January 31, 2025 • 27 mins
In this episode of the Leap to Success Podcast, Mary Gaul chats with Stephanie Schaffroth, a pioneering force in the insurance industry. Stephanie shares her journey from culinary school to becoming the first female district manager at Farmers Insurance. She discusses overcoming challenges, including imposter syndrome, and offers strategies for client retention and motivation. Stephanie also provides valuable insurance tips for handling natural disasters. Her advice on career transitions and building a supportive network is essential for aspiring entrepreneurs. Tune in to hear Stephanie's inspiring story of resilience and determination.
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(00:02):
Hello, everyone, and welcome to this edition,number five, I believe, of the podcast Leap for
Success.
So we're so excited to have you here and haveour guest today.
But as you know, the Leap for Success podcastis the conduit by which we share women's
stories of courage, bravery, success,diversity.
(00:23):
Each week we interview women entrepreneurs andleaders that have taken a leap in their lives
to inspire our global listeners to be more,have more, and show up more, and live a life
filled with joy and happiness through believingin yourself.
So with that we're going to jump right intotoday's guest.
I'm so excited to welcome Stephanie Schaffroth,and she is based in Warm I Am based in cold
(00:48):
Colorado today, but, we're going to have agreat conversation.
I just know it.
So, Stephanie, thanks for being on the podcasttoday.
Thanks for having me.
Tell our listeners, we have listeners all overthe world and they may be listening this week
or next week whenever this is published or theymay be six months from now.
(01:08):
Tell us about Stephanie and what makesStephanie so awesome.
Alright, thank you.
I am a native of Arizona.
I was born and raised here.
My whole family is from Nebraska.
I have an identical twin sister and it's justDee and I.
And I'm a Farmers Insurance Agency owner andfunny enough she's a Farmers Insurance Agency
(01:28):
owner.
Oh really?
Totally, have two separate agencies, but welook alike, sound alike and share our staff.
So everyone thinks we're all one big team,which is the way we want it.
So it's pretty cool.
I've been with Farmers March of twenty five,will be twenty one years, which is really neat.
And I've seen the changes and the hills and thevalleys.
(01:49):
What I really like about the job is that I helppeople.
That's really my favorite component of the jobbecause this stuff could be tough.
So I like to help as much as I can before aclaim and then certainly kind of ride along
with them after a claim to make sure thatthey're okay.
And I also like selling stuff required by law.
So there's that.
(02:09):
Nice, nice.
That I'm most like, you know, this Americaanswers.
It's also required by law.
Right?
That's great.
I love it.
I love it.
We can do things that are required by law andwe enjoy them too.
Right?
Nothing saying we can't do both.
So awesome.
Well, did you come to do this?
(02:31):
You've been doing this a long time, right?
A couple decades.
But how you end up doing this?
I love that you're a twin sister and your twinsister also is a farmer's and runs her agency.
That's so cool.
Yeah.
So I don't even know about insurance.
I knew I had insurance and I knew I had fullcoverage and my windshield was okay.
But other than that, I didn't know what I wasdoing.
(02:51):
And I had been, I started at the La Corda BleuCulinary school on the sales or admission team.
And then I had a chance to go to corporate.
I did that for a total of five years and I ateand talked and it was, oh, the dream job.
Yes.
It was literally the best role I've ever had.
Now I eat and talk and I just pay the rent.
(03:12):
That has not left me whatsoever, by the way.
When you sell education, you sell intangibleand you help people.
It's really all education is like, man, thetraditional culinary student is not the one
who's thriving in the English lit class, right?
Sometimes they are, but a lot of times theythink with their hands, work with, you know,
it's just different.
So it's trying to find the right program withthe right student and put those systems in
(03:36):
place to have them do them.
And I had a job where I would travel 100% oftime, all over the country, having the thing
and then they said, well, we were out of a job.
I'm like, what?
And I either could move to, because my positionat the time was a regional, so my options were
either move to Chicago, which coming fromArizona did not sound that good, or I was out
of a job and I'm like what?
Because I always worked hard, always made mynumbers, dragged all that noise.
(03:59):
And it made me very nervous because if I couldinvest this much time into a company who would
flip of a switch could say, you're out of lucklady.
It's not like if I did a bad job, could takeownership of that, but it wasn't that component
just to lay off and or read or org, I guess isa.
And so I knew I had to own something becausethat, I'm a planner and I'm a doer and I did
(04:20):
not want to do it, but I didn't know what toown.
Long story short, I just fell in and I gotinsurance.
I'm like, that's intangible and that you helppeople with that.
And so I started and I was proud to come on toFarmers as the first female district manager in
the history of the company, ninety years.
Congratulations.
(04:41):
I the youngest, I was the only lady and I lookaround, aren't any other girls doing?
I don't know, I still don't know.
It was so awesome.
And it was here in Scottsdale, so I did thatfor nine years in total.
And as a Farmers District Manager, you are aten ninety nine independent contractors, just
your own little baby.
And then you have agency owners like myself nowwho I just help do their thing.
(05:03):
And I also help recruit and train new agents tobecome successful agency owners.
And so I did that and I liked it.
When I had the district manager in 'eight, Ibrought my sister one and so she built her
agency from scratch.
And then she loved the job.
District manager, I liked it, didn't love it.
Because it was more corporate, I mean, stillowned it, I liked that part.
And then I know she kept saying, oh, I love it,I love it.
(05:25):
I'm like, it's neat.
Wouldn't you instead of beat them, join them.
In '13, I was able to buy an agency, which isthe first time they ever allowed that
opportunity instead of building it And nokidding, since '13, there's not a day I don't
love.
It's so crazy.
I literally, I mean you have frustrating pointsand conversations and all that noise, but it
(05:47):
doesn't last more than a day.
And I come in, I'm like, well, help this freshday, here we go.
And it's so neat.
I really am thankful for it.
Good, good.
I love that.
And thank you for taking all those leaps,right?
Because you were the first in many ways in thatindustry, right?
In your area, So congratulations on takingthose leaps because that's how we get to be in
(06:13):
a job that we love or a business that we love.
Especially as women entrepreneurs, we have totake that leap from the most of us have had
some kind of a W-two or a contract, even asales job or something like that.
