December 18, 2024 • 15 mins
Tom Kaiser, the Managing Partner at Masterful Coaching, renowned expert in the field of collaboration, and a top insurance executive, explains how his time in the Air Force led him to the insurance field, pioneering the idea of terrorism insurance, why insurance, and a full insurance PLAN is critical, and shares his legacy within the industry, as well as something free for listeners.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Gary Michels (00:00):
Welcome to Let's Talk Legacy. I'm Gary Michels,
(00:03):
your host, founder ofSouthwestern Legacy Insurance
Group, and today we have TomKaiser, the guest on the show.
Tom Kaiser is the managingpartner of Masterful Coaching, a
renowned expert in the field ofcollaboration. He also has a
deep background in the insuranceindustry, both domestic and
worldwide, with experiencerunning large, complex, global
(00:25):
businesses, including serving asa top executive in Arch Right
Insurance, Zurich FinancialSolutions, he either built the
business from the ground up,which is very interesting to me
and our listeners, or transformthem into a dynamic industry
leader. Thank you for joiningour show.
Tom Kaiser (00:41):
Glad to do it.
Gary Michels (00:42):
So you started off in the Air Force, but that
experience sort of unexpectedlyopened up some doors for you
later in the insurance field.Talk about that a little bit.
Tom Kaiser (00:53):
It did as a matter of fact, I spent five years as a
KC 135 navigator in the US AirForce, and I thought that, gee,
I must have missed out onbusiness for those five years,
so I probably should find a job.And that took me to our great
Mutual Insurance where the guywas running it was a B, 29
pilot, and the number two guywas an F, 106 pilot. We talked
(01:15):
to airplanes and they hired me.That's how I got in the
insurance business. They hadserved during World War Two, I
came into the Vietnam so theywere already well established in
business, but their backgroundwas in aviation.
Gary Michels (01:27):
When you were growing up, what were your
aspirations?
Tom Kaiser (01:30):
It was wide open. I went to university. When I came
out of university, I happened tobe one of the first people who
got a low lottery number in thecrazy draft. And so six months
after graduating from college, Iwas in the Air Force. I decided
that if I could fly, that waswhat I was going to do. So I
passed the flight physicals, andthat led me to the five years
(01:54):
that I spent in the Air Force.From that perspective, I knew I
wanted to go into business, butI really didn't know exactly
what what led me to insurancewas, again, the feeling that I
had that five years of being anaviator somehow put me behind my
peers who had been in businessfor five years, and I had to
find a way to catch up. And thatwas not true, but I just
(02:17):
believed that, and so I lookedfor jobs that really were based
on merit, 100% on merit, andended up in a sales position
where I was selling largeproperty insurance packages for
factory mutual.
Gary Michels (02:30):
So when you first approached them about insurance,
were you fascinated withbusiness more, or were you
fascinated more with insurance?
Tom Kaiser (02:39):
I was a know nothing on insurance at that point, I
was, I was fascinated by thefact that arc right at the time
or factory mutual tailoredinsurance products to specific
solutions or problems thatcompanies had, and so it was a
very good for anybody who wasselling those products.
Gary Michels (02:58):
Got it. One of the more interesting and unique
items we saw on your resume isfrom your time serving as the
executive VP and president ofmarine and energy for our
insurance group where you wereresponsible for global marine
energy and aviation andterrorism, which really
intrigued me. Terrorisminsurance, is that a thing?
Tom Kaiser (03:19):
After 9/11 the insurance industry backed out of
including terrorism insurance orany anything associated with
terrorism, and the governmentcame out with definitions of
what terrorism is. And so anevent like 9/11 is defined as
terrorism. It's not insured. Sothe insurance industry responded
(03:42):
with the government to come upwith solutions to fill that
void, and a new product wasdeveloped because the other one
was gone, and it supported,basically and complemented what
the government was offering inthe well realm of terrorism
insurance, but it was basicallya property insurance that would
(04:02):
pay if your property wasdestroyed by a declared
terrorist event.
Gary Michels (04:06):
Was there a big demand for that after 9/11? I
imagine there was.
