Of course, that value can be hard to create yourself and might require some extra help.
That's when you can look to different industries that want to do business with the same ideal client.
Now all of sudden you're armed with multiplied resources and your possibilities expand exponentially.
Stephanie Beninati: Owner of Strategic Insurance Solutions, talks about how she spent over a decade inviting the perfect people to the party.
Full Episode Transcript
Joey Giangola: Stephanie Beninati, how are you doing today?
Stephanie Beninati: I'm a great Joey, how are you doing?
Joey Giangola: Stephanie, I'm doing okay. I kind of want to know this before we really jump into anything too serious from a fellow person who has a valid at the end of his name, what is something that you find people don't fully understand or constantly ask you questions about sort of your culture and heritage that they might maybe just assume?
Stephanie Beninati: Well, actually, Beninati is an Italian name for my husband, but actually I am half Mexican half Lebanese. And so my maiden name is Doran. Yeah. That's a little bit of a people who know me are always like, how do you get Mexican and Lebanese? But it's a little crazy. We have a lot of yelling and screaming and loving and food. But my husband's from the Midwest so they're pretty white. They're pretty...
Joey Giangola: Not making a homemade pasta on Sundays or anything like that?
Stephanie Beninati: No, not so much. More of just the name, but our family is more... My family is more ethnic, so it's a good mix though. Because you can't have a husband and a wife that's both comes from crazy loud backgrounds. You got to have just one.
Joey Giangola: Yeah. Yeah. So, well then what's something from then your background then specifically, maybe that maybe it took a while for your husband to acclimate to?
Stephanie Beninati: Oh, well, first of all, on my mother's side, our family is all women. And so it's really hard because there's not a lot of men in there and I always say we either scare him or burry him. So basically he kind of became this like male go-to kind of guy, which at first he wasn't sure about, but now he absolutely loves. And then on my dad's side, which is the Mexican side, that's just, we're just loud. Just loud and there's always a little bit of drama and a lot of food. And he wasn't really used to all that so, but he loves it. He loves it now.
Joey Giangola: Well, so I wanted to shift that over to insurance and the reason is that I still am surprised, however many years I've been around the industry, is that the lack of sort of understanding and familiarity that people have with the different levels of insurance. Right? So there's like the main street like I'm calling the big box carriers but then when you start talking about just what independent agents do on a day to day basis, I feel like there's still a lot of unknown. There's just a lot that people don't know about it. And I guess what surprises you as you kind of talk to clients, as you talk to people just day to day that maybe don't fully understand the different levels of insurance and how do you kind of have those conversations with them?
Stephanie Beninati: That's two-fold. So if we're just talking about insurance agents and agency owners, I think it's a lot. So if you're an agency owner, you're not just dealing with insurance, you're dealing with building a business. And so a lot of time, and insurance is always changing, so it's really hard to build a business, do all the things that you do as an insurance agent, then do all the things that you do as everything else to build a business and then also keep your education up. So those are just things that are challenging until you get to a certain level and you can hire really good people. And you can find some time to then take care of yourself. As an agent, as an actual insurance agent, when you get hired by an agency, I feel like the way that a lot of agencies treat their agents, and we actually don't have this culture, is it's very much like sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, and we're very much like relationship, relationship, relationship.
But when people are under pressure to hit quotas, I feel like a lot of times that there's still a lot of old school kind of a mentality and how you approach insurance, which is just calling people nonstop and... However that works, right? I never really worked in that environment, but I've heard about it. So I think it's hard to balance trying to feed your family and also be really educated. And then when it comes to the consumer side, I mean, come on, let's just be honest. I mean, insurance is like who wants to even think about that if they don't have to? Most people feel about insurance like I feel about my taxes. That's the last thing I want to think about. I pay somebody to think about it and I do the bare minimum and I know I shouldn't and I tell myself I shouldn't, but it makes me go numb. And that's how most people feel about insurance. They're just overwhelmed by it.
