How This Simple Plan Can Help You Escape Personal Lines

Joey Giangola: Mr. Jared Bellmund, how you doing today, sir?

Jared Bellmund: Doing really well. It's a beautiful day. Can't complain.

Joey Giangola: Indeed it is Jared. Indeed, it is. Jared, before we get too far into anything, I need to know this, is there anything that you have really an unnecessary fear of?

Jared Bellmund: I really don't like snakes. I mean, and I wouldn't say it's unnecessary. It's probably necessary, but I'm really afraid of snakes and I hate making phone calls. That's probably an unnecessary fear. I could probably get rid of that one, but I don't like picking up the phone.

Joey Giangola: First, one is very necessary and valid. I think you're very justified in that fear. The second is a little unfortunate given your line of work. We can maybe talk about that. But for me, Jared, it's potluck. Anytime I hear the word potluck, I think, I don't know how I feel about this and I don't really trust other people's ability to cook food unnecessarily on my part.

Jared Bellmund: I'm glad you clarified that. I was wondering if it was the preparation for a potluck or the attendance thereof.

Joey Giangola: No, 100% the attendance of, it's just I have 18 ways to eat something I don't want to. So I think it's something that probably most people get excited for. I certainly do not, and I'm terrified of it.

Jared Bellmund: For me, it's the multiple hands and same dish. I don't like the buffet style.

Joey Giangola: All associated with that entire experience. So I'm glad we're having a moment here. Well, I want to move things over to the world of insurance and maybe talking about there... You've been in the business a little bit, Jared, and you've probably seen your fair share of unnecessary fears and I'm sure you've maybe had some come your way, but is there something that, you think people maybe make something out to be more than it is and ultimately once you dive in and you realize, "Oh, maybe it's not that bad after all?"

Jared Bellmund: Yeah, I mean, so the two that come to mind are obviously mine, which is the fear of getting on a phone and maybe they tie in. So the fear of the phone for me is I just get tied up and I don't mind a casual conversation. But when you get into the insurance side of things, just saying something you don't want to say, which I think ties into the second part of having the knowledge base to have the right conversation. So we actually have a new employee here and that's really her biggest fear is contacting a client and them asking her something she doesn't have the answer for. And I guess that's really it. Even after a decade in the industry, there's still things I don't want to necessarily advise incorrectly. So there's a hesitation. It's a fear, but I don't have an issue doing it.

Jared Bellmund: I do it a lot, done it several times today, but it is a fear and it's never gone away. I still hit points where I don't know what to advise a client fully. So you wonder if they're going to corner you, which I guess for the most part they end up not cornering you with it. So I'm talking myself out of my fear here. Thanks for letting me sit on your couch. But yeah, I would say that the knowledge of getting on a phone and being able to fully advise somebody is probably the biggest fear I have.

Joey Giangola: Maybe apprehension is a more appropriate term. It's not fully like a fear potentially, but I can't imagine you run across too many clients that are holding your feet to the fire. Obviously you want to do the right thing and say the right thing all the time, but ultimately just saying, "Hey listen, I think that's this." Or I mean you've been able to navigate your way around these conversations, I would imagine.

Jared Bellmund: Without a doubt. I don't think when you actually make the phone call, it becomes a problem, it never comes to fruition. It's a created fear. I don't think it's an actual fear that comes from experience thereof. I think it's just a hesitation in my own mind.

Joey Giangola: You might have let something slip to me a little bit back in terms of a fear that I think agents maybe have making a switch to the type of business that they're selling. Most notably for you moving more into the commercial space. Was that something that you found maybe unnecessarily terrifying than what you might thought it would be?

Jared Bellmund: Most definitely, yeah. I mean the first six years of my career were heavy, heavy into personal lines. And so transitioning the last four or five years into commercial, there's just so many industries that you don't know about. We can sell a general liability policy, but who we're selling it to is where the hesitation comes from. There's just so many different industries that you want to make sure that the coverage you know in one industry translates to another. So that was always my biggest hesitation. Even a coverage that I understand how it would cover in certain ways, does it cover that industry? And that's not even getting into the specific industry coverages that are out there.

