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THE BENIFTS OF A NICHE INSURANCE AGENCY

GFP Hot Seat Transcript:

Ron: (00:00) Welcome to the Insurance Hot Seat, a special series by the Geek Freaks Podcast, dedicated to answering the tough questions in the insurance industry. Today's special guest is Ryan Spalding, CEO of Worthy Insurance Group. How's it going Ryan?

Ryan: (00:27) Oh, things are fantastic. Ron, uh, uh, really, really excited. Uh, appreciate you having me on to, uh, discuss this, uh, follow along on the podcast, you know, last couple of months and, uh, what you're been able to put together. It's been really, really valuable, uh, insight for not only the insurance community, but also, you know, those individuals that we serve.

Ron: (00:49) I appreciate it. Yeah. Yeah, no, we're, we're happy to have you, we're glad, uh, to get some time to kinda get you out here and talk about the topic of, you know, I guess being, finding your niche in the insurance world. I'm we do it here. Um, so our niches, our insurance, and, uh, I guess a general professional services, we work with a lot of financial companies and manufacturing. So if, what you're, what you're describing in our conversation earlier is it's it's well, I'll let you take it, go ahead and start from the top.

Ryan: (01:20) Yeah. Yeah. So Ron, really, you know, the kind of topic I wouldn't talk to is just a little bit about how important it is, um, for us in the insurance industry to specialize in the different aspects, um, from a twofold, uh, situation, one aspect is, um, if you're a specialization in the insurance industry, you're, you're out there serving your clients that niche within certain business segments. And what I mean by that is that these individuals are running their businesses and they want to work with people that know the ins and outs of their businesses. So you can identify certain exposures, you have great product knowledge, and it gives you the ability to really custom insurance products for your insurers. Um, on the flip side of things, when your niche and you specialize within your different, uh, aspect of the insurance industry, whether it's, uh, within maybe healthcare operations, the restaurants, contractors, or any of those different classifications businesses, um, and a lot of the insurance industry and different underwriters are retiring. You know, I think as a from the retail agency side of things, it's critical that we can also work with newer individuals that are entering as underwriters to different insurance companies, and also provide them with education about the niches that they're hopping into. Um, just really, really critical that you understand the ins and outs, uh, not only for your client, but also to work with new individuals on the insurance carrier side to help them kind of understand the exposures and even supplement the training that they're receiving from their carrier, uh, when the carrier side and their, their employers.

Ron: (03:00) So that's interesting, right? So to go to the carrier and say, Hey, you know, Ron, I know you're new. This is what we've been doing. This is how we do it. And it also allows you to kind of share your standard practices with them from the, from the standpoint of, this is how we do business. This is what our standards are essentially. And then this is how we work with this said carrier, what, from a selling aspect, though, it makes a lot of sense, like in our industry. And I'm sure it's the same in yours that you become kind of the, the, the person that knows, like we know a lot about insurance tech. We know a lot about FinTech. We know a lot about construction. We know a lot about that. So when we meet with those, these, you know, potential customers or, you know, leads, we have that background already. So it makes a lot of sense when you think of it, because we have a, you know, a good amount of customers that are very generalist in their, you know, they have health, they have life, but they don't really like have the agency go after, you know, four different or one vertical, I guess you would say,

Ryan: (03:57) Yeah, we'll get like a, you know, studies show. Um, and I speak to everybody in the team here, um, that as society continues to move forward, everybody's looking for some sort of specialization. You know, I want to go to a doctor that specializes in whatever potential disease or illness I might have, um, because they're individuals that have special training and know what they're talking about. If I'm going to a restaurant, I'm going to a restaurant and I'm looking and I'm going on Yelp, and I'm seeing, Hey, what do they specialize in? What is their thing? I'm not going to hit up a barbecue joint, hoping that I'm about to have the best plate of spaghetti I've ever had. So it's like the expectations of, of, of individuals as we continue to move forward is they don't want to work with everybody that's just jack of all trades. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that aspect. There's been a lot of people that have been very successful in this industry. Um, I just think it's one of those things that, uh, as time progresses, everybody is going to continue to man more and more. They want to know that you know, more about the ins and outs of their businesses. They want to know what resources that you have available to help mitigate a loss this forum. And if you don't know it, you can't speak to it. Um, because you're all over the place and trying to figure out how to write, just whatever comes in. Uh, you can leave some people in some serious, uh, financial situations or potential gaps in coverages. And as a professional, that's not what we should be looking to do. Um, it's, we're, we're here to take care of people, we're here to take care of people and their assets and their businesses, and what's most important to them. And you're hopping around trying to figure out every little aspect of every little industry you're gonna miss something there. Uh, and I don't think that's fair to the client. Um, and then just, even to the industry, if you can't speak to things intelligently and help explain the story to an insurance company about why your prospect, why your client is, uh, is a wonderful opportunity and a profitable risk for them, um, then you're just not helping anybody out including yourself.

