What It Really Takes to Succeed as an Account Manager

Insurance is one of the biggest careers most driven people never seriously consider, until they see what the work actually demands: discipline, clear thinking, strong relationships, and a commitment to serve. We sat down with Nolan to hear how he went from the Army to a political internship and then into an insurance agency role that surprised him in the best way. What pulled him in wasn’t a “sales pitch” about insurance, it was a culture built on grit, integrity, and real accountability.

We get practical about the day-to-day reality of small business insurance and personal lines insurance. Nolan explains how serving clients means more than quoting a policy. It’s listening closely, asking the questions clients don’t know to ask, and finding coverage gaps before they become painful claims. He shares how emotional the work can get when you’re talking about someone’s home, and why a great service professional learns to combine empathy with sharp attention to detail.

The conversation also tackles what makes people succeed in a high-performance insurance agency culture. Nolan makes a strong case that competence plus ego is a dead end, while competence plus humility creates momentum fast. We talk about submitting to a proven system, using every resource available, and leaning on a team that shows up when the pressure hits. If you’re exploring an insurance career, a career change after military service, or simply want a better model for leadership and client service, this one will give you a clear standard to measure yourself against.

Subscribe for more conversations on grit and leadership, share this with someone building their career, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Transcript

Welcome And The Grit Values

SPEAKER_01 1:37

Welcome to the Grit Factor Podcast. I'm Drew Powell, and here we explore what it takes to succeed through the lens of guts, resilience, integrity, and tenacity. These are the values that drive high-performing leaders and shape the culture at the Insurance Group of America. Each episode we'll sit down with industry trailblazers, IGA team members, and inspiring professionals who have embraced grit to overcome challenges, seize opportunities, and create meaningful impact. Whether you're considered joining IGA or simply looking for the tools to take your career to the next level, you're in the right place. So buckle up. It's time to discover the grit factor. Well, Nolan, man, thanks for being willing to jump on the Grit Factor podcast. Thank you for having me. Yeah, it's exciting. We were just catching up a little bit before we started, and we're still getting to know each other. So I got a lot of curiosity just around your story and why you do what you do. And so take us back a little bit, man. How how did you what were you doing before this? Let's start there.

SPEAKER_00 2:36

So um I was actually in a political internship. I was in the government relations side of things. Um we represented trade unions, uh, the real estate associations, and an insurance pool. And that was kind of my real like entrance in the insurance. Um, it was about this time last year, actually. Uh the state legislator only goes until like April, right? So that was winding down. Like I kind of needed something else to do afterward. And I was sort of looking like where I wanted to go after this, and I didn't really know. I was graduating in August, and a recruiter on LinkedIn reached out to me, and I'm surprised I even opened the message. Actually, I don't even look at those. But she kind of like just said, like the general, like this company's uh kind of like mid-size, like so you have a good impact, and like just all like the like the usual stuff that they say, right? Try to get you to you know respond to them. And I I actually emailed her back and I was I said, like, this sounds great. I was like, I just want to preface, like, I'm not a salesman, like that's never been right my skill set. And she said, No, it's more on the service side. So we set up a phone call, and I was on the way to one of because I took classes at night, and right before one of them, uh, she called me and kind of gave me the whole spiel, and it just sounded sounded really good. I never saw myself going into insurance, but hearing her, that was that was a good insurance.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Yeah, I mean, say talk a little bit more about that. When you say you never saw yourself going into insurance, why? Why what was it about insurance that was like eh?

SPEAKER_00 4:03

It was just so like I've like my career path has been crazy. Like I graduated high school, went straight into the army, okay. Uh, did that for about six years, came out. I actually wanted to be a physical therapist. Okay. And my first major was exercise science. And I started working for this nutrition company. It was local based out of Murfreesboro. It's on the smaller side of a company, so I got to see like a much bigger impact of like what I was doing. And I kind of fell in love with business doing that. Okay. And uh from there, it was like the first day of like one of my semesters. I walked in, I was like, I don't want to do exercise science, I want to do business.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

And uh she my advisor helped me out a lot, got me into a business major, and I really just enjoyed uh learning about it. I enjoyed like accounting, uh, risk management, things like that. And I just really liked um the impact I was making where I was at. Yeah. So I think that kind of like led me more in the business direction. And then um I kind of like maxed out where I was there and like was looking around at different things that had a buddy that was in politics. So I was like, okay, that sounds fun. Yeah. Um, so I was kind of just exploring all these different routes, and like I said, insurance wasn't really on the radar before that, but just hearing what she had to say about it, and then I actually watched this podcast when I was doing like my research for this thing. Yeah, and I which one did you see was the woman? And um I really liked what he had to say. Yeah. So I that kind of got me more interested in it. And then since I've been in it, like I've loved learning it.

