EP#101: Chrissy Zambas with The Zambas Insurance Group
Feb 02, 2024
Lisa
Ready to be inspired and informed? Our latest episode features Chrissy Zambas, a powerhouse in the insurance industry, who shares her remarkable shift from the real estate and mortgage sector to establishing her own agency. Chrissy’s narrative isn't just a career evolution; it's a masterclass in harnessing a passion for social media and marketing to meet a market need. Positioned at the intersection of expertise and personal growth, Chrissy's story reinforces the significance of networking and understanding your worth in the professional arena.
During our chat, Chrissy skillfully debunks the complexities that often shroud the world of insurance, shining a light on the importance of proper coverage not just as a fallback but as an essential financial safeguard. Her methodical yet accessible way of explaining insurance to clients ensures they're well-equipped to make prudent decisions. So whether you're seeking clarity on insurance or a dose of encouragement for a career pivot, Chrissy Zambas's insights on the Good Neighbor podcast are your go-to resource. Tune in and learn why safeguarding your future is more than just playing it safe—it's a strategic necessity.
Ready to be inspired and informed? Our latest episode features Chrissy Zambas, a powerhouse in the insurance industry, who shares her remarkable shift from the real estate and mortgage sector to establishing her own agency. Chrissy’s narrative isn't just a career evolution; it's a masterclass in harnessing a passion for social media and marketing to meet a market need. Positioned at the intersection of expertise and personal growth, Chrissy's story reinforces the significance of networking and understanding your worth in the professional arena.
During our chat, Chrissy skillfully debunks the complexities that often shroud the world of insurance, shining a light on the importance of proper coverage not just as a fallback but as an essential financial safeguard. Her methodical yet accessible way of explaining insurance to clients ensures they're well-equipped to make prudent decisions. So whether you're seeking clarity on insurance or a dose of encouragement for a career pivot, Chrissy Zambas's insights on the Good Neighbor podcast are your go-to resource. Tune in and learn why safeguarding your future is more than just playing it safe—it's a strategic necessity.
Speaker 1:
This is the Good Neighbor podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Lisa Swiftny.
Speaker 2:
Hi everyone and welcome to the Good Neighbor podcast, episode number 101. Wow, over 100 episodes so far. Today we have with us Good Neighbor Christy Zambus, and Christy is with the Zambus Insurance Group.
Speaker 3:
Hello Good, how are you?
Speaker 2:
Good, good. So let's start off by telling our listeners what is your business and what do you do.
Speaker 3:
So it's pretty simple. So I own an insurance agency. I do home auto, life and business insurance. Pretty simple.
Speaker 2:
So tell our listeners about your journey. How did you get started in this business?
Speaker 3:
So it's kind of funny.
Speaker 3:
So I actually have been in the real estate mortgage world pretty much my entire life.
Speaker 3:
My biggest focus has always been on the social media, marketing, branding side of the world for everything that I've ever done and I worked with mortgage to begin with, got into real estate, helped both focus on the marketing side of everything that we did and opened up my own social media management company, and marketing helped with doing that.
Speaker 3:
Coaching on doing social media I loved it, but it was just something that's very hard to do for other people, and so my husband and I were talking about something that we could do, something I could do that was a little different, wanted to tap into my natural market that I already knew I had, while trying to expand outside of that as well, and I had been working with a few insurance agents agencies and my husband came home one day and said hey, why don't you look into the insurance world? So I called one of the guys that I was working with and he said get in here let's talk. So we had copy, I think, within a day or so, and talked a lot about the insurance world, what it looked like, what was involved, what Farm Bureau had to offer and I went out and got my license and jumped on the bandwagon. I love it.
Speaker 2:
That is great. So can you tell our audience a little bit about any myths or misconceptions that you hear about in your industry?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, and I don't know that. I think that it's like myths. I think the hard thing is understanding the insurance world. I think we all think that insurance is a joker. If you don't need it, you're paying for something you never need, which a lot of people struggle with, and it's not just home insurance or auto insurance and it's all of it. Look at health insurance, things like that that people are paying and you pay quite a bit of money to see if something happens.
Speaker 3:
So I think some of the biggest misconceptions, or I think one of the things that we see a lot, is there's not a lot of people that talk about insurance and why you need it and what you need it for, and the reality, I think the big misconception is that it's just I don't know the right word to use it's not bogus.
Speaker 3:
If you were to get into a car accident, if you were injured, if you injured someone else, you need to be properly insured.
Speaker 3:
And I think not necessarily a misconception, but something just people are not educated on enough is why you need the coverages that you need and why we are always like asking a lot of questions. We dive a little deeper at Farm Bureau in people's situations with their finances because we wanna make sure that if you are in an accident and you injure someone, they're able to come after you really for anything that you are worth. So the equity in your home, any retirement plans you have, any savings account. Most people don't understand that they can come after you for 25% of your income for the rest of your working career. If you're a 30 year old, that's a long lifetime of income that they can come after. So we do ask a lot of the questions in dive-in, so I don't know that it's necessarily a myth or misconception. I think it's just a misunderstanding of the insurance world and why we do what we do and recommend the premiums and the plans and the programs that we do.
