of life journey, it has been a little more chaotic than usual. The little bit of stress that Christmas normally creates is all part of it. It creates the energy, it creates the vibe. What I did realize about five days ago Was that I had bought a few little gifts for my husband, I had purchased a stocking stuffer, a single stocking stuffer, for my mom, but as far as gifts for anyone else, None had been purchased.

So that created some additional stress this year. That was very unusual, but I try, stress is not a thing for me at Christmas because like you, it's magical. And I love to create that magic. And I love to have my Christmas trees decorated in every room of the house. Even the [00:08:00] bathroom when I'm brushing my teeth in the morning.

is usually decorated to the max. So when I'm looking in the mirror and brushing my teeth, there's a wreath, there's a garland, there's ornaments. The, the whole house for the two months of Christmas leading into January the 6th, just brings me joy. For it not to be, to be decorated at that level. Now, there's six trees decorated in the house, which is probably enough, but it's just not quite the same.

And thinking about Christmas mishaps when definitely our, our insurance agent could have been called, you know, My father was the turkey fryer extraordinaire, and the number of turkeys that got fried at our house between the week of Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve, he kept the turkey population at a minimum.

I remember the Christmas that we had three different buyers [00:09:00] because he had purchased cheap aluminum foil. He didn't get the good stuff, he got the cheap stuff. And as he would fry the turkey and then stick it in the oven to keep it warm, somehow the aluminum foil was breaking. So then you've got the grease off the turkeys that are dripping onto the foil.

The element in the oven, and you would open the oven and there would be another fire. Had we not been a prepared household, the disasters that could have been caused over the years from doing stupid things. 

Shane: That's what's been maybe the more difficult as things have changed over the years as loved ones pass on is the change in those routines or the change in those traditions.

And I'm thinking about maybe this is my future role. In our family is to be a little more adventurous. Let's fry a few turkeys. Let's do something because that's, what's interesting. Just things over the last month or [00:10:00] two of, I'm, this is going to sound really weird from the insurance guy. You don't know.

And you don't learn these things without trying, and sometimes trying new things and going down that path of, say, frying a turkey or cooking something that might lead to a kitchen fire. 

Tonya: No good story ever started with, I was eating a salad. 

Shane: This is true. And we eat lots of salads these days. So we need to pick it up from the insurance guy.

Let's take a little more risk. One 

Tonya: of my favorite turkey frying stories with dad. was Christmas Eve seven years ago. My husband was really stressed that morning. I couldn't figure out what was going on wrong because the cute boy is the most laid back human being that you will ever meet, which is probably why he's still married to me because he's very laid back.

But this particular Christmas Eve morning, he was very stressed. We had brunch reservations. at 11 30. And dad had gotten up [00:11:00] early because he wanted to fry eight turkeys that morning to take to some friends that we had here in Pensacola, to some fire stations. And so dad got up, he was frying the turkeys and we were going to take the turkeys to people on the way to brunch.

This was the whole plan. Sometimes frying turkeys takes a little bit longer and We're trying to get to our brunch reservations, and Dad's running behind on the turkey frying, and Daniel's getting more and more stressed, and I can't figure out why, because it's really not that big a deal. We can call the restaurant and push our reservation.

We are very good customers there. They don't mind, I promise. It's gonna be okay. And we get to the fire station, and we've got all the turkeys, and they had been called out on a fire, and so there's nobody there, and Daniel's getting more and more stressed, and I'm like, look, we'll just cancel our reservations.

There's enough food at the house. We really don't need to go out. And he's, no, we are going to brunch. And I couldn't [00:12:00] figure out what in the world was wrong. And what in the world was wrong was that he was proposing that morning at brunch. And He had this whole thing planned, and by the time we got there, the table that he had wanted had been given away, and we ended up sitting at the actual table where we had our first date, which was really cool, that was a, a god thing to put us at a different table, but all of these weird things happened that morning that created a level of stress for the cute boy.

That I just absolutely could not understand, and then of course after he proposed, I finally did get it. That was the Christmas Eve that I did not speak 48 hours because I was so incredibly shocked. And as much as I talk, I probably uttered 8 words between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. 

Shane: Did you at least give the man Like an immediate yes?

Or did you make [00:13:00] him wait 48 hours before you spoke and said yes? 

Tonya: No. I was so incredibly shocked that I didn't say anything. And I just sat there with my hand over my mouth, with my eyes bugged out, and he finally did have to say, hey, you need to give me an answer. Because the restaurant had gotten really quiet and everybody was staring at my very introverted husband who was down on one knee.

And I am holding like a ring out as far away from my body as I possibly can because I don't even know what to do or It was the most awkward, crazy, like every photograph of us in that moment, I don't have the ring on, I'm holding it out at arm's length, like I don't know what this is and why it's in my hand.