Why The Company Culture Matters

SPEAKER_01 5:31

Yeah, that's I love that story, man. Because I, you know, I get to do a lot of recruiting and a lot of talking to different people, especially on the sales side, but now on the service side. And that's one thing we talk about a lot is I mean, and the truth is we really do feel like, and this isn't hype because we believe it, we feel like commercial insurance is is the best kept secret in the business world. I mean, it's an incredible industry, basically a recession proof industry with what we're doing. But also, again, I'm gonna admit my bias up front, IGA is a pretty special place to work for. Tell me a little bit about. So I'm hearing you say like insurance. I was like, I'm not so sure, but you started hearing about it. You're like, wait a minute, I'll take a take another look. Was there anything about this IGA specifically that you're like, I don't know, this place feels maybe even a little bit different than what my like preconceived notions of commercial insurance would be?

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Yeah, I think it was IGA. It wasn't insurance that got me interested in insurance, it was IGA that got me interested interested in insurance. Um, like I said, I was watching this podcast and just hearing Jamie lay out like what he planned on doing like in the next 10 years and like how he had come to where we are now. Yep. Um, it just really sounded like something I wanted to be a part of.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

Was there anything specific about that? Because you said listen up podcast or Jamie, or like I'm just curious, what what were the things that stood out to you that felt different?

SPEAKER_00 6:51

Well, number one, I'm pretty religious. So hearing him uh give credit to Christ during that was very, very much like something I'm like, okay, like that's a leader I can get behind. Yeah. Um, but then just his like the values, like the whole the grit system and like everything that we go with in our like mission statement, like it's just all things that I feel like translate from my past, like the discipline, the tenacity, um, the selflessness, like things like that. I was like, okay, this is something I really actually want to be a part of. It wasn't so much insurance, gotcha, it was IGA, and then insurance came along later.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Sure, sure. That's so interesting to me because you know, it is true that a lot of people that do well at IGA have either military background or um they're an athlete sports background. Like they understand competitiveness, they understand being driven, they understand team, they understand being a part of something bigger than yourself, you know, all those things, like values, moral, like, and it's funny because I even like chuckle to myself a little bit when you talk about being religious and Jamie being religious, because it's not like someone might hear that and be like, oh, are these are they, you know, sit in a circle singing kumbaya every day? What's going on? It's like it's it's to me, it's the authentic, it's the real deal, you know, integrity, which obviously is you know one of our high values here, but it's not the type that's like, um, I'm just gonna preach at you, but not live it. It's like we're gonna, and listen, we're we're a bunch of just broken, flawed humans doing the best we can. Um, but it it is a company that I found that's centered on authenticity and being real. I mean, have have you found that to be true in in your experience, even coming from like a personally having a faith background, coming and work for a company that's not a Christian company, but how have you how have you seen that kind of play out in your experience?

SPEAKER_00 8:45

Authenticity, like the the values that make you a Christian, not so much like preaching at somebody, but more so like being honest, being very hardworking, being proud of what you do because it's for a greater purpose. Yeah. And the selflessness, like I think that's like the core tenet of everything that we're supposed to be is selfless. Sure. So it's easy when you have that kind of background to come in and be like, okay, I can apply this here, and it's gonna be recognized, and not only that, but just encouraged. Yeah. Like that's the culture. Yeah. And I think that someone who comes from those that kind of belief system can absolutely succeed well.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

And I want to drill down a little bit about like your military background. What are some of the things about your background that looking back now, you're like, man, that has really helped me in this role. If you could be even just a little more specific. So there's things like how like someone might be thinking, how does military or being an athlete or how does that actually translate to insurance? I'm curious about that.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

Um, I would certainly say the the discipline, the selflessness, but what comes to mind first is like if I get out of bed not wanting to do it, I'm still going to do it and I'm still gonna do as well as I can. And I think that's where discipline comes in. Like if if you're happy every single day, it doesn't take discipline to do what you're doing. But if you wake up one day, you're like, I'm tired, I don't want to deal with this, yeah. And you kind of want to like slack off that day. Like I think my experience in the military taught you can't do that. You can't afford to do that. Like you mean they don't they don't let you just wake up and take the day off. Right. There's no mental health days, you know. So like you gotta um I think that I think more so like just the discipline of like I have to come every day and do my best every day, regardless of how I feel.