Ron: (05:58) So, as, I mean, that was a perfect example, by the way, you're not going to go to Olive Garden looking for the most amazing steak in the world. Yeah. I guess, do you see your carrier partners, um, like set, like, or do you see carriers open to that, like saying, Hey, I'm only going to sell cyber through you guys, or I'm only going to do this through you guys, or do they want all the business still, or how, how is that working with your vendor relationship, your carrier relationships?

Ryan: (06:23) Yeah. So from our end, we were very, very niche in the industries that we serve, um, healthcare nonprofits, social services, and then financial institutions. And so what we've went out and we've aligned with different carriers that specialize in those niches. Um, and the reason being is we we've explained to them, we don't want to be a Jack of all trades, that we wouldn't be able to have intelligent conversations with you and the clients based on the real risk and the real exposures that are, that are occurring day to day. Uh, I think what you're seeing more and more that carriers are, are trying to get more vertical and their different dealings. And they're trying to kind of hone in on things that they do well, um, and trying to eliminate a lot of things that they don't, or just being all over the place. And I even think from the underwriting perspective, um, it's making it a lot easier on individuals when they only have to focus on one aspect of that industry. Um, with healthcare underwriter might only do malpractice. Um, one other underwriter might only do property. And I think it just gives them the ability to even specialize in the different aspects of their, uh, vertical within the industry. So they can look at exposure and say, all right, here's the proper rate for this? Here's what's best in class. Here's some things that I'm worried about. And if you're one of those individuals, that's an underwriter that might be spread across even workers' compensation, liability property. It could be a nightmare because at some point something isn't going to be learned or known and you can't give full attention or focus to it.

Ron: (07:55) That's that's yeah. That's, that's what we ran into. It's hard to know. I mean, to put in my terminology, it's hard to know the 70 different brands of firewall instead of just knowing the one. So it makes a lot of sense from that standpoint. Now walk me through an operation side of it. So say I came in and I was like, Hey, Ryan, I'm very excited to be your new producer without giving away company secrets and all that jazz. Is that something that you specifically hire for and let them know ahead of time to say, Hey, this is our niche. You're going to be the healthcare guy, and we're going to train you down this path?

Ryan: (08:27) Yeah. You have to love it. Um, you know, strategically when we got into health care here at Worthy, it was just based on the partners and some of their connections within that industry. Um, I had actually joined Worthy after spending a year on the road, uh, calling on other retail agents, uh, on the wholesale side. And I would walk in and say, Hey, let me, let me tell you what none of your competitors are doing. Um, you know, down the road six, seven years ago, and obviously a lot of changed because it's now more competitive on our side of things, but if you're coming in as a producer or account manager, I'm gonna explain to you, you know, here's what we do. Here's why we do it. Here's the resources that we can bring, here's the value we're gonna bring to the client. Um, and at the end of the day, it's like every individual here, uh, that works at Worthy, uh, have their own motives for why they love it. You know, I have Marianne, uh, who's somebody that comes in every day because Marianne knows that she's doing loss control and she's helping keep people safe at work. Um, and she's also working to make sure that not only the employees are safe but that the employees are taking care of the residents, the elderly, um, being that we do primarily assisted living skilled nursing facilities. Um, but somebody else might come in and might have a different motive of why they want to work within the healthcare industry. Maybe it's somebody that was already a nurse and they see the value of, there could be some operational things and within a facility that they could help. So really make an impact at the end day it's trying to protect people and protect, uh, obviously we're trying to protect our clients, but also protect their people and the people within the building,

Ron: (10:04) And then making sure that they have rounded out coverage too. So they don't have, and like you said, any gaps or any holes that nobody's really seeing in the blind spot now, along with those producers, I'm assuming the CSRs they're all specifically trained in their market or niche or vertical is whatever we want to call it too, as well. Right?