Joey Giangola: What were some of the things that you had to maybe do intentionally to maybe make that shift in business? 'Cause it's something you hear, you talk to every agent that's maybe personalized focused. 'Cause we're looking to do a little more commercial this year. Was there something that you did to maybe make that more reality, hold yourself more accountable?

Jared Bellmund: Without a doubt. So the two biggest things are reading policies. So I made it a big priority to read the jargon through a whole policy just to get a slight understanding of what's in there. One thing that comes to mind is I had a publisher that needed to make sure that they were covered in specific ways. And so I had to read through three different policies that all had different language for that coverage. And breaking that down, really it loosens up that fear. You get that understanding and you can advise a little better. I think there's still a hesitation in not knowing. And so I think that's the other part. The second part of what I've done is really look to mentors and other agents in the agency who have some experience and getting their insight and experiences that they've had. I think storytelling and the experience is a big part of what we do as agents in making our prospects and clients feel comfortable trusting us with that knowledge. And sometimes we have to garner those stories from agents that have past experience and a little more experience than we have.

Joey Giangola: They bring up an interesting point there because there somebody might be in a position where they might just be sort of, I don't want to say forced, but do the thing that you've been good at and keep doing that thing. If your name's not on the door, even if your name is on the door, you might not necessarily have the confidence in yourself to maybe make that adjustment. I guess what conversations would you maybe advise somebody to have with the people that might need to buy into this decision as well, if it's not one they can make sort of unilaterally? Is there something that stood out to you?

Jared Bellmund: I think for me it was the next evolution of a career. So the number one conversation I had in that transition was, let's let Jared be Jared. And so I have a history, I have a past, I was in the restaurant industry, and so it was, it's great that you're working with investors, and that was the next evolution of going from loan officers and real estate to the secondary market and the Airbnb and long-term rental and mobile home parks was an easy transition for me.

Jared Bellmund: But getting into something else, it was, "Hey, Jared, you can walk in a restaurant, talk the talk and hang out in a restaurant and understand their language." And so letting me be me in that situation and allowing my team to say, "We'll back you up on the insurance side, you just get us in the door and create a friend." And that translated into a lot of things because we all have experiences in life of things that we like and do. That opened the door. So that conversation was the biggest thing that helped was just let me be me and get a little more comfortable with that new product you're selling.

Joey Giangola: That had to be sort of a liberating idea for you to have, again, somebody want to say that to you and have enough confidence in you being enough to justify that path.

Jared Bellmund: Path. Yeah, I think that was exactly what did it for me is that the confidence that conversation put in me. I think any leader in an agency, finding the strengths in their people and then finding that opportunity that they can serve the agency and offer value by just being themselves instead of filling a role that maybe someone was in before them or the old industry standard of what we think producers should be, allowing us to be who we are and serve in that way.

Jared Bellmund: And we've seen it, we've seen it in multiple ways. So not to go back to a new hire, but we just hired somebody and we thought that they'd be a producer and go out and hunt. And when we really got through the interview process, it came to the point that we found that they just didn't love to hunt, that they would do it and they'd be willing to put that work in. But in the conversation we realized that maybe the client experience and onboarding correctly and handling renewals and more of a customer service would be a bigger strength. And there's value to an agency in that too. And so same conversation to give that strength is just let that person be that person.

Joey Giangola: And there there's a lot to, I guess maybe, I don't want to say admitting to your mistakes, but knowing when you know might not have your first sort of idea or inclination was maybe a little off course a little bit, being able to adjust accordingly and pivot. I wanted to go back to something real quick on the idea of you being you in the restaurant space. Again, we've heard this forever of being able to speak to the language, but I'm just going to ask you, is it everything it's cracked up to be?