Joey Giangola: Yeah. So, I mean, what is that conversation like? How do you treat that knowing that if they had their choice, they would rather not talk to you? Right? But there's that delicate balance because ultimately they do need to talk to you. And especially when you're doing on the business side of things, it's obviously way more important to kind of their day to day operations. Obviously personal insurance is important as well too. People treat it maybe a little more casually, but when you have businesses, employees, assets and things at stake, how do you approach those business owners to sort of engage them and maybe increase the excitement level a little bit?
Stephanie Beninati: Well, that's a great question. And actually we think we've been really creative about it. So what we did is, okay, so when... At the beginning of this interview, you talked to me about my family and food and I was telling you about food and loud. And so I incorporate a lot of that kind of into my education process. So I try to do gatherings, events, lunch and educations, happy hours. I figure people consume information on so many different levels. So we use automation, we use email campaigns, we use video campaigns where we do those little informational videos where they're 30 seconds clips of one thing. But the best way to do it, and it did halter a little bit or change obviously during COVID, is getting people in a room.
Now it's very hard and very expensive for a small agency owner to do that. So what we did in 2008 was partner with other industry professionals that are going after the same type of clients. So as I mentioned earlier, I'm a specialist. So I specialize in construction. My target client is home builders, residential home builders. And also we have vertical markets, but that's my main target. And at least it was mostly in 2008. So I partnered with other business owners that are also targeting those same type of clients. And what we did is we created a group called the Construction Resource Group. And this was during the recession so what we did is we pulled our resources. If I had $1,000 and 20 other businesses had $1,000, that's $20,000 that we could do some really amazing things in 2008, 2009, '10, '11 when we're going through a recession for these builders that really... And it was a district non-selling environment. That was the other thing. So it was really about being a resource and over time, those things just blossomed into a very healthy, successful business with a very low attrition rate.
Joey Giangola: So you threw out the number 20. Is that an accurate number of like the number of different types of businesses involved in one of these things?
Stephanie Beninati: Yeah. There's about... So we used a little bit of the BNI philosophy except for the fact of needing to present leads. You had to be a business owner, because again, I go back to salespeople tend to feel like they're under pressure and have quotas and so these are business owners who are in it for the long haul and yeah, you had to go through, you have to go through, we still do because we still have the group. So you have to go through a rigorous interview process to be a member because the whole premise of the group is about giving and not taking. And if you have maybe 15 to 20 businesses, which you want to keep it small, all giving to the same goal, then you have just a tremendous amount of opportunity.
I mean, if I bring three of my best clients to a ski bus, which we dig ski buses every year and everybody, 15 people or 20 business owners brought three of their best clients. That's what? 60 people to mingle with, that are all in your... They're all doing business, they've all been vetted and they're being introduced to you as a professional. You got to meet Stephanie. She does all of our insurance, she's the best in the industry. When somebody else is promoting you, it's a lot easier for people and a lot more palatable for people to want to do business with you than when you're trying to promote yourself.
Joey Giangola: So now, again, as somebody from the Midwest, just to be clear, what exactly is a ski bus? [crosstalk] Colorado area. I just want to make sure I fully understand what that is.
Stephanie Beninati: So you know the buses. Let's break it down. Come on, Joey, let's break it down. Okay. You know what a bus is, right?
Joey Giangola: I do, yeah.
Stephanie Beninati: Then you know what skiing is?
Joey Giangola: I do.
Stephanie Beninati: Okay. And you put those two together, you add in some alcohol, a great snow day, a lot of food and fun music, got you ski bus.
Joey Giangola: All right. Fair enough. It sounds a little dangerous, but I think-
Stephanie Beninati: Yeah, we have good insurance for that.
Joey Giangola: Fantastic.
Stephanie Beninati: I'll tell you it was hard to get though.