That is a little bit more corporate.
That's out of our control.
And then we have to go and say, I want morecontrol and let me jump in here.
(06:34):
Right?
And it takes a lot of bravery and courage.
It doesn't seem like at the time that's theoption I'm going to choose.
Right?
But there is bravery in that, in taking thoseleaps.
So thank you for taking all those leaps becauseit's lot of people you've been able to affect.
It's amazing.
Yeah.
And I think that that's what's so interestingbecause just more competitive wise, I didn't
(06:55):
know I was only female, first female at thetime of obviously, but when I did, I'm like,
oh, I'm so glad I was, but you know, but mycompetition is very easy.
Like, you know, someone I think in the leadcommunity, stole, you know, from a turns from a
collaboration, like, instead of me saying, Ohman, I'm the only one here, help cool.
I'm like, It's not bad, the water's fine, comeon in and try and get more.
(07:16):
I think that that's really where my heart is,is to get more women successful in whatever
their vibe is.
Because once someone does it, they're like, Oh,she can do it.
I can do it.
And I'm like, don't have the secret sauce.
And I've tried to do that.
And then I think that this community reallyallows for people to be a little vulnerable
(07:38):
saying, Hey, I don't know.
And everyone shares ideas.
And a gal from another state who in a totallydifferent industry might give you that idea or
a power phrase that really transforms how youdo what you do every day and makes a
difference.
Yes, yes.
I love that.
I love that.
I'm a big believer in community and sharingideas.
I use this quote, it's by Woodrow Wilson,President Woodrow Wilson all the time.
(08:01):
The quote is, I use all the brains that I haveand all that I can borrow.
Cause I love that.
I love
that.
That.
I
Ours are limited data holders.
There's a lot to get stored in there, but weneed other people's ideas.
I love that too.
It is important for women to see other examplesof successful women and to have that idea of,
(08:27):
Oh, if she can do it, I can do it.
But it takes somebody doing it first to makethat example.
So thank you for jumping in the water and theninviting everybody else in.
Think
that's so When you look at the differentmediums or platforms, like for example, I have
a 13 year old who plays basketball.
In no way, shape or form does he nor I think hewill ever go to NFL.
(08:48):
But if I used to be in the NFL and I have akid, why wouldn't that kid go?
Because that's So, you know, what these, youknow, you know, Zooms and these conversations
do is to create a new normal because it's nolonger my dad or mom did it.
It's this lady did it.
I don't know her, but I know she's I can do it.
And so it's really cool.
So it helps make more tangible the next step,whatever that is for someone.
(09:14):
Yes.
Yes.
So how do you deal with and maybe you don'thave this anymore because you're so
established, right?
But I think all of us have it.
Some kind of it's got different labels, butmaybe it's that impostor syndrome, or maybe
it's a little doubt or fear in your business.
Like, am I really good?
(09:34):
Like if you're getting ready to scale up orhire another employee or bring on somebody else
or tackle a new project.
How do you deal with those kind of insecuritiesin your business as a business owner?
Sure, I think everyone has them.
I mean, I think it's to acknowledge, but thenlock down your own thoughts very, very quickly
if they're not positive.
(09:55):
You know, because especially when you're on theisland, if you will, in the entrepreneurial
world, there's no one looking over here saying,hey Stephanie, you got this.
You know, you've been here before, you're goingto be okay.
You don't have that.
And so you really have to be that referee ofyour own thoughts.
I think that get my, man, was just, no kidding,I had a really big account.
(10:18):
I lost, understandably insurance, you know,bananas right now and it happens and had
nothing to do with me even if it did, there wasnothing I could do about it.
And I was bummed and what happened was is Inoticed that felt, that feeling, I was like,
you know, this is gonna change the dial forthis month, is started to wear on me.
And then a couple hours in, it impacted my, youknow, calls I had.
(10:40):
I'm like, what am I doing?
I'm gonna let yesterday's loss, you know,flatten the rest of my day, if not week, if I
don't get this locked in.
And so I took a deep breath, I took a littlewalk and I'm like, you know, every call or
every conversation is a chance to start fresh.
And so that's kind of my mentality, but I thinkit's the physical walk.
I think it's like the ten minute time outsaying, get your act together.
(11:04):
And you have to do that for yourself because noone else is going to do it for you.
Exactly.
I love that.
That's such great advice, Stephanie.
And I'm glad that you caught it becausesometimes we don't even realize how we're kind
of spinning negatively and it doesn't start toaffect every way we show up and the energy we
bring to the calls or the meetings or whateverit is.
(11:25):
Then a week can go by and we're just like, Ugh,I don't want to do this anymore.
That's when people are like, I just want to gowork at Walmart or I want to go be a Starbucks
Which those are very stressful jobs.
Would not
would not do well, but they are stressful.
And I think know, especially coming from acorporate kind of something, you always had
(11:46):
someone in your corner, peer to peer even tohelp shake it out and say, hey buddy, don't
worry.
But if you're just yourself or you go home toyour family, they don't know and they don't
understand job.
It's our job, just like our job is to open thedoor to paint the lights.
It's our job to take ourselves out.
If you start treating yourself as an employeein that way, hey, a lot should be fussy for a
(12:06):
little bit, and then you move on.
It really helps compartmentalize the down.
Yes, yes.
And I think there is great value as well insomething you said about it was kind of out of
your control, right?
Especially when people are price shopping andthey're going to switch carriers or they want
something different or who knows why.
But if you've done everything you can toprovide the service that you said you were
(12:29):
going to provide and that person chooses toleave then you have to be able to live with
that and know that you did everything you couldand be say, bless and release.
Just bless and release them.
If they come back eventually, that's great.
If they don't, that's great too.
They found something that works better for themin the moment.
But we can really beat ourselves up about thatsometimes.
(12:52):
So how did you get to that point where you havethat ability to just not take it personally?
Because I'm sure you have clients that havebeen with you a long, long time, And if they
leave, then it's hard not to take itpersonally.
Yeah.
No.
I've now I'm to the thing I only takecompliments personally.
That's it.
Oh, good.
Nice.
Reference I can love it.
(13:14):
You think I looked in?