Speaker 2:
That's really great, so you're very thorough when you speak with your clients. That's good to know. Yes, so when you're not working on your business, what do you like to do for fun?
Speaker 3:
Set, even like something that happens. No, I have a family, so I have four kids, three grandkids, and we have friends that my husband has been friends with literally since elementary school. We've carried on that friendship, so I've had them around for 27 years now too. So we do a lot with our family and our friends. Boating, love to boat, live on the lake, so it's like fun summertime and love to cruise Anytime we can get on a cruise. That is one of my like the funnest family times we have.
Speaker 2:
That is amazing. So can you describe one hardship or a life challenge that you rose above and now say because of that challenge that you're better for it and are stronger.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, so this one was a tough one and at first I wasn't sure if I was going to avoid this question or not. I'd say one of my most recent, without going into any details, had a business that I owned. It was actually very fruitful business with business partners and we did extremely well. There was just a very big, a huge issue with not seeing eye to eye on some situations. It was a very, actually difficult time in my life. It was definitely a challenge. Never in my life thought I would own a business again. I mean, it was a very big struggle for two years and I just at first all I could see was that it was one of the biggest regrets of my life. I just couldn't see any good in it. There was nothing that I could say. This was a great experience.
Speaker 3:
I learned and honestly, now coming out of it and finally just accepting that it is what it is, things happen. There's not anything that I can do about it at this point. Opening up the new business, I definitely can say that, opening up the new insurance agency, I learned so much. I took care of the back end, the financials, the profit and loss of projections, and so just understanding how to run a business and what all of that entails. It actually did give me some very, very good learning experiences and things that I was able to bring into and incorporate Understanding how to start a business and run a business, put it together and now just doing it on my own, I can you know I'm able to take all the things that I learned from that and incorporate into the new business, and that's been amazing.
Speaker 2:
So always learning always growing.
Speaker 3:
There is always a light at the end of the tunnel. I had someone tell me once that I would eventually look back and say, ok, I took something good out of this, and I said that's never going to happen, never. This is awful, and I'm past it. I'm beyond it, I've grown from it. It is what it is. It was a great learning experience. It did give me a lot of good things that I was able to use and definitely overcome.
Speaker 2:
That is great. So what is one thing that you wish our listeners knew about your business?
Speaker 3:
So it actually kind of goes back to the misconceptions and misunderstandings. And again, I think it's just understanding why the need, why we ask the questions. A lot of insurance agents I think a lot of. I say this a lot I don't think insurance agents are salespeople in a negative way.
Speaker 3:
I don't think that in a negative way. I think a lot of times people just pick up the phone hey, I'm getting a new car. Hey, I'm buying a new house. Can you give me the insurance? They want the lowest premium. They don't want to put a lot of money into it because, again, if they're not going to need it, why do they want to spend a lot of money?
Speaker 3:
So I think a lot of times agents and a lot of people are doing things on the internet so they just take the cheapest insurance with the low premium, which then also he puts them underinsured. And so I think knowing and understanding what you are actually getting with your policy is so important. When we're doing home and auto and you're looking at the 50,000, 100,000, 100, 300,000, 250, 500, 500, 500, you see all these numbers not understanding what they mean and what actually is like covered and how you're covered Umbrella policies. Not understanding why it's so important. Umbrella policies are so inexpensive they're just not very expensive. If you have assets that are going to put you up above a certain threshold, it's so important to have that coverage as well. So I think it's just having conversations with your insurance agent whether it's me or another insurance agent, whatever Just having the questions and understanding exactly what you're getting into and what coverage means is one of the biggest favors that anybody can do for themselves.
Speaker 2:
Well, thank you for that. No, now our listeners are intrigued and they want to learn more about you. So how can they contact?
Speaker 3:
you. Most listeners are never intrigued about insurance because it's a boring topic and I think it's so much fun. So they can reach me on my cell phone. I will plug that out, I have no problem. My cell phone is 586-747-8190. They can reach me on social. I'm on Facebook all of the time. If you want to know anything about me, check out social media. Facebook will tell you every single thing in the world you want to know about me. So Chrissy Zambis is my social. Chrissy C-H-R-I-S-S-Y last name is Z-A-M-B-A-S. I'm on Instagram not as much as I need to be, but I will be there with some good content and I'm on LinkedIn as well.
Speaker 2:
So great Well, chrissy. Thank you so much for being a guest today on our Good Neighbor podcast.
Speaker 3:
Thank you.
Speaker 1:
Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast Rochester. Denominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show. Go to GNPRochestercom or call 248-988-9640.