Tom Kaiser (04:11):
In certain industries, yes. I mean, in the
aviation business, big demanddepends on what the industry
was, because most people werenot buying the product. But
those that really felt that theywere in a situation where they
could have a terrorist attackand lose large assets, they were
attracted to it.
Gary Michels (04:30):
So you helped transform that company into a
billion dollar company.
Tom Kaiser (04:36):
Well, it was a new company, arch. Arch was born out
of 9/11, and several peopleraised the capital. And I was
fortunate enough that I wasworking with Ben and
dinosaurdano at Zurich, and hewent over to become the CEO, and
he brought me over in the numbertwo role. It went from a very
(04:56):
small company into a very largecompany, rapidly, very clear.
Success story today, arch isabout a $35 billion company
really relied on individualsthat had skin in the game and
were very entrepreneurial tobuild individual businesses
that, when you added them allup, became quite a significant
(05:16):
business under the name or thebrand that was promoting it,
recruiting was the key, key tobuilding arch, or building any
of the companies that I workedwith, to find the right people
that are focused in the rightway, they have the right
attitude, and they want to makeit happen. And you can move the
(05:37):
world. Those who have a lot ofself confidence. Want to win,
and they want others to win, andthey're very keen on
relationship and relationshipmanagement. You had to build
relationships with brokers, youhad to build relationships with
customers, and all this had tocome together in a positive way.
As a manager, you become a coachwhen you want your employee or
(06:01):
your report to win, instead ofjust managing them, you pick up
on it, I think, very quickly, ifthey have the same desire,
because you're working closelywith them, you're not some guy
in the back room. Look at howmany calls somebody made,
whether they made their calls ornot. You're out there talking
about the actual business andhow it works.
Gary Michels (06:22):
Can you give some examples and talk about the
importance of that for a leaderto actually be there by their
side, doing it with them?
Tom Kaiser (06:30):
Well, I think people need the touch. It's not
something that can be done in avacuum. It's something there,
where you're there, you're partof the whole process. I can't
emphasize enough that you'redriven because you want them to
win, to be successful, andthat's where you're coming from.
People pick up on that. And whenyou do that enough and you have
(06:50):
enough people involved, and itbecomes a cultural thing, people
just get it, and they want to bepart of it, and they help you
ferret out those that don'tbelong is a remarkable thing,
because once you have thatalignment, and that alignment
working for you, it's a selfcorrecting environment that they
(07:12):
don't want to let anybody inthat doesn't buy into what we're
doing here and why we're doingit.
Gary Michels (07:17):
I think that is such a huge point you're
bringing up. How does that staygoing when they have their first
hiccups?
Tom Kaiser (07:24):
Well, I think, I think if you've established your
relationship with that employeeas a coach, you're going to have
that opportunity to coach them,and in that process, the walls
are going to be a lot easier toclimb, the the obstacles are
going to be things you can talkabout, and there's other people
(07:44):
within your team that you canbring in, if you're a good
coach, to say, well, here's howJoe dealt with that. You need to
talk to him right. Recognizingwe're all going to have
challenges, but by talking aboutthem and working with them, we
can make ourselves better andmore successful.
Gary Michels (08:02):
What are some key things besides, you said that
we're looking for people thatwant to win. They want other
people to win. Anything elsethat you think is important when
you're looking for an employee,a person that you're going to
build a business with?
Tom Kaiser (08:15):
I always look for high energy people. And I think,
I think the I like people whotook care of themselves, that
were physically fit, that hadother things going in their
life, and, you know, had a verybroad background of how things
worked and what they believedin. Because I think, you know,
(08:38):
as the whole person that alwaysserved me well too. I like
people who tried to close me,who wanted the job and asked for
it. I gotta tell you a story.It's funny. When we first
started arch, I spent 90% of mytime recruiting people. People
were very reluctant to leave abig company safe position and
(08:58):
come with a startup. A yearlater, we had to fight these
people off, because once itshowed it was successful and it
was a moving thing that wasreally doing well, they all
wanted to join your success isalso what drives bringing in
good people. If you got a greatcompany and they see you as a
great leader, they're going towant to work for you. So you
(09:21):
have to use that to youradvantage also.