I'm remembering that.
You think I'm pretty?
I'm putting it in my pocket.
Yeah.
You're right.
That's right.
But
nothing else is about me.
Not one thing.
Not the price, not the service, not anything.
I could have done the best service and theyjust had a horrible day.
And so they received my information with thatsame vibe and it has nothing to do with me.
(13:37):
So nothing else anyone decides or does hasanything to do with me.
I just have to do my best job.
And if they say it's great, then I'm moreremembered.
And if not, I'll just say, okay.
Especially for as tumultuous as insuranceindustry has been over the last six years more
than the last twenty one, five years for sureit's been a real coaster.
(13:57):
I've really had to own them.
You know what I mean?
Because I have had people for with me a longtime and they're like, don't wanna leave.
I'm like, hey lady, I get it.
When things change, come back.
And I think if you start treating people as youwanna have received that information, like a
hairstyles.
You don't wanna want to break up the hairstylesbecause we go to Rex when you don't like them,
you want to go pick it.
But now they've already known you've gone withsomeone else and it's all weird.
(14:18):
So my motto is eliminate the weird.
Say, get back when you want and we'll try nexttime.
It's just nothing personal.
Nice, nice.
That takes it takes a certain confidence toRight?
Right?
Because especially if you're a newer businessperson or you are really hanging on to every
(14:39):
client you have.
I always tell people that too.
If you're hanging on like this, then you can'treceive anything because your hands are not
open.
They're grass.
That's a good way to do it.
Yeah.
So you have to let people go if they're goingto let go and never burn a bridge because the
business world is so small.
Never burn a bridge if you don't have to.
Totally.
(14:59):
We are all related to Kevin Bacon.
I still believe that in my heart.
Yes,
I love it.
That
dude is just universal.
I am not gonna rock a bridge because someonegot fussy or wanted to save money or just like
doing it all together for him.
It's fine.
Right.
It just keeps you motivated so, you I thinkwe're, when I was district manager and I was
(15:20):
helping my new agents, I'm like, I love thatanalogy too, right?
Because if you're just so focused on one,you're not going to be doing what you need to
do when the worst thing on a sale is now you'velost your best lead, right?
So now you're like, that's not a bad thing,it's great, but now who's the rest?
So I think that I like that visual because it's
(15:41):
100% true.
Especially when you're just starting or thingsare a little tight, you're like, I can't lose a
single client.
I got to keep them no matter what.
And then that energy also travels into yourtransactions with them too.
Yes, it does.
I picked up this next question on my questionlist here is one that I can easily pick up.
(16:05):
What calls you forward into doing the hard andamazing things that you get to do in your work.
I know that obviously you love to help peopleand solve problems for people because that's
come through in just the way your history ofyour work, especially as a district manager
when you're really helping people set up theirown business and help them create the freedom
and the money that they want to have and thelifestyle they want to have based on these
(16:29):
services that you can help them build.
So what does Stephanie do to call yourselfforward into kind of hard or amazing things
that you're working on?
Really good questions.
I think for me, I'm very sensitive to the paceof the leader is the pace of the pack.
(16:49):
And that reflects in my attitude.
And even if you're a team of one so far, it'salso your subconscious in terms of like, you
got to keep your eyes focused.
So I'm very sensitive to how my mood is at theoffice.
I'm normally pretty level seven anyway atleast.
I'm very sensitive because if I come in or Icome in grouchy, I had a team of cows who it'll
(17:13):
just rocket.
So I don't allow it.
I don't allow myself to have it.
And my mantra is I get paid to do hard things.
And that's what I do.
And then I can do them.
And if I don't know how to do them, I'm gonnafind out how, but I get paid.
That's my job.
They give me money to do this.
I can do it.
That's just kind of what I say to myself whenthings get too hard.
(17:33):
I'm like, they're paying me to figure this out.
I can figure it out.
Know, even if I have to rely on someone else.
It's not, you know, I can do Everything
is solvable, right?
And
everything's fixable.
That's our motto around here because sometimesdon't mess big as long as I do, don't mess up
as much, but when I do, they're huge mistakes.
(17:55):
They're absolutely enormous mistakes.
But everything's flexible.
You just get creative and move on.
It happens, that's for sure.
Yes, yes.
And so it's January of twenty twenty five.
And for those people watching, whenever they'rewatching this, there's just been all of the
(18:16):
horrific wildfires in California, and people'shomes are just decimated, and some people
didn't have insurance or were dropped by theirinsurance.
So what kind of advice do you have for peoplejust to kind of it's a good reminder for us,
even if you don't live in California or a firearea or floods or hurricanes or whatever is
happening with the weather, what kind of thingsshould we be checking out on our homeowners
(18:37):
policy just to make sure that we are coveredthe way we should be covered?
Great question.
And I think just the devastation is so sad.
That's actually one of my sister and ours,we're doing our own little California wildfire
relief.
We're taking donations here in our office.
We have like 20 bags of the yard we're gonnagive.
We've done money to Red Cross and we areencouraging others to do it.
(19:01):
But what that horrific site has done ishopefully made what could happen, knock on
wood, to you any given moment, so you gotta beready.
So I appreciate the question.
So the first thing is even if you rent a home,even if you rent an apartment that you don't
have to own, you got to have renters orhomeowners insurance.
You have to call the agent.
And the bummer is so many carriers don't haveagents anymore so you have to at least talk to
(19:25):
someone.
Because a couple of things you want to makesure is you want to make sure you know where
your deductible is.
Not that the higher the deductible, the lowerthe cost.
So that's a good thing.
But you've got to make sure you have coveragefor all types of loss.
So when you get to the smaller companies, theone off companies that are not mainstream, they
might not cover you for all types of loss,whether it's fire, theft, wind, water, blah,
(19:49):
blah, blah.
And sometimes you have to get two, like inCalifornia, you gotta get two policies to do
it.
And then you wanna make sure, as we justinstructed a lot of these people yesterday on
our video we do, you wanna do an inventory ofyour home.
You go through your own home with a camera,video your room, house room by room, open up
(20:09):
cupboards and cabinets, take your back of yourTV and get the serial number because all I know
is my TV is this big and I don't know anythingelse about it.