Jared Bellmund: I think so. I've been in restaurants and just little things like saying, "Yes, chef," to the owner changed a whole dynamic of a relationship. The way I loaded dishes, because I was just hanging out in the back and just the way I put them up, the staff felt more comfortable around me. The owner felt more comfortable around me, calling the equipment by the right names as you walk through and look at how much equipment they have and how underinsured they most likely are, but using the industry terminology around that owner has helped me on multiple occasions. So yeah, I think there is a huge importance to it.

Joey Giangola: Well, even the behavior, I never even thought about that, of just like you said, even just as simple as picking up a dish or putting it in a dishwasher and just natural because you're back in your element sort of thing. That's probably a little next level. Did you even realize you were doing it when you did it?

Jared Bellmund: No, not at all. It was not on purpose. I wish it was so I could be like, "Oh, this is how I closed them." But no, I mean, I've walked into a restaurant and just picked up a knife and had a chef comment on that I picked up the knife correctly, which I didn't do on purpose. I didn't think about it. It's just how you pick up a knife. A chef will notice who picks up a knife correctly and who doesn't. So being an insurance agent and who can pick up a knife was important to them.

Joey Giangola: I don't know if you have an answer for this, but do you think maybe there aren't enough people in the industry looking for those opportunities of where their language or their instinctual behavior gives them an advantage?

Jared Bellmund: Most definitely. I think it's a huge misstep in our hiring process as an industry. I see it here locally. I know people that grew up on farms and they're sitting in an office in a cubicle selling GL and cyber policies, and I'm like, "Man, how are you not selling farm insurance and crop insurance and out in boots and in a pickup." There's a girl who drives a big pickup truck. I'm like, "How do you not just put her in a pickup truck and say, go meet people?" So I think it's a huge disservice to the industry.

Jared Bellmund: We can serve our clients better by knowing them better and too, the people who are working industry. I mean, I think that we know this is a great industry. We make good money. Gosh, it's one of the biggest blessings that have happened to my life in the last decade. And so to see it happen in a way where I can serve people that come from my past life, people grow up and they have experiences. And I think that is a way to create a true service to our clients where we aren't pretending to understand them, we actually do understand them.

Joey Giangola: Is there, and just in this particular example I guess that you brought up, is there maybe a reluctance to fall back into that past of wanting to try something new or be something else more than what you maybe thought you were sort of destined to be sort of thing. It's a little deep, but is there hesitancy on that person's part, do you think?

Jared Bellmund: So you would say hesitancy of me to go back into a restaurant because that's past life? Maybe.

Joey Giangola: Well, no. I mean, for example, the farm person, are they trying to sell cyber because they don't want to be on a farm anymore? Is there just a, "I'm done with that. I don't want to be that anymore." And they're just trying, I don't want to say self-sabotaging, but not giving themselves enough credit for the value that they might already have.

Jared Bellmund: Maybe. I don't know. It's a good question. I could see it. I think if that's what it is, then I think the leaders in our industry need to start having better conversations around how we can serve clients then, because I think it's, "Hey, this is a way to consistently sell and it's going to be easy, and we have the leads coming in, so run with them." I think that's more of what it is. And I can't fully speak to this individual, but I mean for me, I didn't get into restaurants because I didn't understand the coverages and I knew it from a consumer side, but the breakdown of all coverages. And so it was easier for me to sell home, auto, life, umbrella policies than it was to go in and break down a full restaurant with delivery issues and the specific coverages needed for food spoilage and liquor liability. So I think there's a hesitation to fully understand it. And so maybe we fall into what's easy and what's making us money right away.

Joey Giangola: That was going to be my last question around that idea of that the reluctance from even an agency owner's perspective to want to deal with, again, let's say you've got somebody that grew up on a farm, but you've them selling cyber policies to expand and much like a coach, you know, got to fit the scheme around the players that you have and you can say you can hire better and whatever towards the needs that you want. But do you think there's also that reluctance to allow somebody to go and be themselves even if it's an area that the agency may or may not focus on?