Small Business And Personal Lines

SPEAKER_01 10:24

Yeah. That's that's amazing, man. That's so well said. Let's let's jump in a little bit to like just the day-to-day for someone who would be like, Well, help me understand this role. You know, what is it if someone's like, I have no idea what you do, but I'm interested. Unpack for us a little bit about what your day-to-day looks like.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

Okay, so I'm on the service side, I'm the small business and personal lines manager. Um, so we're a lot more general than commercial lines. Okay. Um with small business, I could be working on an inflatable uh bounce house company to a chiropractor to a trucking company that just hasn't made it uh interesting to our commercial side yet. Uh my job is just to help them the same way the commercial side would help their clients. Um and then on top of that, we have personal lines. We offer it to anyone that we insure to if they want to cover their auto or their home. So I'm in charge of that, and I have Danae who helps me with that.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

Yeah, when you say help them, what does that mean?

SPEAKER_00 11:21

So, like I said, we offer personal lines. So if someone needs coverage for their home, like if we have a contractor and they're like, I want to keep all my things in one place, okay, they'll come to me, I'll write their home, their auto, help them with all of that.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

Yeah. What is what's something that surprised you the most when you actually got into the job? Because you said you didn't know tons about it, you just were drawn, but anything was like, man, I'm kind of surprised this is what I liked, or even, I mean, we we can be honest, I'm surprised like this is what I don't love about it. Like, just help give us some context on that.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

Like what I'm doing specifically, or just IG Angel?

SPEAKER_01 11:54

No, what you're doing specifically, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

Uh personal lines, as is in the name, is a lot more personal. Okay. Um, you have to be a little bit more sensitive with clients in personal lines just because it's like it's their home. Not like not to say that people don't baby their businesses, but it's like where they live, where it's emotional connection to it. Exactly. There's a lot more emotional connection with personal than I feel like there wasn't commercial.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

Is that something you had to learn, or is that that's where the military background may have didn't serve you quite as well.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

Yeah, you can't you can't be as um, I guess, direct or treat it, you can't treat it the same way. Got it. Because these this is these are usually things people care a whole lot about. And like I said, it's not that that someone doesn't care about their business, but when you're talking about their home or something like that, then they're a lot more emotionally connected to it.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

Oh no, that makes total sense. And I I'm curious, what is what is something about this role? Like this is a very I'm I'm assuming, you can correct me if I'm wrong, very detail-oriented role, right? But it's also it's also a client-facing role at a at a high level, right? So what skills did you have to develop pretty quickly in this? Because I feel like that's you're detailed, but you're also relational. And you've got to merge those two worlds. I think sometimes people are one or the other, and this is a little bit of a both and so what's what skills did you have to kind of develop quickly? Obviously, you mentioned the people skills and making sure you're you're caring for people well, but anything else come to mind?

SPEAKER_00 13:20

Just thinking of things that they're not, like, because you're I'm the expert, right? So I need to know how to advise you on like, hey, have you considered this, or have you considered uh and not so much like I don't I don't sell, but just like I hey, I see you have this shed on your property, and we don't currently have anything to cover that. Do you think we should add that? Oh, are there tools inside that shed? We need to have coverage for that as well. Like just things that they're not gonna ask you directly, but you should be kind of proactive.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

You're finding blind spots and kind of proactively helping them see what they're not seeing yet. Right.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

So it's it's kind of a mix of the listening to them, like really listening to what they say when they ask you for something, and then taking that information and saying, well, with this person I dealt with, uh, they had this. So do you have tools? Do you have anything along those lines?

SPEAKER_01 14:12

A lot of it's asking good questions too, right? Right. I'm probably probably asking a million different questions, just trying to get to the bottom of how can we best serve this client? Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, that's great, man. Um feel free to I I don't know if this is even a fair question, but what is what is doing the job well look like for someone in your position here at IGA?

SPEAKER_00 14:37

I think the best way to explain that, if you're doing your job well, it's I I go back to a scenario more than like an exam, like a general example. Um a contractor comes and they need something quick, and they like that same day. If you're good at your job, you're gonna be able to take that request, say, okay, I'll take care of it, I'll get on it right now, and then you can reach out to an underwriter that you've developed a relationship with or a carrier that you're familiar with and say, hey, this needs to get done like right now. And just if you're doing well at your job, you're gonna be able to smoothly do that and then get this contractor or whatever business you're working with what they need quickly because you're able to communicate their needs to the carrier correctly and then translate that into performing whatever they needed for you. Yeah. Um, just being competent and having those relationships is doing well, I feel like.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

Yeah. I mean, just pushing in on that a little bit more, what for you, what is what is a successful day or week feel like for you? If you're like, man, this has been a this has been a great week, fill in the blank. Why?