I don't know.
And then email it to yourself because at thetime of loss, I think it's six months for the
most carrier that you're gonna remember.
You'll remember the big stuff.
You know, I had this couch, had this TV.
You're not gonna remember the bracelet, theearrings, the paintings, the photo album.
(20:34):
You know, mushy stuff is hard and tangible, butthe other stuff adds up.
So you want to do as best as you can to getyourself the documentation and email it to
yourself so it's not at the home.
You want copies of your important documentsoff-site, whether it's at a family member's
house or a bank or your own office somewhere.
(20:54):
So, you know, the passports, the birthcertificates, the stuff that's hard to
replicate, have copies of off-site.
Think that that's what we've, know, we havetotal fires here on a weekly basis in Arizona.
It's just mass devastation that got everyone'sattention, but it doesn't mean that the
neighbor down the street didn't have, you know,something horrible happen.
Right.
So as community, as consumer, want to do yourbest with today's information to do what you
(21:19):
can today.
Yes.
Good.
Good.
Yeah.
The whole fires in California did spark us tothink about what are we going to grab in our
house?
If we have thirty minutes to evacuate ourhouse, what would we grab?
We have all of our important documents in afirebox.
Right?
So we grab the firebox because that's whereeverything is and it's portable.
(21:40):
Yes.
We can grab that.
But it's like looking around between ouroffice, grab the laptops, grab your phone, and
then what else?
How do you prioritize that stuff?
Right?
So is
it easily accessible to to pack up if you gotthirty minutes or whatever.
Right?
So I love doing the home inventory as wellbecause if everything is gone, you don't know
(22:03):
exactly what was in your house.
You've lived in your house as long as we'velived in our house twenty eight years, so
there's a lot of stuff in our house.
A %.
Well, I think the big thing is especially intwenty eight years, you've got something really
cool and valuable that you might or should puton your insurance policy, but a lot of people
are like, I can't wait to tell my insuranceagent about this.
(22:24):
You just don't.
You're like, oh, this is so cool.
I got a fancy necklace and you move on.
I think that that like, you had talked aboutbefore maybe an annual yearbook, but an annual
inventory is really important because the smallstuff adds up.
Financially, you know, most insurancecompanies, you want a replacement cost policy,
which means they'll give you money, but theywon't give you all of it.
(22:45):
They'll give you some sort of money.
Then you go replace it, turn in your receipts,and then you're made whole.
But you can't even get to that point if youdon't know what you have.
Okay.
Okay.
That's good.
So yeah, is that something important?
We just did a Thrive Thursday Masterclass withthe LEAP community and it was a bookkeeper
talking about your receipts and now the IRSdoes accept scanned receipts so you don't need
(23:06):
to keep piles of receipts anymore once you scanthem, which is a good tip to know.
It is a good tip.
But do you need to show receipts?
Do you need to be saving those somewhere thatyou can access them?
Do you scan a receipt with your home inventory?
I think that's an excellent idea because wealways say keep your receipts for the juicy big
stuff.
You know what I mean?
(23:26):
Not the poster I got at Kohl's.
You have six phones at any carrier, any state,the burden of proof is on the person.
So you have to be able to prove you had thegolf clubs.
You had to be able to prove you had the skiingstuff, whatever.
(23:46):
Okay.
And whether it's your pictures or receipts arealways the best one.
So mostly the good stuff.
Just have a folder on your email, householdreceipts, it takes you two seconds.
Take a picture, send it off, and you don't haveto worry about it.
Perfect.
Perfect.
Great advice.
Great advice.
Okay.
Kind of those are great great tips.
(24:07):
What other kind of advice would you give tosomebody if they're getting ready to take a
leap, especially in their career or maybestarting a business or or switching careers,
switching to a a what kind of advice do youhave for somebody taking that leap?
Two fold.
One is my insurance hat.
You are never too new or too baseline toprotect yourself.
(24:29):
Because what happens as a small businesssolopreneur, I quit my corporate job, I'm doing
the side hustle, I don't need insurance.
There's very few cases where you don't needinsurance.
Hardly any that I can think of.
One customer thing goes sideways, they sue you,you have no insurance, you have no coverage.
And then goes all your assets, your time, andthen the business that you just were so excited
(24:52):
to start just goes away.
In replace of an insurance policy, there'sdifferent flavors for different businesses.
And I can always, wherever you live, I don'tsell in all states, I'm always happy to
brainstorm wherever you live.
It's not very expensive of how to protect you.
So that's my thing.
You're never too new to be safe.
Same thing is you're never, if you buy your newcar, the first day something bad can happen if
(25:14):
you had it for twenty years.
So just get covered the first one.
And then the second one is I would alwaysrecommend find a buddy or a partner, doesn't
necessarily be in your industry that you canbrainstorm with.
Even more from a mindset perspective becauseyou know, they always say the tribe, you know,
I don't have too many female agency owners thatI can brainstorm with, but I have a whole lot
(25:36):
of females that I like to keep my mind incheck.
And that's the most important thing we have toprotect is our mindset.
So it's someone to laugh with.
A little venting is okay, but just celebratewins even.
And I think Mary, the community you're buildingin that you have does that really well.
But I think that that's incredibly important toprotect amongst us through the power of others.
Yes.
(25:57):
Great advice.
Great advice.
So thank you again, Stephanie, for being on theLeap to Success podcast and being a Leap for
Ladies member, community member.
We're just so happy to have wonderful, amazingwomen like Stephanie in the community.
So if it's something that you're looking into,if you're listening to this and you're like I
want to know more about LEAP for Ladies, I'vegot to get around more people like this, then
(26:19):
you can go to the website successmagnified.comjoin leap and you'll get all the information
about how to join the community.
And then you can be on the podcast too.
And we will post all of Stephanie's informationin the show notes so you have all the ways to
get in touch with Stephanie via email, yourphone number, your address.
(26:39):
I don't think we've put your address in there,but she's in Arizona just so you know.
We will put
you here.
I have snacks and drinks here, so it's fine.
Yes, nice, nice.
Yeah, it'd be fun to go and hang out withStephanie.
So we'll put all of your contact information inshow notes so no matter where somebody's
listening they'll be able to see that and getin touch with you.