Jared Bellmund: I think without a doubt, I would agree with that. I think that there's a culture of this is a way to make money and it's worked for us for so long, and it's immediate. We can run PPC ads and local marketing and around this product type and we know we'll get a volume of sales immediately where switching into a niche, it's not immediate. It takes work. It takes a lot of effort.

Jared Bellmund: What I found is the first few wins are going to be your not-best market. And so you're going to play in that field where one of my first was 120-year-old building that he's like, "Don't worry about a $5,000 deductible because I'll pay for anything less than that anyway." And he's got tarps over things that he is fixing. But it was a way in, but it probably wasn't the ideal avatar of the client we want. But that relationship has borne fruit of other relationships and trust there that has grown that niche. So yeah, I think the immediacy is too prioritized when it comes to sales. I think the industry's value is really in that more serious advising than pedaling policies. So yes, I think we're missing that.

Joey Giangola: Could you give me, if you had to, with an agent that is maybe sitting there staring at five or six home and auto quotes that they've got to do today, and if you could provide them with an abbreviated roadmap to maybe a different line of business to maybe get into commercial to have that conversation that they're not having, to leverage past experiences, how would you order things and what would you be telling them to do if they were so inclined?

Jared Bellmund: Yeah, so for me it was block scheduling really helped me. So I would knock out my afternoon and my morning with quotes, proposals, current pipeline that's coming through and auditing that and pushing that through. And then I take my midday and I'd go out and talk to people. Fastest thing that worked with me was going to an industry peer that I had and said, "Listen, you own two restaurants. I don't want to write your business, but I want to look at your insurance. I want to ask you what your needs are, what you really think of insurance." And we know how those conversations go, "I just want to pay and I don't want to..." And so I started breaking down. I'm like, "Well, you have this liquor reliability. What does this mean?" And they know or they don't. And then I can almost garner knowledge from their lack of knowledge.

Jared Bellmund: We know that most consumers don't understand their policies in full, even if they have a great advisor right now. And so there's a trust that you have to earn to, you're saying, "Hey, I'm providing this for you, trust me that you need it." But I probably sat down three or four times with that individual and looked at all their policies and just talked about what they have and what they did and why they had it and what they had been advised in the past. And to this day, I still don't have those policies and didn't write that business. And I'm okay with that because the amount of knowledge I garnered from that relationship was well worth that time spent over two or three lunches at their place. So that's really what I would tell somebody is to find someone that from that past industry and sit down with them and say, "Hey, I'm looking at this from a different view. So let's talk about it in that spectrum."

Joey Giangola: All right, Jared, I got three more questions for you, sir. And the first one is simply, what's one thing you hope you never forget?

Jared Bellmund: I hope I... So there's two, and I probably should say three. So the feeling when my son was born, the memory of that day has changed over the last eight years, but that first feeling, like that first cry that you hear, I hope I never forget that.

Joey Giangola: Now on the other side of that, what's one thing you still have yet to learn?

Jared Bellmund: That's a good one. One thing I've to ask for help before it's a problem.

Joey Giangola: All right, Jared, last question to you, sir. If I were to hand you a magic wand of sorts to reshape, change, alter, speed up, really any part of insurance, what's that thing? Where is it going and what's it doing?

Jared Bellmund: Magic wand. Youthful agents that are engaged for the long run. I'd love to see more 20- and 30-year-olds getting into the industry from the agency side, actually in the community selling policies, taking care of clients. I think we're seeing a lot of youthful engagement from a larger carrier insurtech side. But I'd love to see them in the communities, local, boots on the ground, taking care of their communities. I think that's a strong history of our industry that has done a lot of good throughout the world, and I'd love for that to continue. So yeah, that's what I would use my magic wand.

Joey Giangola: Jared, this has been fantastic. So I'm gonna leave it right there.

Jared Bellmund: Thanks Joey. Always a pleasure.