Ryan: (10:22) Big time. Yeah. That's, that's the first thing that we do put through a pretty intensive training, not only really on the insurance side of things for these individuals and these different, uh, coverage lines that, uh, these specific niches need, but, um, uh, pretty, pretty intensive training on, uh, the healthcare operations, uh, what it entails, what, what their different terminology, what drives things, what motivates those individuals? Uh, I spend a lot of time researching it, speaking with different operators, going into facilities, interviewing different individuals at the facilities to kind of figure out what's important to them, uh, identify the exposures. And, uh, you know, there's, there's 21, 22 of us here. Uh, every single one of us goes through the same, uh, ringer of training on it. Um, and there's so much to it, you know, you're really learning two different industries you learn in the insurance industry and you're also learning their industry. Uh, I couldn't even fathom thinking about having to train them on, uh, all the different industries that, you know, you really could serve as an insurance agency.

Ron: (11:28) No. And that's yeah. So when they come in, when you hire somebody, it is, is that all training, uh, in a development program that you had, were you guys at Worthy of setup or is that something that you just developed over the years? Is it working through a third party or is it just basically from the ground up, but you guys started this whole program. It's very interesting.

Ryan: (11:47) Yeah. You know, it's been all over the place really. You couldn't just pinpoint and say one aspect of it, it's still work in progress. Um, everything, uh, evolving, changing, uh, obviously even looking at the current state of the world that we're in. Um, you know, a lot of our clients that get hit pretty hard with, um, with, uh, some deaths within their facilities, a lot of tragic situations. So, uh, as much as I can sit here and say, Hey, we have the answers for everything. Um, every question could have four or five different answers, depending on the context of the question and just how things evolve. But, um, it's, it's ongoing training. Um, and things are changing constantly, not only within the healthcare industry, but the insurance industry,

Ron: (12:32) Even. Yeah. Even from like a jargon standpoint, it's two different worlds. It's I couldn't imagine sitting down and be like, Oh, I'm going to be at a CSR at this great agency, blah, blah, blah. And you're like, okay. And you're going to learn, basically, you're going to learn everything about medical right now. Holy smokes, that's a challenge. But like you said, if they have a passion for it and they have a drive for it, they're going to be fine. They're going to love it.

Ryan: (12:53) That's really what it's about. Finding the people that love it and are passionate about it. And we always just say, you know, the skillsets, we're looking for people that, uh, people that care and that people are curious. Um, if you have the curiosity of, uh, of how things work and you care enough about it, you'll, you can be successful pretty much in anything. Um, but really here, when we're dealing with, uh, lots of people, lots of individuals, you know, if you look at your average skilled nursing facility, you know, there could be 150 residents that live there. There could be another 200 individuals that go to work there every day. Um, so it's just important that you understand, um, how to protect the residents and best practices there, how to engage the employees, make sure the employees are excited, happy, they're doing the right things to protect their own bodies, um, and make sure they're staying safe at work. And that way they'll get better care. And it's just an evolving industry. Um, and some of the things that these operators go through, um, it's mind blowing to me, uh, to see how they can evolve and adapt. And they're just out there trying to do the best to make sure that they're taking care of all their stakeholders. And all we can do is look out and try to be supportive. And I'm really just at the end of day, the only way we can really be supportive as we understand the struggles that they're going through and try to assist and, and, uh, the best of our abilities and making sure that we can do everything to we supplement, um, all the great things they're doing.

Ron: (14:23) Yeah. And that, and so I have to ask it when you came in and this may be completely off topic, and maybe someone you don't want to talk about, but when you came into Worthy, right, you said you bought in and you were become a partner where they specialized then has this been from the inception of Worthy, or is this something that you and your current partners and the, you know, the current administration there kind of said, no, we're going to, we're going to strip all these other lines off, and this is what we're going after, because I'm just thinking about anybody listening to this. And they're thinking, damn, that's a great idea. How do they get there? How do they get ready to get there?