SPEAKER_00 15:47

I think just that. I think if I have a client that comes to me and they really need something, it especially if it's something difficult that they haven't been able to find anywhere else, or they came to me first off because they trust us, being able to satisfy that request for them. Like we have all kinds of people who are have like a bad experience with a different carrier or a different agent, and they're like, Well, we know IGA is great, we know our claims department's fantastic. Like, yeah, we want to be a part of that and like get those benefits that come with being with us. So being able to place them in something that one, like makes sense for them financially and also provides better coverage. If I can do that, if I can get them a better price and into better coverage, they feel really good about it and it makes me feel pretty good about it.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

Well, and I think that goes back to like what I'm reading through the lines a little bit in your answer, that the competitiveness or the drive or the whatever is like, especially on the service side, it sounds like even in the tough cases, or like because you mentioned if if they haven't been able to get coverage somewhere else, or like it, it it sounds like you kind of feed off the challenge of how do we how do we help save the money? How do we help get them cover? Like almost looking for where is that, you know, I'm picturing I'm picturing the military, you know, when you see them going over the wall with the rope or whatever, like where is that in this industry that I can I can help get over that wall for them? I help, does that kind of fire you up a little bit?

SPEAKER_00 17:09

Oh yeah, absolutely. Like there, there's a a gentleman I I service that he had a uh rental property in Nashville. Uh-huh. And they his current carrier was like going all the way up with his premium on his renewal, and it's like to a point where it doesn't make sense for him. And he's coming to me with, I don't know if I can keep this, like that's just too expensive. Like, I might have to go somewhere else. And for me to be able to leverage what context I have with that carrier and say, hey, like we we need to take care of this guy. Like he's been here forever, like we he's been with both of us for a long time. What can we do? And I got I think I got that like almost half off. Yeah. And when I presented that to him, he was more than elated. And like that, that's that good. You were fired up, man. I'm like, okay, like I can I can really help him out, and we can keep this guy. And now he's a lot more happy with us, too.

Growth Paths And The Proven Formula

SPEAKER_01 17:54

That's awesome, dude. I love that. Let's pivot a little bit because I want to talk about just some growth and some opportunity things, both both professionally and personally for you. How have you how have you grown personally and professionally since you've started here at IGA?

SPEAKER_00 18:10

I'd say personally, uh, certainly like we discussed more so in looking for the peripherals and like thinking of things that they wouldn't think of. Um, going back to the whole detail-oriented and being able to like find these blind spots that you have. That's something I've uh in the past, especially with the military and then other careers that I've had. Um, it's very linear. It's very like, this is your job, this is you're gonna stay within this wheelhouse and you're not gonna go outside of it because we need you to be really good at this. And this is more so find the things that you haven't thought of yet. And I think some creativity in that. Exactly, creativity. Like I I would never have described myself as a creative person, but this role has really forced me to become a lot more creative.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

That's fun though. Yeah, yeah, that that makes it pretty exciting. I mean what I've what I've come to experience myself as an employee of IGA is is the kind of the long-term growth potential here. Like I think that's one of the one of the things that attracts a lot of um driven and competent and um high achieving personalities is the fact that when you start at IGA, like there's usually a a path. Like we we try real hard for being, hey, if you're successful and you prove yourself, then there's opportunity here. What have you experienced at, or what do you see for yourself? Because you haven't been with the company all that long. But when you look at like the long-term potential and opportunity, what does that look like for you, or what how did that impact your decision to come and be an employee of IGA?

SPEAKER_00 19:47

Well, I think it was something that was more so proven since I've been here. Um obviously not knowing much about IGA before coming. Like I didn't know um, I guess how they approach things like that. Okay. But just like those going back to those values we talked about, like being hardworking and disciplined and competitive and like very competent at what you do. I can personally like attest, like they're going to reward that and they're going to put you in positions where um maybe it's something you haven't done before, but you're competent at what you do, so they know you're gonna do well in it. Right. But IGA is really good about like putting every resource they have to help you succeed in that. And then that enables you to be competent now at this new thing. And that's to me, that's giving you opportunity and giving you room to grow. Yeah. So definitely like IGA's ability just to put everything they have behind somebody to make sure that they succeed. I that that has been really impressive to me to see.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