So again if you are in Arizona or just havesome general insurance questions and want to
(27:02):
talk to somebody, Stephanie is your gal, sogive her a call.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I appreciate the chance.
You're very welcome.
Have a great afternoon.
Okay.
Bye.
Bye.
Hello, everyone, and welcome to this edition,number five, I believe, of the podcast Leap for
Success.
So we're so excited to have you here and haveour guest today.
But as you know, the Leap for Success podcastis the conduit by which we share women's
stories of courage, bravery, success,diversity.
(00:23):
Each week we interview women entrepreneurs andleaders that have taken a leap in their lives
to inspire our global listeners to be more,have more, and show up more, and live a life
filled with joy and happiness through believingin yourself.
So with that we're going to jump right intotoday's guest.
I'm so excited to welcome Stephanie Schaffroth,and she is based in Warm I Am based in cold
(00:48):
Colorado today, but, we're going to have agreat conversation.
I just know it.
So, Stephanie, thanks for being on the podcasttoday.
Thanks for having me.
Tell our listeners, we have listeners all overthe world and they may be listening this week
or next week whenever this is published or theymay be six months from now.
(01:08):
Tell us about Stephanie and what makesStephanie so awesome.
Alright, thank you.
I am a native of Arizona.
I was born and raised here.
My whole family is from Nebraska.
I have an identical twin sister and it's justDee and I.
And I'm a Farmers Insurance Agency owner andfunny enough she's a Farmers Insurance Agency
(01:28):
owner.
Oh really?
Totally, have two separate agencies, but welook alike, sound alike and share our staff.
So everyone thinks we're all one big team,which is the way we want it.
So it's pretty cool.
I've been with Farmers March of twenty five,will be twenty one years, which is really neat.
And I've seen the changes and the hills and thevalleys.
(01:49):
What I really like about the job is that I helppeople.
That's really my favorite component of the jobbecause this stuff could be tough.
So I like to help as much as I can before aclaim and then certainly kind of ride along
with them after a claim to make sure thatthey're okay.
And I also like selling stuff required by law.
So there's that.
(02:09):
Nice, nice.
That I'm most like, you know, this Americaanswers.
It's also required by law.
Right?
That's great.
I love it.
I love it.
We can do things that are required by law andwe enjoy them too.
Right?
Nothing saying we can't do both.
So awesome.
Well, did you come to do this?
(02:31):
You've been doing this a long time, right?
A couple decades.
But how you end up doing this?
I love that you're a twin sister and your twinsister also is a farmer's and runs her agency.
That's so cool.
Yeah.
So I don't even know about insurance.
I knew I had insurance and I knew I had fullcoverage and my windshield was okay.
But other than that, I didn't know what I wasdoing.
(02:51):
And I had been, I started at the La Corda BleuCulinary school on the sales or admission team.
And then I had a chance to go to corporate.
I did that for a total of five years and I ateand talked and it was, oh, the dream job.
Yes.
It was literally the best role I've ever had.
Now I eat and talk and I just pay the rent.
(03:12):
That has not left me whatsoever, by the way.
When you sell education, you sell intangibleand you help people.
It's really all education is like, man, thetraditional culinary student is not the one
who's thriving in the English lit class, right?
Sometimes they are, but a lot of times theythink with their hands, work with, you know,
it's just different.
So it's trying to find the right program withthe right student and put those systems in
(03:36):
place to have them do them.
And I had a job where I would travel 100% oftime, all over the country, having the thing
and then they said, well, we were out of a job.
I'm like, what?
And I either could move to, because my positionat the time was a regional, so my options were
either move to Chicago, which coming fromArizona did not sound that good, or I was out
of a job and I'm like what?
Because I always worked hard, always made mynumbers, dragged all that noise.
(03:59):
And it made me very nervous because if I couldinvest this much time into a company who would
flip of a switch could say, you're out of lucklady.
It's not like if I did a bad job, could takeownership of that, but it wasn't that component
just to lay off and or read or org, I guess isa.
And so I knew I had to own something becausethat, I'm a planner and I'm a doer and I did
(04:20):
not want to do it, but I didn't know what toown.
Long story short, I just fell in and I gotinsurance.
I'm like, that's intangible and that you helppeople with that.
And so I started and I was proud to come on toFarmers as the first female district manager in
the history of the company, ninety years.
Congratulations.
(04:41):
I the youngest, I was the only lady and I lookaround, aren't any other girls doing?
I don't know, I still don't know.
It was so awesome.
And it was here in Scottsdale, so I did thatfor nine years in total.
And as a Farmers District Manager, you are aten ninety nine independent contractors, just
your own little baby.
And then you have agency owners like myself nowwho I just help do their thing.
(05:03):
And I also help recruit and train new agents tobecome successful agency owners.
And so I did that and I liked it.
When I had the district manager in 'eight, Ibrought my sister one and so she built her
agency from scratch.
And then she loved the job.
District manager, I liked it, didn't love it.
Because it was more corporate, I mean, stillowned it, I liked that part.
And then I know she kept saying, oh, I love it,I love it.
(05:25):
I'm like, it's neat.
Wouldn't you instead of beat them, join them.
In '13, I was able to buy an agency, which isthe first time they ever allowed that
opportunity instead of building it And nokidding, since '13, there's not a day I don't
love.
It's so crazy.
I literally, I mean you have frustrating pointsand conversations and all that noise, but it
(05:47):
doesn't last more than a day.
And I come in, I'm like, well, help this freshday, here we go.
And it's so neat.
I really am thankful for it.
Good, good.
I love that.
And thank you for taking all those leaps,right?
Because you were the first in many ways in thatindustry, right?
In your area, So congratulations on takingthose leaps because that's how we get to be in
(06:13):
a job that we love or a business that we love.
Especially as women entrepreneurs, we have totake that leap from the most of us have had
some kind of a W-two or a contract, even asales job or something like that.
That is a little bit more corporate.
That's out of our control.
And then we have to go and say, I want morecontrol and let me jump in here.
(06:34):
Right?
And it takes a lot of bravery and courage.
It doesn't seem like at the time that's theoption I'm going to choose.
Right?