Joey Giangola: Take me inside, I guess those events, then I don't know if you do anything outside. If it's like a once a year thing or what the frequency is, but take me inside sort of that logistical sort of situation of... What was interesting obviously is you're bringing your, like you said, three best or near best clients and everybody else's. So you're dealing with, again, high value prospects per se. What goes into that event and how do you get people to sort of buy into this mission of, like you said, it's just bringing value and providing sort of a comfortable, safe investment?
Stephanie Beninati: Oh gosh, that's a good question. Well, I think you have to have some dogma and part of that, it was me and another partner who really started the group and I sort of ran it for 10 years. It's been well since 2008. So I've kind of given step back the last few years, but really I was just very dogmatic about this is the way things are going to go and it was hard at the beginning. So for example, we would do these events and we would just invite, not every event is like three people. Sometimes you just can invite as many people as you want because it's not a ski bus, which it's 100 bucks ahead. But when they would register, they would go onto what's called an event bright and we would make them put in every bit of their information. Every single, their job title, all that stuff.
My thinking was, you're going to a free event, you can at least give us your name and job title and information. If they wanted to bring four people, they couldn't do Joey plus four. It was like each person had to register individually and people complained and they came to me and they complained about it. And they said, that's a real pain. And I said I don't care. And I didn't.
And after a year, people just got used to it and it was never a problem again once I pushed past it. Because I knew that the only value that any of our members were going to be able to get was to get a good, comprehensive list of attendees that we don't cold call but if I can see that Stephanie Beninati knows XYZ builder, and that was their guest, because one of the questions I ask who invited you, then I can say beforehand, hey Stephanie, can you introduce me to XYZ builder at the event? I'd really like to meet them and maybe say something nice about me. So that's how we built relationships. It was a little staged and contrived, but also it felt at the time, very fluid and very natural. [crosstalk] one of my secrets.
Joey Giangola: Well, I mean, no complaints here from my end, but that's... I guess the question obviously that is kind of obvious is how has that handled over the last year and a half and what does that look like now as people kind of are becoming a little more comfortable with that. And I have you guys been able to get out and sort of re-introduce yourself into that sort of space again and how receptive have people been?
Stephanie Beninati: Yeah, it's funny. You should say that because actually today we are having, in a little bit, our first event outing at a park. So it's, as the Construction Resource Group, it's our first annual [inaudible] surfers picnic at the park and we're doing... And actually we ended up building out the whole second half of the year. So we're going to do all the events that we were going to do this year in the second half. Today, we're doing a picnic at the park here. We're going to do a happy hour dinner kind of thing, games, old school games like potato sack race and things like that. And then we're doing the top golf events in August. In September, we're doing Bandimere. So in Colorado, there's a race track that you can literally, you can get in your own car and just race down this and people love it. I mean, we do a car show with it.
It's just a ton of fun. September, October, we're doing a Halloween happy hour and then November is free. And then December is our big Christmas party or a big holiday party at the Wellshire that we usually get about 250 people and there's a DJ and dancing and a nice dinner. And then in between there, we sprinkle some lunch and learn some educational seminars that talk about some of the things that we're struggling with in the construction industry.
Joey Giangola: Yeah. Every agent out there is thinking, so I'm going to do this now. So question then is what are some things that you, if you obviously, we're going to go back and do it again, and what would you avoid when doing that again? Getting the right people, the right adjacent business partners in this group. I'm assuming you went through some growing pains there, figuring out the right people that you would want to bring into the circle. Do you have sort of a top three things that you would kind of look out for if you were going to be starting this from scratch again?
Stephanie Beninati: It's interesting. I don't think I would, that there's anything I would start over that I would do differently from the beginning piece of it because at the time in 2008 when we were going through that recession depression, it was... I mean, we couldn't keep people away. I mean everybody wanted to, and really the Home Builders Association at the time which we were all a part of and which we support still to this day, it's a very important organization, was not providing these kinds of services to people, these kinds of resources. So at the time, that I wouldn't change anything, however, and I hesitate saying this, but we were very strict originally on our culture and what we wanted our culture to be. I feel a little bit like we've gotten away from that. And maybe that's back when I stepped back. I don't know. But it really... You have to watch these things and really they should be able to live without you. You shouldn't have to oversee it all the time. And I maybe would have done a better job of trying to transfer it earlier to the right people.