I found that to be 100% true as well. I mean, I've never worked for a company who, especially if you can really prove why you need something or why this is important to get your job done, where IGA is like, we will give you every resource, every opportunity. And it kind of again, it goes back to the wiring and the personality of the type of person that's successful here. It kind of takes all the excuses off the table.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

Because it's like, hey, they've equipped you with everything you need to go out and crush this. It's up to me now. Like, I gotta perform, I gotta make this happen. And for guys like me and you, um, and just you know, I say guys, but men and women like me and you, it's like we thrive on that. We we love that kind of stuff. We love the fact that like you believe in us and you're equipping us, and we like the ball in our hands, we like the autonomy to go out and just to go out and crush it. You know. Um, if you're talking to someone that's listening or watching this and and you're giving them kind of advice or encouragement, um as far as who's gonna thrive, but also who's gonna struggle in this role.

SPEAKER_00 21:53

Who's gonna I'll go to who's gonna struggle first? Okay, great. I love it. Who's gonna struggle? Um, being competent and being driven a lot of the times comes with being arrogant. And someone who's arrogant is not gonna do well here. Um if you can't listen, because I IGA has a formula and you have to submit to the formula, you have to apply yourself to it, and you don't need to come in thinking that you can change the world or that you can rewrite everything that like what Jamie has figured out works like really well, and when you plug the right person into it, going into who succeeds, if that person applies that formula to themselves, and then it's like pouring lighter fluid on a fire, like that person who's already driven and already competitive and already disciplined in their work and can work on their own without being having their hand held, that person's gonna go really far because IgA, like I like we keep talking about, they're gonna put resources behind you and they're gonna identify that very early.

Teamwork Under Pressure And Recognition

SPEAKER_01 22:45

Yep. Man, I'm so glad that you talked about that because the humility piece. And that's why it's it's a little bit harder to find. I mean, we are we are picky at IGA about who we hire. We just not just we bring we put a lot of resources into the hiring process and finding the right people. But when we do find people like yourself, the reason why it works, and again, we kept we referenced military because that's your story, and athletes, whatever, but it you don't have to be in a military or be a high performing athlete. It's just it's an easy example. The reason why they do well a lot of times is because they're highly competitive, highly driven, they've got some independence where they're they're used to. To like, I got to work out on my own. I got there's things I have to do in my own time, like to prepare myself. But what you just mentioned is huge too, which is they usually can take coaching, they can take a drill sergeant, you know, in their face because they know that there's a bigger cause, there's a bigger mission that we're trying to accomplish, and this is for the greater good. Or they can take a coach, you know, giving them a hard time in a practice or in a game because they know this coach loves me, believes in me, and they can take that. So there is that humility factor, and and sometimes that's hard to find. You said before, like it's it's the ego. Sometimes it's like, man, I'm I'm driven, I'm I'm gonna go do this, but you also have to be humble enough to to take coaching, to to work a proven system, which again, that's not hard for for people like us because man, if it's working, I mean it's working. Like the company is is like you said, Jamie, the the leadership team here, they've they've found the recipe of what works, and so you know, why would we come in and try to try to change that when we know this is what works? Come in and work this system. That's that's awesome. Um, and also the autonomy in your role. So it's not like I'm just you gotta be a robot. I mean, you said earlier, you still have freedom and autonomy to do your job, how you need to do it. I I want to ask you just a little bit more, and we talked about it early on, but because culture is is such a big thing for us at IGA, I mean, it's like it's on our walls and we talk about it all the time. I mean, it's something that we really try to live out more than just aspirational. Like this is like day-to-day living, and and you know, everyone culture is a buzzword in organizations. Everyone talks about culture. What actually stands out to you about IGA's culture in in practice, not just on paper or on the walls?

SPEAKER_00 25:15

I'd say what stands out to me most about it, um the way it's enforced is they're they're gonna have a grace with you. Like it's not gonna be you're not gonna get fired in the first week if you're not immediately like a hundred percent into it. But they're gonna keep encouraging you to, you know, like what we're doing works. And if you apply it, like you're gonna be successful. Um and like we said, like you need just to have enough humility to understand that. But I think just like how they apply the culture is just like rewarding people who are um living it, who are selfless and determined and self-sufficient. Um, I think the way they like like you said, it's a buzzword, like in most companies just use it, and it's just like right a throwaway term. But here, like when you see like we we talk about these values, we talk about grit, and we talk about all these things that make us what we are, um when it's encouraged so much in the people who work here. Um and reward I don't know where I'm going with it. This is hard to say.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