But there is bravery in that, in taking thoseleaps.
So thank you for taking all those leaps becauseit's lot of people you've been able to affect.
It's amazing.
Yeah.
And I think that that's what's so interestingbecause just more competitive wise, I didn't
(06:55):
know I was only female, first female at thetime of obviously, but when I did, I'm like,
oh, I'm so glad I was, but you know, but mycompetition is very easy.
Like, you know, someone I think in the leadcommunity, stole, you know, from a turns from a
collaboration, like, instead of me saying, Ohman, I'm the only one here, help cool.
I'm like, It's not bad, the water's fine, comeon in and try and get more.
(07:16):
I think that that's really where my heart is,is to get more women successful in whatever
their vibe is.
Because once someone does it, they're like, Oh,she can do it.
I can do it.
And I'm like, don't have the secret sauce.
And I've tried to do that.
And then I think that this community reallyallows for people to be a little vulnerable
(07:38):
saying, Hey, I don't know.
And everyone shares ideas.
And a gal from another state who in a totallydifferent industry might give you that idea or
a power phrase that really transforms how youdo what you do every day and makes a
difference.
Yes, yes.
I love that.
I love that.
I'm a big believer in community and sharingideas.
I use this quote, it's by Woodrow Wilson,President Woodrow Wilson all the time.
(08:01):
The quote is, I use all the brains that I haveand all that I can borrow.
Cause I love that.
I love
that.
That.
I
Ours are limited data holders.
There's a lot to get stored in there, but weneed other people's ideas.
I love that too.
It is important for women to see other examplesof successful women and to have that idea of,
(08:27):
Oh, if she can do it, I can do it.
But it takes somebody doing it first to makethat example.
So thank you for jumping in the water and theninviting everybody else in.
Think
that's so When you look at the differentmediums or platforms, like for example, I have
a 13 year old who plays basketball.
In no way, shape or form does he nor I think hewill ever go to NFL.
(08:48):
But if I used to be in the NFL and I have akid, why wouldn't that kid go?
Because that's So, you know, what these, youknow, you know, Zooms and these conversations
do is to create a new normal because it's nolonger my dad or mom did it.
It's this lady did it.
I don't know her, but I know she's I can do it.
And so it's really cool.
So it helps make more tangible the next step,whatever that is for someone.
(09:14):
Yes.
Yes.
So how do you deal with and maybe you don'thave this anymore because you're so
established, right?
But I think all of us have it.
Some kind of it's got different labels, butmaybe it's that impostor syndrome, or maybe
it's a little doubt or fear in your business.
Like, am I really good?
(09:34):
Like if you're getting ready to scale up orhire another employee or bring on somebody else
or tackle a new project.
How do you deal with those kind of insecuritiesin your business as a business owner?
Sure, I think everyone has them.
I mean, I think it's to acknowledge, but thenlock down your own thoughts very, very quickly
if they're not positive.
(09:55):
You know, because especially when you're on theisland, if you will, in the entrepreneurial
world, there's no one looking over here saying,hey Stephanie, you got this.
You know, you've been here before, you're goingto be okay.
You don't have that.
And so you really have to be that referee ofyour own thoughts.
I think that get my, man, was just, no kidding,I had a really big account.
(10:18):
I lost, understandably insurance, you know,bananas right now and it happens and had
nothing to do with me even if it did, there wasnothing I could do about it.
And I was bummed and what happened was is Inoticed that felt, that feeling, I was like,
you know, this is gonna change the dial forthis month, is started to wear on me.
And then a couple hours in, it impacted my, youknow, calls I had.
(10:40):
I'm like, what am I doing?
I'm gonna let yesterday's loss, you know,flatten the rest of my day, if not week, if I
don't get this locked in.
And so I took a deep breath, I took a littlewalk and I'm like, you know, every call or
every conversation is a chance to start fresh.
And so that's kind of my mentality, but I thinkit's the physical walk.
I think it's like the ten minute time outsaying, get your act together.
(11:04):
And you have to do that for yourself because noone else is going to do it for you.
Exactly.
I love that.
That's such great advice, Stephanie.
And I'm glad that you caught it becausesometimes we don't even realize how we're kind
of spinning negatively and it doesn't start toaffect every way we show up and the energy we
bring to the calls or the meetings or whateverit is.
(11:25):
Then a week can go by and we're just like, Ugh,I don't want to do this anymore.
That's when people are like, I just want to gowork at Walmart or I want to go be a Starbucks
Which those are very stressful jobs.
Would not
would not do well, but they are stressful.
And I think know, especially coming from acorporate kind of something, you always had
(11:46):
someone in your corner, peer to peer even tohelp shake it out and say, hey buddy, don't
worry.
But if you're just yourself or you go home toyour family, they don't know and they don't
understand job.
It's our job, just like our job is to open thedoor to paint the lights.
It's our job to take ourselves out.
If you start treating yourself as an employeein that way, hey, a lot should be fussy for a
(12:06):
little bit, and then you move on.
It really helps compartmentalize the down.
Yes, yes.
And I think there is great value as well insomething you said about it was kind of out of
your control, right?
Especially when people are price shopping andthey're going to switch carriers or they want
something different or who knows why.
But if you've done everything you can toprovide the service that you said you were
(12:29):
going to provide and that person chooses toleave then you have to be able to live with
that and know that you did everything you couldand be say, bless and release.
Just bless and release them.
If they come back eventually, that's great.
If they don't, that's great too.
They found something that works better for themin the moment.
But we can really beat ourselves up about thatsometimes.
(12:52):
So how did you get to that point where you havethat ability to just not take it personally?
Because I'm sure you have clients that havebeen with you a long, long time, And if they
leave, then it's hard not to take itpersonally.
Yeah.
No.
I've now I'm to the thing I only takecompliments personally.
That's it.
Oh, good.
Nice.
Reference I can love it.
(13:14):
You think I looked in?
I'm remembering that.
You think I'm pretty?
I'm putting it in my pocket.
Yeah.
You're right.
That's right.
But
nothing else is about me.
Not one thing.
Not the price, not the service, not anything.
I could have done the best service and theyjust had a horrible day.
And so they received my information with thatsame vibe and it has nothing to do with me.