Gary Michels (09:24):
What does a good agent do to get them to go, I
think I'm gonna go with theseguys?
Tom Kaiser (09:30):
The fact about insurance is its the thing that
everybody needs, but they don'tnecessarily want it, right? So
the need is created by the factthat if you have a home or a car
or you have a business, nomatter what you have, there's
going to be certain requirementsof things that you have to buy
to protect that business, or toprotect the home or the auto or
(09:53):
what have you, life insurance isanother question is more
complicated, because there'smore reasons why. They people
buy or don't buy, then thesimple thing that the government
says, You have to have autoinsurance. But I think, I think
the struggle is that peoplereally don't know who they want
to buy from. And there's lots ofplaces you can go to to buy your
(10:14):
insurance, and there's lots ofdifferent products that are
offered and the generalmarketplace, I always found that
the best thing to work for mewas to open up and help somewhat
with the entire package, from Ato Z. What are you trying to do
with your financial planning?What are you trying to do with
(10:37):
all of the insurance products?How do you look at it. I used to
start a conversation with peoplesaying that you do not build an
insurance program from thebottom up. You build it from the
top down. And what people make,the biggest mistake they make,
is they start from the bottomup, and they self insure the
biggest exposures they have,which is the top end of it,
where, if the worst thinghappened, you're in bad shape.
(11:00):
That was a good way to start aconversation with people didn't
know a lot about insurance.
Gary Michels (11:05):
What would you say, you've been in this space
for so long? There was a legacyyou were to leave. Of Gosh, Tom
absolutely believed insurancewas a necessary thing people
need in their lives, and this iswhy. What would you want people
to leave with?
Tom Kaiser (11:20):
Well, I think I think my legacy is out there.
There's probably 30 guys thatwork for me that are running
significant portions ofinsurance companies, that have
big jobs in those companies, andthey're all part of the team
that I assembled at thesevarious companies. I'm really
proud of these guys, and theyreally have been successful and
(11:40):
have been the new leaders asI've drifted out of the
business, but my legacy isreally those people who are out
there that are still working,that I influenced, that I
brought into the business, andnow have significant roles
within various companies.
Gary Michels (11:55):
Deep in your core, because obviously that meant a
lot to you to do that, andyou're so proud of that. What
does legacy mean to you?
Tom Kaiser (12:03):
Well, I think it's something lasting that is beyond
you and the contribution youwere making at the time. So so
the way I define it is I leftthe business physically in oh
eight, and haven't worked for aninsurance company since oh
eight, but I've got a wholecadre of people who are in
senior positions that I hiredand I trained that continue to
(12:27):
support a lot of the things thatwe've been talking about. You'll
hear them talk about alignmentand the importance of making
sure everybody's pulling in thesame direction. I used to say
that, you know, if you got fourpowerful horses and you hook
them to a wagon, and you decideto pull the wagon in different
directions. You pull the wagonapart, but if you get them going
into a straight line, you can goanywhere. A lot of this isn't
(12:50):
rocket science, just stuff thatyou got to repeat over and over
and over again and tell storiesabout and celebrate successes
around, because that alignmentis so important.
Gary Michels (13:01):
Absolutely. Why should someone buy insurance?
Tom Kaiser (13:06):
For protection and risk management. In other words,
you're trying, you'retransferring risk at a price,
and that's to be part of yourrisk management orientation,
that you don't have to bear thatrisk. If the worst case scenario
happened, your house burns down,your there's an explosion, you
die, you name it. So it's all.Everybody should have an
(13:28):
orientation towards riskmanagement. Insurance is one of
the tools that goes with riskmanagement.
Gary Michels (13:34):
Right on. And lastly, if someone did want to
collaborate with you to learnmore about Collab Lab, your
company, a little bit more aboutwhat you do. How would they get
in touch with you?
Tom Kaiser (13:47):
But they should go on to masterfulcoaching.com. And
I'll make an offer to the wehave a book called a revenue
engine, an e book, and they cango in there and download that
for free. Masterfulcoaching.com.