Ryan: (14:58) Yeah. Walking in, you know, Worthy was a, you know, there was four employees when I walked in. Um, and at that point in time, there was a book of business. Um, you know, about 50% of it was within the healthcare realm. And then 50% of it was just all over the place. Um, anything from a contractor to a, to a small restaurant, to a, a fitness center. And, um, you know, we made the decision at that point in time that we can't be everything to everybody in that we were going to have to start making a real push on what focus we were going to be, um, in just based on strategic connections. And then even the individuals here, um, and their interest, it was, let's go do some of the toughest stuff and the toughest stuff of the health care side. Um, so at that point in time, it was like, alright, what do we do with this other half of the business that, um, we don't want to leave those individuals hanging. Um, we still want to be of service, but we also don't want to be in service if we can't be the way, you know, the greatest thing for them. Uh, so we did go out, we found some other agencies that specialize in these things and that we knew had a great reputation and really just kind of went to those clients and said, we're more than happy to be a service. Um, this is not our specialization. We don't want to have the best market access. Um, here is a list of three or four different, uh, competitors of ours that we've had conversations with. We've vetted them. We, we really believe you'll be in great hands with them. Um, you know, we feel it'd be in your best interest to speak to one of these other agencies. And we really tried to do that and just say, Hey, specialization is what you need. Your business is important. And if I'm not going to make your business, the top of my priority and learning the ins and outs of it, I'm doing you a disservice by even being your agent.

Ron: (16:46) That's powerful. That's a, yeah. That's, that's awesome to think...

Ryan: (16:50) It was a tough decsion.

Ron: (16:50) Yeah.

Ryan: (16:54) To, you know, to take their business away. But I think it garnered a lot of respect and people were really, really receptive of it.

Ron: (17:03) That's the beauty of it, right? Is that you guys have worked, that organization has been around for so long. You guys worked so hard to build up these different books and for you guys to go out and do the legwork to say, Nope, Ron, Ron Harris is going to take care of your restaurant now because that's what they specialize in. We trust them. We've vetted them. We're good to go. Scary as heck, but powerful like soup at the end of the day, they're probably gonna refer you nine times to people that they know, because you're doing the right thing on their behalf. It's not about money at that point.

Ryan: (17:29) That's it, Ron. That's it just trying to look out for people, that's it. That's all you can do. And if we're honest in what we're doing, uh, we'll, we'll flat out tell you we can't do it. And here we're never going to leave somebody hanging out. No, I'm going to tell you who can, I'm going to find you that somebody that does specialize in it and we don't refer things to general because we don't think that's fair. Um, so it took a little bit of time since that, but, uh, these other agencies, you know, you could call them competitors, but I don't view them that way because they're, they're in whole different verticals than we are. And I think that they would reciprocate the same thing. If they came across an exposure that, uh, that didn't fit, uh, their, their business model, uh, that they would send it along to somebody that specializes in that.

Ron: (18:17) A referral. It's, it's crazy to think that a competitor can be a so-called competitor, could be a referral source. And we do the same thing when we run across smaller companies that don't quite fit what we do. And that's, you know, we've got a couple of really, I wouldn't say close companies that we work with, but some smaller companies in our area that we refer them to, because I know they're going to take care of them and you want, you want whoever you're interacting with to be, to walk away happy and to be taken care of. That's awesome to hear, uh, Ryan, I appreciate your time today, buddy. This has been a, an amazing conversation. Is there any way anybody on social media get ahold of ya, LinkedIn, Twitter, anything like that?

Ryan: (18:53) Yeah, shoot. Yeah, definitely. Um, I, you know, I'll shoot you a connection to Monica has been tremendous, you know, from, from your team, uh, really been enjoying some conversations back and forth with her. Um, and just everything that you've put together here on this podcast is just so beneficial for the industry. And, um, you know, listen to quite a few, if not, maybe all of them, even some friends that, uh, in the industry that have been on and it's like, um, we all have to be resources for each other and not only for our clients, but for, for the industry as a whole, it's just a world class industry for, for individuals to get into, uh, it's provided my family, uh, with a great lifestyle, uh, for generations. And it's just one of those things I would tell anybody if you're hopping into it, educate yourself to the best of your ability and your clients and your carriers are always going to appreciate that, that you've taken time to become, you know, really that professional that's here to just do right by everybody.

Ron: (19:52) Perfect. Well, Ryan, I appreciate kind words, all the help giving us some time today. Um, and we look forward to speaking to you down the road. Yeah. But we'll, we'll, we'll have some more topics you and I can jump on. I thoroughly enjoyed speaking all day. So have a good one, buddy. Alright. Stay safe.