(13:37):
So nothing else anyone decides or does hasanything to do with me.
I just have to do my best job.
And if they say it's great, then I'm moreremembered.
And if not, I'll just say, okay.
Especially for as tumultuous as insuranceindustry has been over the last six years more
than the last twenty one, five years for sureit's been a real coaster.
(13:57):
I've really had to own them.
You know what I mean?
Because I have had people for with me a longtime and they're like, don't wanna leave.
I'm like, hey lady, I get it.
When things change, come back.
And I think if you start treating people as youwanna have received that information, like a
hairstyles.
You don't wanna want to break up the hairstylesbecause we go to Rex when you don't like them,
you want to go pick it.
But now they've already known you've gone withsomeone else and it's all weird.
(14:18):
So my motto is eliminate the weird.
Say, get back when you want and we'll try nexttime.
It's just nothing personal.
Nice, nice.
That takes it takes a certain confidence toRight?
Right?
Because especially if you're a newer businessperson or you are really hanging on to every
(14:39):
client you have.
I always tell people that too.
If you're hanging on like this, then you can'treceive anything because your hands are not
open.
They're grass.
That's a good way to do it.
Yeah.
So you have to let people go if they're goingto let go and never burn a bridge because the
business world is so small.
Never burn a bridge if you don't have to.
Totally.
(14:59):
We are all related to Kevin Bacon.
I still believe that in my heart.
Yes,
I love it.
That
dude is just universal.
I am not gonna rock a bridge because someonegot fussy or wanted to save money or just like
doing it all together for him.
It's fine.
Right.
It just keeps you motivated so, you I thinkwe're, when I was district manager and I was
(15:20):
helping my new agents, I'm like, I love thatanalogy too, right?
Because if you're just so focused on one,you're not going to be doing what you need to
do when the worst thing on a sale is now you'velost your best lead, right?
So now you're like, that's not a bad thing,it's great, but now who's the rest?
So I think that I like that visual because it's
(15:41):
100% true.
Especially when you're just starting or thingsare a little tight, you're like, I can't lose a
single client.
I got to keep them no matter what.
And then that energy also travels into yourtransactions with them too.
Yes, it does.
I picked up this next question on my questionlist here is one that I can easily pick up.
(16:05):
What calls you forward into doing the hard andamazing things that you get to do in your work.
I know that obviously you love to help peopleand solve problems for people because that's
come through in just the way your history ofyour work, especially as a district manager
when you're really helping people set up theirown business and help them create the freedom
and the money that they want to have and thelifestyle they want to have based on these
(16:29):
services that you can help them build.
So what does Stephanie do to call yourselfforward into kind of hard or amazing things
that you're working on?
Really good questions.
I think for me, I'm very sensitive to the paceof the leader is the pace of the pack.
(16:49):
And that reflects in my attitude.
And even if you're a team of one so far, it'salso your subconscious in terms of like, you
got to keep your eyes focused.
So I'm very sensitive to how my mood is at theoffice.
I'm normally pretty level seven anyway atleast.
I'm very sensitive because if I come in or Icome in grouchy, I had a team of cows who it'll
(17:13):
just rocket.
So I don't allow it.
I don't allow myself to have it.
And my mantra is I get paid to do hard things.
And that's what I do.
And then I can do them.
And if I don't know how to do them, I'm gonnafind out how, but I get paid.
That's my job.
They give me money to do this.
I can do it.
That's just kind of what I say to myself whenthings get too hard.
(17:33):
I'm like, they're paying me to figure this out.
I can figure it out.
Know, even if I have to rely on someone else.
It's not, you know, I can do Everything
is solvable, right?
And
everything's fixable.
That's our motto around here because sometimesdon't mess big as long as I do, don't mess up
as much, but when I do, they're huge mistakes.
(17:55):
They're absolutely enormous mistakes.
But everything's flexible.
You just get creative and move on.
It happens, that's for sure.
Yes, yes.
And so it's January of twenty twenty five.
And for those people watching, whenever they'rewatching this, there's just been all of the
(18:16):
horrific wildfires in California, and people'shomes are just decimated, and some people
didn't have insurance or were dropped by theirinsurance.
So what kind of advice do you have for peoplejust to kind of it's a good reminder for us,
even if you don't live in California or a firearea or floods or hurricanes or whatever is
happening with the weather, what kind of thingsshould we be checking out on our homeowners
(18:37):
policy just to make sure that we are coveredthe way we should be covered?
Great question.
And I think just the devastation is so sad.
That's actually one of my sister and ours,we're doing our own little California wildfire
relief.
We're taking donations here in our office.
We have like 20 bags of the yard we're gonnagive.
We've done money to Red Cross and we areencouraging others to do it.
(19:01):
But what that horrific site has done ishopefully made what could happen, knock on
wood, to you any given moment, so you gotta beready.
So I appreciate the question.
So the first thing is even if you rent a home,even if you rent an apartment that you don't
have to own, you got to have renters orhomeowners insurance.
You have to call the agent.
And the bummer is so many carriers don't haveagents anymore so you have to at least talk to
(19:25):
someone.
Because a couple of things you want to makesure is you want to make sure you know where
your deductible is.
Not that the higher the deductible, the lowerthe cost.
So that's a good thing.
But you've got to make sure you have coveragefor all types of loss.
So when you get to the smaller companies, theone off companies that are not mainstream, they
might not cover you for all types of loss,whether it's fire, theft, wind, water, blah,
(19:49):
blah, blah.
And sometimes you have to get two, like inCalifornia, you gotta get two policies to do
it.
And then you wanna make sure, as we justinstructed a lot of these people yesterday on
our video we do, you wanna do an inventory ofyour home.
You go through your own home with a camera,video your room, house room by room, open up
(20:09):
cupboards and cabinets, take your back of yourTV and get the serial number because all I know
is my TV is this big and I don't know anythingelse about it.
I don't know.
And then email it to yourself because at thetime of loss, I think it's six months for the
most carrier that you're gonna remember.
You'll remember the big stuff.
You know, I had this couch, had this TV.
You're not gonna remember the bracelet, theearrings, the paintings, the photo album.