Gary Michels (14:01):
Awesome. You've been listening to Tom Kaiser.
Just appreciate your time today.
Tom Kaiser (14:05):
Super.
Welcome to Let's Talk Legacy. I'm Gary Michels,
(00:03):
your host, founder ofSouthwestern Legacy Insurance
Group, and today we have TomKaiser, the guest on the show.
Tom Kaiser is the managingpartner of Masterful Coaching, a
renowned expert in the field ofcollaboration. He also has a
deep background in the insuranceindustry, both domestic and
worldwide, with experiencerunning large, complex, global
(00:25):
businesses, including serving asa top executive in Arch Right
Insurance, Zurich FinancialSolutions, he either built the
business from the ground up,which is very interesting to me
and our listeners, or transformthem into a dynamic industry
leader. Thank you for joiningour show.
Tom Kaiser (00:41):
Glad to do it.
Gary Michels (00:42):
So you started off in the Air Force, but that
experience sort of unexpectedlyopened up some doors for you
later in the insurance field.Talk about that a little bit.
Tom Kaiser (00:53):
It did as a matter of fact, I spent five years as a
KC 135 navigator in the US AirForce, and I thought that, gee,
I must have missed out onbusiness for those five years,
so I probably should find a job.And that took me to our great
Mutual Insurance where the guywas running it was a B, 29
pilot, and the number two guywas an F, 106 pilot. We talked
(01:15):
to airplanes and they hired me.That's how I got in the
insurance business. They hadserved during World War Two, I
came into the Vietnam so theywere already well established in
business, but their backgroundwas in aviation.
Gary Michels (01:27):
When you were growing up, what were your
aspirations?
Tom Kaiser (01:30):
It was wide open. I went to university. When I came
out of university, I happened tobe one of the first people who
got a low lottery number in thecrazy draft. And so six months
after graduating from college, Iwas in the Air Force. I decided
that if I could fly, that waswhat I was going to do. So I
passed the flight physicals, andthat led me to the five years
(01:54):
that I spent in the Air Force.From that perspective, I knew I
wanted to go into business, butI really didn't know exactly
what what led me to insurancewas, again, the feeling that I
had that five years of being anaviator somehow put me behind my
peers who had been in businessfor five years, and I had to
find a way to catch up. And thatwas not true, but I just
(02:17):
believed that, and so I lookedfor jobs that really were based
on merit, 100% on merit, andended up in a sales position
where I was selling largeproperty insurance packages for
factory mutual.
Gary Michels (02:30):
So when you first approached them about insurance,
were you fascinated withbusiness more, or were you
fascinated more with insurance?
Tom Kaiser (02:39):
I was a know nothing on insurance at that point, I
was, I was fascinated by thefact that arc right at the time
or factory mutual tailoredinsurance products to specific
solutions or problems thatcompanies had, and so it was a
very good for anybody who wasselling those products.
Gary Michels (02:58):
Got it. One of the more interesting and unique
items we saw on your resume isfrom your time serving as the
executive VP and president ofmarine and energy for our
insurance group where you wereresponsible for global marine
energy and aviation andterrorism, which really
intrigued me. Terrorisminsurance, is that a thing?
Tom Kaiser (03:19):
After 9/11 the insurance industry backed out of
including terrorism insurance orany anything associated with
terrorism, and the governmentcame out with definitions of
what terrorism is. And so anevent like 9/11 is defined as
terrorism. It's not insured. Sothe insurance industry responded
(03:42):
with the government to come upwith solutions to fill that
void, and a new product wasdeveloped because the other one
was gone, and it supported,basically and complemented what
the government was offering inthe well realm of terrorism
insurance, but it was basicallya property insurance that would
(04:02):
pay if your property wasdestroyed by a declared
terrorist event.
Gary Michels (04:06):
Was there a big demand for that after 9/11? I
imagine there was.
Tom Kaiser (04:11):
In certain industries, yes. I mean, in the
aviation business, big demanddepends on what the industry
was, because most people werenot buying the product. But
those that really felt that theywere in a situation where they
could have a terrorist attackand lose large assets, they were
attracted to it.