But the frying of the turkeys on Christmas Eve did create lots of stress that day. 

Shane: Talk about stress. What [00:14:00] brings stress to people? I'm obviously living first world problems here, where my life doesn't get stressful around Christmas, and again, thankful. I'm sure there's a lot of people out there that are wanting to throw eggs at me right now, and so, that's fine.

I fully accept that. I was actually Thinking about the gift giving thing over the last few years and I want to go back there for a second speaking of the gift of being engaged at Christmas. Does it cause you stress to give gifts? You're a gift giver. So does it create stress? To give gifts? 

Tonya: Only this year.

Shane: Just this year. No, but 

Tonya: I love to find the perfect gift, create the perfect gift. Yeah. I'm a DIYer. One year when I was a little girl, I decided to get really creative and I guess I was about seven years old and I took used cartridges. And hot glued them to branches and put bows on them [00:15:00] and tied mistletoe.

And I did a cartridge in a bear tree. So I've always been a, let's figure out something fun and unique and not necessarily buy whatever the end gift is that you're, but to try to find something that the person absolutely will love. Now I may buy it in June when I see it and put it away in the gift closet until Christmas and that may be why it's not quite as stressful because it's not this whole thought of oh my gosh I have to buy gifts for Christmas.

It's a I'm going to spend the year to find the gift that the person's 

Shane: really didn't want. I read this article in the Wall Street Journal about how gift giving causes so much stress. And this particular article was talking about why do we give family gifts if it causes us so much stress. The whole point of giving a gift has nothing to do with What the gift [00:16:00] is your story of creativity around giving gifts or the DIY process that you go through the thoughtfulness that you go through, we've moved into this world and I guess in the developed world.

Maybe that's the whole thing here. First world problems where it's insane. There's some insaneness and I want to read you this. About the stress that this individual, this is between two cousins at a, I guess, a large family gathering where there's gifts being given to maybe the patriarch and matriarchs of the family and this one cousin.

Was giving a scrapbook made from Christmas last year with family photos and pictures drawn by her kids Which was extremely thoughtful. That's an extremely thoughtful. I'm not a grandparent yet But I can see myself down the road where that would become extremely treasured to me But then this particular cousin [00:17:00] was mortified by another cousin A three week European cruise and first class airline tickets with matching luggage.

So we have the Scrapbooker on one side of the family, and we have the European cruise flying first class. To get there and matching luggage. I've never heard of anything like that. Have you ever experienced or seen anything like that in your perspective? 

Tonya: I'm an only child. That's never been an issue. And my poor parents, I sent them on a carnival cruise.

I never sent them on a three week cruise. European vacation with first class tickets because my daddy would tell me the people in first class and the people at the back of the airplane get there at the same time, and it is cheaper to fly at the back of the airplane. 

Shane: There is absolutely nothing I need.

Like I'm, I know I'm difficult to buy for because I just don't buy a lot of stuff and you get the thoughtful gift. That's [00:18:00] Holy cow. That's amazing. I served on an agency council for a carrier at the national level. I was given, as a parting gift, this newspaper article framed in Harper's Weekly on Sam Houston, one of the Texas founding fathers.

And so, to me, like, there was not an expense thing there. It wasn't, like, this huge It probably cost a little bit, but to put together, maybe a couple hundred bucks at most. But It was the thoughtfulness that I was from Texas, this company was not from Texas, they thought about my background of loving history, and there was just this thoughtfulness that went into that.

And, we're just so busy. And we're talking about, we talk a lot about work life balance as agency owners. Our time to shine as agency owners, our time to shine is we have this business that gives us the opportunity [00:19:00] of freedom, financial. opportunity that we can actually take this time of year and do something thoughtful.

Not necessarily expensive. Thoughtful. And this is in your wheelhouse, Tanya. Do the thoughtful thing. Do the DIY thing. Do something thoughtful. In the gift giving category, if we're going to continue to give gifts to our adult children, how do we do this? Do we take trips? Like you're giving, you're taking your parents on trips.

That's awesome. I know that can get a little more on the expensive side, but it's the memory. Like, you're paying for the memory. It's not the trip cost, it's the memory created. So I love the trip idea, because obviously, What do you get people as they get older when they have everything you get them memories by going on trips, but it's also just a simple framed old newspaper article from history that [00:20:00] it was just so thoughtful.

We have that capability and we have the freedom as business owners to do this. This is our time to shine, to go to a different level, do something that makes memories for your family, and let's just not forget why we do this every year, why we celebrate the birth of Christ every year. 

Tonya: I want to go back to you saying that Our industry doesn't really create anything fun, and that is somewhat true.