Uh it's good, it's good. Just take that question again. I really like what you're saying here. This is good, but but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:28

I think that that I think that in most places it's it's a buzzword, but for here, it's more of like you see it work and you see them reward it working. Yep. And I think that's what separates it from just being a throwaway term. Right. Is that it actually makes a difference and actually shows up in those situations that I talked about earlier.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

Yeah, and it's like the old adage about what what gets rewarded gets repeated. And the reason why we see these these behaviors day to day is because they're people are rewarded. I love it when the the emails come through that's like let's celebrate this or this close or this, whatever. And as a company, we get to say, man, great job, so and so. That was awesome. You know, it's like, and it's coming from the top, it's coming from Jamie and Andrew and Allison and Amy, all the all the leaders of our organization are the ones that are celebrating and championing these things. And so I love that even as an organization where we're spread out, a lot of us, like not everyone's in office, and you know, we still feel that across all the different locations and all the different people, and it's it's it's pretty special. How does the team operate in like high pressure, high stress environments?

SPEAKER_00 27:40

The team does pretty well. Like when something needs to get rushed, it gets rushed. Like, and I feel like everyone kind of comes together to help with that. Like, if there is something that's very important going on, I've personally, especially when I was still in commercial lines, um, if something was really important, it felt like the whole service team would come together to help you get it done. And like that's the most like military remind like thing that reminds me in the military is like when an emergency pops up, everyone comes together to do one thing. And then they all just kind of go back and like it's just normal. Like it's just something that they do without even really thinking about it. Like in our Teams chat, it's like if someone needs help, you'll get five or six people that'll put down what they're doing to help this person because they understand how important it is. That's so cool. And like we go back to culture, like that's what the culture is. Like when you don't have to tell people to do that, yeah, you don't have to like coax people into like, oh, you should really be responding to these. Like, no, I know if I go to that chat, I'm gonna get like five or six people calling me or chatting me back saying this is exactly what you need to do, or this is how I did it. Wow. And like it's it's amazing thing to see.

SPEAKER_01 28:43

So you don't feel alone in it not at all at all. Yeah, that's that's huge, especially in a high performing culture. I think a lot of times I think it could potentially be it can get isolating because it's like, hey, well, it goes back to the humility piece. Hey, I gotta perform at a high level, I can't let anybody else in. But I love hearing that on our team it's everyone's job is my job, my job's everyone's job. Let's get in and and let's crush it together. What's something, maybe an expectation that would that might surprise people coming from other companies when it comes to the IGA culture?

SPEAKER_00 29:16

Um I think just kind of what we talked about when you said that there's emails that go out of like when someone wins something, uh, that's not just producers selling something. That's if a service team member did something really good, yes, that also gets blasted. Like if uh if Jesse and Claims handles something amazing and like fights for a client and really gets the outcome that they wanted, that gets blasted. And like it's it's shared. Like, yes, like you see it a lot with producers because they're selling so much all the time. Yeah, but even in service, like they're like, hey, if you're doing a really good job, we're going to recognize you for that. Yeah. And like, yes, you like be humble about it, but at the same time, like it feels good to get recognized like that. And I think that that gives something the other service members to look towards, like, okay, like they do see what I'm doing and they know that like I'm making an impact as well.

Advice For Driven People Considering IGA

SPEAKER_01 30:05

Yeah, that's awesome. Man, I got I got one last question for you before before I get to that, man. Just thank you for the work you do here at IGA. You do an incredible job and just a great all-around human being. And so we're it's just awesome to be able to work alongside of people like you. Um, if if someone's listening to this, they're competitive, they're driven, or they're looking for a place to to not just go get a job, but to build a real career, what would you say to them about IGA?

SPEAKER_00 30:33

If you're driven and competitive, like I said, IgA has a formula that works. And if you are humble enough and can put your ego aside and listen to it and let them teach you and let IgA apply what has worked for us for 10 plus years now, uh you're gonna go really far and you're gonna work really well with what we have here.

SPEAKER_01 30:56

Well, thanks for joining us on the Grit Factor Podcast. We hope you're leaving inspired, equipped, and ready to embrace the grit values in your own life and career. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe, leave us a review, and share it with someone who's ready to level up their leadership. And if you're interested in learning more about the culture and opportunities at the Insurance Group of America, visit us at Iga.vis forward slash careers. Remember, success isn't about avoiding challenges, it's about facing them with grit. Until next time, stay bold, stay resilient, and keep pursuing excellence.