Gary Michels (04:30):
So you helped transform that company into a
billion dollar company.
Tom Kaiser (04:36):
Well, it was a new company, arch. Arch was born out
of 9/11, and several peopleraised the capital. And I was
fortunate enough that I wasworking with Ben and
dinosaurdano at Zurich, and hewent over to become the CEO, and
he brought me over in the numbertwo role. It went from a very
(04:56):
small company into a very largecompany, rapidly, very clear.
Success story today, arch isabout a $35 billion company
really relied on individualsthat had skin in the game and
were very entrepreneurial tobuild individual businesses
that, when you added them allup, became quite a significant
(05:16):
business under the name or thebrand that was promoting it,
recruiting was the key, key tobuilding arch, or building any
of the companies that I workedwith, to find the right people
that are focused in the rightway, they have the right
attitude, and they want to makeit happen. And you can move the
(05:37):
world. Those who have a lot ofself confidence. Want to win,
and they want others to win, andthey're very keen on
relationship and relationshipmanagement. You had to build
relationships with brokers, youhad to build relationships with
customers, and all this had tocome together in a positive way.
As a manager, you become a coachwhen you want your employee or
(06:01):
your report to win, instead ofjust managing them, you pick up
on it, I think, very quickly, ifthey have the same desire,
because you're working closelywith them, you're not some guy
in the back room. Look at howmany calls somebody made,
whether they made their calls ornot. You're out there talking
about the actual business andhow it works.
Gary Michels (06:22):
Can you give some examples and talk about the
importance of that for a leaderto actually be there by their
side, doing it with them?
Tom Kaiser (06:30):
Well, I think people need the touch. It's not
something that can be done in avacuum. It's something there,
where you're there, you're partof the whole process. I can't
emphasize enough that you'redriven because you want them to
win, to be successful, andthat's where you're coming from.
People pick up on that. And whenyou do that enough and you have
(06:50):
enough people involved, and itbecomes a cultural thing, people
just get it, and they want to bepart of it, and they help you
ferret out those that don'tbelong is a remarkable thing,
because once you have thatalignment, and that alignment
working for you, it's a selfcorrecting environment that they
(07:12):
don't want to let anybody inthat doesn't buy into what we're
doing here and why we're doingit.
Gary Michels (07:17):
I think that is such a huge point you're
bringing up. How does that staygoing when they have their first
hiccups?
Tom Kaiser (07:24):
Well, I think, I think if you've established your
relationship with that employeeas a coach, you're going to have
that opportunity to coach them,and in that process, the walls
are going to be a lot easier toclimb, the the obstacles are
going to be things you can talkabout, and there's other people
(07:44):
within your team that you canbring in, if you're a good
coach, to say, well, here's howJoe dealt with that. You need to
talk to him right. Recognizingwe're all going to have
challenges, but by talking aboutthem and working with them, we
can make ourselves better andmore successful.
Gary Michels (08:02):
What are some key things besides, you said that
we're looking for people thatwant to win. They want other
people to win. Anything elsethat you think is important when
you're looking for an employee,a person that you're going to
build a business with?
Tom Kaiser (08:15):
I always look for high energy people. And I think,
I think the I like people whotook care of themselves, that
were physically fit, that hadother things going in their
life, and, you know, had a verybroad background of how things
worked and what they believedin. Because I think, you know,
(08:38):
as the whole person that alwaysserved me well too. I like
people who tried to close me,who wanted the job and asked for
it. I gotta tell you a story.It's funny. When we first
started arch, I spent 90% of mytime recruiting people. People
were very reluctant to leave abig company safe position and
(08:58):
come with a startup. A yearlater, we had to fight these
people off, because once itshowed it was successful and it
was a moving thing that wasreally doing well, they all
wanted to join your success isalso what drives bringing in
good people. If you got a greatcompany and they see you as a
great leader, they're going towant to work for you. So you
(09:21):
have to use that to youradvantage also.
Gary Michels (09:24):
What does a good agent do to get them to go, I
think I'm gonna go with theseguys?