I'm not going to sit here and say, Oh yay, car insurance, the perfect gift for the holidays. But for us as an agency network, we give our agents the opportunity To have financial stability, the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of clients during difficult times, the opportunity to serve others, and that's one of the really incredible things about our industry.

I actually [00:21:00] got a phone call yesterday from my parents insurance agent in Louisiana, checking on me and checking on mom. And she had a question because my parents car insurance was coming up for renewal. She could have sent an email. She could have sent the letter that would have normally just come directly from the carrier.

But she reached out to say hey. How are you doing? Is there anything that I can do for you? And that made all the difference in the world to know that she cared. She was actually at my father's services. Who can say that about their insurance agent? That's just so special that she went out of her way to do that.

That she's made that follow up phone call just to make sure that everything was taken care of. We have an opportunity as agents to make such a huge difference in difficult times. And like you said, this is not a fun industry, but it's [00:22:00] an industry that makes a difference. 

Shane: So there's a lot of things that I would say would categorize as fun industries, which the insurance industry isn't necessarily one of those to society as a whole.

But to your point, we have so much opportunity. to impact lives in such a good way. And that's the thing that I'm just always reminded of this time a year is the ability to give back, the ability to impact our community, our families. There's a a former individual here that worked here, uh, that now works for.

A regional life insurance company. His name's Jeff Havard. He's been on our podcast before. Jeff took it upon himself to start this, basically getting a group of people together and finding in the community a waiter or waitress that might need some help in the Christmas season. The rule was very simple.

He invites a bunch of guys. Everybody gets [00:23:00] together. The rule is you bring a hundred dollar bill. That's your contribution. You bring a hundred dollar bill. We go have lunch, talking to restaurants and managers at restaurants. We pre pick a particular person on the waitstaff that might could use some help.

I was unable to go this year because of our anniversary trip, my 29th year. I normally get to make it. I've missed it a couple of times. It's incredible. I just found out just the other day that this particular year we paid a 350 lunch tab with 2, 800 in cash. In this particular individual. Happened to be a single dad last year was a pregnant single mom.

And the year before that was another single mom with two or three kids is so impactful to be able to do that, to be able to own a business and go do [00:24:00] that and have this extended lunchtime. And it's not. The 100 this day in time, it's not the money. It's just this opportunity to be involved. And so shout out to Jeff for his heart and for who he is in starting this several years ago.

Now, I hope it continues for several years into the future. I plan to be a part of it. These are the things that being a business owner, being in community and being in our industry, being in an independent agency channel, we just get the opportunities. A lot of people are not afforded because of that. Our, our team members and to be able to give back to our employees.

These are just incredible times and incredible opportunities during the Christmas season to do that. I hope we are able to see through that lens, and it not just be about buying presents that nobody really needs at the end of the day. So, there you go. 

Tonya: My 100 story started [00:25:00] years ago when 100 was a lot of money for me.

And it's still a lot of money. But. Mine goes back starting when it was really a lot of money, and I would always give it to a car hop at the Sonic on Christmas Eve. I would go to the Sonic, I would get my Route 44 Coke Zero, and whatever car hop would bring me my drink, I would give the 100 tip. And in my 20s, That took a lot of saving, but I realized that it could really make a difference for somebody in that day, and that's a tradition that, that I've kept up over the years as well.

So, figuring out how to make a difference in the lives of others when we have been given so much, it's biblical, to whom much is given, much is expected. And to be able to give back the way we are as independent agents and in our industry is absolutely. Phenomenal. But I figured out a way to make this [00:26:00] fun.

So I'm gonna give a teaser, but we're gonna do this next year. We're gonna figure out all of the ways to insure Santa and cover the risks at the North Pole. I like it. Like commercial property for the factory and workers comp for the elves and G. F. him falling off the roof and all of the things. So we're gonna preview it now.

But next year, we are going to spend the month of December and insure Santa. I like 

Shane: it. It's fantastic. Yes. I'm in. Let's do it. I've already got things running through my head right now. Just, is the Slay auto insurance commercial auto or is it something else? We got to think about this. 

Tonya: So a little teaser for next year for December.

And we want to wish you a very Merry Christmas. 

Shane: Merry Christmas. So excited for the new year coming around the corner, but also just the opportunity to spend time with family. I hope you enjoy your Christmas this [00:27:00] year. Thank you for listening to us and just spending time with us each and every week. So excited for Our industry and just at the end of the day, reminding us this time of year that the reason that we celebrate Christmas is the birth of our Savior.

Tonya: I'm going to leave us with this quote from Charles Dickens from A Christmas Carol. I will honor Christmas in my heart. And try to keep it all the year. 

Shane: Attitude to choice. Make 

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