(20:34):
You know, mushy stuff is hard and tangible, butthe other stuff adds up.
So you want to do as best as you can to getyourself the documentation and email it to
yourself so it's not at the home.
You want copies of your important documentsoff-site, whether it's at a family member's
house or a bank or your own office somewhere.
(20:54):
So, you know, the passports, the birthcertificates, the stuff that's hard to
replicate, have copies of off-site.
Think that that's what we've, know, we havetotal fires here on a weekly basis in Arizona.
It's just mass devastation that got everyone'sattention, but it doesn't mean that the
neighbor down the street didn't have, you know,something horrible happen.
Right.
So as community, as consumer, want to do yourbest with today's information to do what you
(21:19):
can today.
Yes.
Good.
Good.
Yeah.
The whole fires in California did spark us tothink about what are we going to grab in our
house?
If we have thirty minutes to evacuate ourhouse, what would we grab?
We have all of our important documents in afirebox.
Right?
So we grab the firebox because that's whereeverything is and it's portable.
(21:40):
Yes.
We can grab that.
But it's like looking around between ouroffice, grab the laptops, grab your phone, and
then what else?
How do you prioritize that stuff?
Right?
So is
it easily accessible to to pack up if you gotthirty minutes or whatever.
Right?
So I love doing the home inventory as wellbecause if everything is gone, you don't know
(22:03):
exactly what was in your house.
You've lived in your house as long as we'velived in our house twenty eight years, so
there's a lot of stuff in our house.
A %.
Well, I think the big thing is especially intwenty eight years, you've got something really
cool and valuable that you might or should puton your insurance policy, but a lot of people
are like, I can't wait to tell my insuranceagent about this.
(22:24):
You just don't.
You're like, oh, this is so cool.
I got a fancy necklace and you move on.
I think that that like, you had talked aboutbefore maybe an annual yearbook, but an annual
inventory is really important because the smallstuff adds up.
Financially, you know, most insurancecompanies, you want a replacement cost policy,
which means they'll give you money, but theywon't give you all of it.
(22:45):
They'll give you some sort of money.
Then you go replace it, turn in your receipts,and then you're made whole.
But you can't even get to that point if youdon't know what you have.
Okay.
Okay.
That's good.
So yeah, is that something important?
We just did a Thrive Thursday Masterclass withthe LEAP community and it was a bookkeeper
talking about your receipts and now the IRSdoes accept scanned receipts so you don't need
(23:06):
to keep piles of receipts anymore once you scanthem, which is a good tip to know.
It is a good tip.
But do you need to show receipts?
Do you need to be saving those somewhere thatyou can access them?
Do you scan a receipt with your home inventory?
I think that's an excellent idea because wealways say keep your receipts for the juicy big
stuff.
You know what I mean?
(23:26):
Not the poster I got at Kohl's.
You have six phones at any carrier, any state,the burden of proof is on the person.
So you have to be able to prove you had thegolf clubs.
You had to be able to prove you had the skiingstuff, whatever.
(23:46):
Okay.
And whether it's your pictures or receipts arealways the best one.
So mostly the good stuff.
Just have a folder on your email, householdreceipts, it takes you two seconds.
Take a picture, send it off, and you don't haveto worry about it.
Perfect.
Perfect.
Great advice.
Great advice.
Okay.
Kind of those are great great tips.
(24:07):
What other kind of advice would you give tosomebody if they're getting ready to take a
leap, especially in their career or maybestarting a business or or switching careers,
switching to a a what kind of advice do youhave for somebody taking that leap?
Two fold.
One is my insurance hat.
You are never too new or too baseline toprotect yourself.
(24:29):
Because what happens as a small businesssolopreneur, I quit my corporate job, I'm doing
the side hustle, I don't need insurance.
There's very few cases where you don't needinsurance.
Hardly any that I can think of.
One customer thing goes sideways, they sue you,you have no insurance, you have no coverage.
And then goes all your assets, your time, andthen the business that you just were so excited
(24:52):
to start just goes away.
In replace of an insurance policy, there'sdifferent flavors for different businesses.
And I can always, wherever you live, I don'tsell in all states, I'm always happy to
brainstorm wherever you live.
It's not very expensive of how to protect you.
So that's my thing.
You're never too new to be safe.
Same thing is you're never, if you buy your newcar, the first day something bad can happen if
(25:14):
you had it for twenty years.
So just get covered the first one.
And then the second one is I would alwaysrecommend find a buddy or a partner, doesn't
necessarily be in your industry that you canbrainstorm with.
Even more from a mindset perspective becauseyou know, they always say the tribe, you know,
I don't have too many female agency owners thatI can brainstorm with, but I have a whole lot
(25:36):
of females that I like to keep my mind incheck.
And that's the most important thing we have toprotect is our mindset.
So it's someone to laugh with.
A little venting is okay, but just celebratewins even.
And I think Mary, the community you're buildingin that you have does that really well.
But I think that that's incredibly important toprotect amongst us through the power of others.
Yes.
(25:57):
Great advice.
Great advice.
So thank you again, Stephanie, for being on theLeap to Success podcast and being a Leap for
Ladies member, community member.
We're just so happy to have wonderful, amazingwomen like Stephanie in the community.
So if it's something that you're looking into,if you're listening to this and you're like I
want to know more about LEAP for Ladies, I'vegot to get around more people like this, then
(26:19):
you can go to the website successmagnified.comjoin leap and you'll get all the information
about how to join the community.
And then you can be on the podcast too.
And we will post all of Stephanie's informationin the show notes so you have all the ways to
get in touch with Stephanie via email, yourphone number, your address.
(26:39):
I don't think we've put your address in there,but she's in Arizona just so you know.
We will put
you here.
I have snacks and drinks here, so it's fine.
Yes, nice, nice.
Yeah, it'd be fun to go and hang out withStephanie.
So we'll put all of your contact information inshow notes so no matter where somebody's
listening they'll be able to see that and getin touch with you.
So again if you are in Arizona or just havesome general insurance questions and want to
(27:02):
talk to somebody, Stephanie is your gal, sogive her a call.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I appreciate the chance.
You're very welcome.
Have a great afternoon.
Okay.
Bye.
Bye.
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