Tom Kaiser (09:30):
The fact about insurance is its the thing that
everybody needs, but they don'tnecessarily want it, right? So
the need is created by the factthat if you have a home or a car
or you have a business, nomatter what you have, there's
going to be certain requirementsof things that you have to buy
to protect that business, or toprotect the home or the auto or
(09:53):
what have you, life insurance isanother question is more
complicated, because there'smore reasons why. They people
buy or don't buy, then thesimple thing that the government
says, You have to have autoinsurance. But I think, I think
the struggle is that peoplereally don't know who they want
to buy from. And there's lots ofplaces you can go to to buy your
(10:14):
insurance, and there's lots ofdifferent products that are
offered and the generalmarketplace, I always found that
the best thing to work for mewas to open up and help somewhat
with the entire package, from Ato Z. What are you trying to do
with your financial planning?What are you trying to do with
(10:37):
all of the insurance products?How do you look at it. I used to
start a conversation with peoplesaying that you do not build an
insurance program from thebottom up. You build it from the
top down. And what people make,the biggest mistake they make,
is they start from the bottomup, and they self insure the
biggest exposures they have,which is the top end of it,
where, if the worst thinghappened, you're in bad shape.
(11:00):
That was a good way to start aconversation with people didn't
know a lot about insurance.
Gary Michels (11:05):
What would you say, you've been in this space
for so long? There was a legacyyou were to leave. Of Gosh, Tom
absolutely believed insurancewas a necessary thing people
need in their lives, and this iswhy. What would you want people
to leave with?
Tom Kaiser (11:20):
Well, I think I think my legacy is out there.
There's probably 30 guys thatwork for me that are running
significant portions ofinsurance companies, that have
big jobs in those companies, andthey're all part of the team
that I assembled at thesevarious companies. I'm really
proud of these guys, and theyreally have been successful and
(11:40):
have been the new leaders asI've drifted out of the
business, but my legacy isreally those people who are out
there that are still working,that I influenced, that I
brought into the business, andnow have significant roles
within various companies.
Gary Michels (11:55):
Deep in your core, because obviously that meant a
lot to you to do that, andyou're so proud of that. What
does legacy mean to you?
Tom Kaiser (12:03):
Well, I think it's something lasting that is beyond
you and the contribution youwere making at the time. So so
the way I define it is I leftthe business physically in oh
eight, and haven't worked for aninsurance company since oh
eight, but I've got a wholecadre of people who are in
senior positions that I hiredand I trained that continue to
(12:27):
support a lot of the things thatwe've been talking about. You'll
hear them talk about alignmentand the importance of making
sure everybody's pulling in thesame direction. I used to say
that, you know, if you got fourpowerful horses and you hook
them to a wagon, and you decideto pull the wagon in different
directions. You pull the wagonapart, but if you get them going
into a straight line, you can goanywhere. A lot of this isn't
(12:50):
rocket science, just stuff thatyou got to repeat over and over
and over again and tell storiesabout and celebrate successes
around, because that alignmentis so important.
Gary Michels (13:01):
Absolutely. Why should someone buy insurance?
Tom Kaiser (13:06):
For protection and risk management. In other words,
you're trying, you'retransferring risk at a price,
and that's to be part of yourrisk management orientation,
that you don't have to bear thatrisk. If the worst case scenario
happened, your house burns down,your there's an explosion, you
die, you name it. So it's all.Everybody should have an
(13:28):
orientation towards riskmanagement. Insurance is one of
the tools that goes with riskmanagement.
Gary Michels (13:34):
Right on. And lastly, if someone did want to
collaborate with you to learnmore about Collab Lab, your
company, a little bit more aboutwhat you do. How would they get
in touch with you?
Tom Kaiser (13:47):
But they should go on to masterfulcoaching.com. And
I'll make an offer to the wehave a book called a revenue
engine, an e book, and they cango in there and download that
for free. Masterfulcoaching.com.
Gary Michels (14:01):
Awesome. You've been listening to Tom Kaiser.
Just appreciate your time today.
Tom Kaiser (14:05):
Super.
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