I feel like we've gotten a little bit away from the giving piece of it and I see a little bit more like what's in it for me, which is really the complete antithesis of what this whole thing is about. So those things happen if you don't check them. We have to always be checking, not only the organizations that we're a part of or that we create, but our relationships and ourselves because it's very easy to be selfish. I think it's our nature to want to be selfish. So to check that is very hard to do.
Joey Giangola: All right Stephanie. I've got three more questions for you.
Stephanie Beninati: Three?
Joey Giangola: Three. The first one is very simply, what's one thing you hope you never forget?
Stephanie Beninati: God, there's so many things that I hope I, sorry, things I hope I forget and so many things I hope I don't forget. I won't forget. I will have to hope because I know I won't forget. Just who I was before all this. And I'll tell people so they know. I was not educated. I didn't go to college. I barely graduated high school. I was not particularly good at anything, but I really feel like insurance was something that I had a knack for and I kind of fell into it. And one of the things I'd love to do. But what I love about insurance is there's a place for everybody in this is... It's a big tent, right? So you don't have to be a brilliant, scholastic college degree kind of person.
You can be somebody who made mistakes but if you love what you do and you want to help people, which is really just about helping people, then this is an incredible business that not only can give you a really great sense of purpose, but it can also be an incredible career and financially take care of you and your family for years and years and years. And it also creates generational wealth. So for people who are born into poverty or for the disenfranchised, this business creates an opportunity for generational wealth. And that to me is really exciting. So that I won't forget, where I came from and what I was like before I found my calling, my career and having no very little ambition and not really knowing what I was going to do with my life to this. So, yeah.
Joey Giangola: All right, Stephanie. Well now on the other side of that, what's one thing you still have yet to learn?
Stephanie Beninati: Oh my gosh. So much. What I don't know is astonishing. I really am in a great place right now with my team. I'm eight years into my business. I finally have the team that, I'll be honest, that I think I deserve. I mean, I've worked really hard so I feel like I have this incredible team that is just able to kind of give me an opportunity to step back and take the business to the next level. There's just so many things to learn and so I'm starting to talk to other people who have way more insurance experience in other areas, not just construction, that are teaching me incredible things about different markets all over the country, different products or just even the products that we have, even just diving deeper into them. But business, relationships, the future is there's so much happening in the future with construction and home building. So yeah, there's so much to learn. It's constantly day in and day out an the exciting opportunity.
Joey Giangola: All right, Stephanie. Last question to you. If I were to hand you a magic wand of sorts to reshape, change, alter any part of insurance really that you see fit, what is that thing, where is it going and what's it doing?
Stephanie Beninati: Oh that is, I might get myself in trouble if I answer that question. So without sounding like bitter at all, but there's just been some really mean people in this business. There's been some really amazing people, but there's been also, there's a real kind of old school, male kind of bullying type of thing going on. I don't see it so much anymore, but when I first started out, there was a lot of, I felt and other people that I met over the years also felt that if you didn't do certain things a certain way, then you'd be ostracized. So we're all going to be trying to see where we're going to fit in the new InsureTech world. Right? And what are our positions going to be? So you better be really good at your job and you better be creating a value.
So that's what I want to see. And I think I'm starting to see that and that's what's great is that there's a whole segment of the business over here that's really making some noise and it's about being innovative and coming together and collective and working as a team and this part over here is a little scared. And so you're seeing a little bit of a conflict. I don't know if you're seeing that, but that's a little bit my 2 cents.
Joey Giangola: Stephanie, this has been fantastic. I'm going to leave it right there.
Stephanie Beninati: Okay.