May 5, 2025 • 39 mins
Ron Wadley, owner of Insurance for Texas, explains how business owners can protect their financial futures through customized insurance solutions that address industry-specific risks and common misconceptions about liability exposure.
• Journey from high school math teacher to corporate insurance to independent agency owner
• Focus on churches, early childhood education centers, and technology businesses
• Common misconception about Texas liability limits – pain and suffering capped at $250K but economic damages are unlimited
• Cybersecurity insurance as essential protection against data breaches with costly per-person fines
• Building business through niche targeting and consistent digital content creation
• Emphasis on education rather than sales tactics when working with clients
• Personal touch in a digital world creates stronger client relationships
• Balancing entrepreneurship with family values and teaching children resilience
• Growth strategy focused on generating consistent lead flow and nurturing prospects
• Final advice: don't leave your business exposed to liability risks
Contact Insurance for Texas to learn more about customized insurance solutions for your business needs.
www.insurancefortexans.com
ron@insurancefortexans.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Storie (00:18):
Welcome back to Market it with Atmo, where we share the
tips, tools and strategies tohelp your business be successful
.
With Atmo, where we share thetips, tools and strategies to
help your business be successful.
Today we have on the show MrRon Wadley.
He is the owner of Insurancefor Texas and he is on a mission
to make sure business ownershave the essential information
(00:38):
and needs to make sure theirbusiness is successful.
Welcome, ron.
Ron (00:42):
Thank you, it's great to be here.
Storie (00:44):
I'm so excited to have you today because I mentioned
before we started recording thatI had someone on yesterday that
really emphasized what types ofinsurance businesses should
have.
So tell me more about you andwhat navigated you to owning
your own business and thisbusiness specifically, owning
your own business and thisbusiness specifically.
Ron (01:04):
So the journey has been here, there and everywhere.
I started as a high school mathteacher and basketball coach a
long time ago.
Really, yes, that's amazing.
Yeah, so when I left, that.
I went into the world ofinsurance on the corporate side,
Okay, Spent several yearsworking with actuaries.
Even spent time in a hedge fundin Fort Worth did consulting
(01:29):
for a company that helped healthsystems and physician groups
leverage the insurance toimprove patient outcomes and
make more money.
And.
I walked away from that in late2013 because I was done with
corporate America.
Storie (01:46):
I can't imagine.
I mean the industry andcorporate America together.
I mean it's a stressfulenvironment.
Ron (01:53):
The thing that was most stressful was that you could see
these problems, you could seewhat was going on and you could
do nothing about it.
Storie (02:04):
And I looked at my wife and I said I got to get out of
this and we went back and forth.
Ron (02:09):
She said I don't care what you're going to do, Just do it
and shut up.
Storie (02:12):
Right.
Be happy with what you do right.
Ron (02:15):
Yeah.
So I launched as a captiveinsurance agent with one of the
big companies that advertises onTV, spent a couple of years
building that business up, soldit off in 2017, and decided to
jump into the independentinsurance agency world and open
insurance for Texans.
(02:35):
Then we work with manycompanies now.
We did that.
I made that jump so that wecould have multiple tools in the
toolbox.
Storie (02:40):
The old saying is if you're a hammer, everything
looks like a nail Right, and wewanted to have screwdrivers and
saws and wrenches and all of thepower tools power tools
especially so it seems like youreally found your niche and what
you wanted to do with the restof your life and how you wanted
to approach it.
So tell me what you're doingright now.
What is the main goal ormission for insurance
(03:03):
protections?
Ron (03:04):
So our main goal today?
We still service people, sohomes and cars and things of
that nature, but our primaryfocus, our niche, is really on
helping churches, earlychildhood education centers and
technology businesses properlyprotect their future financially
.
Storie (03:23):
Wow, okay, and how do you do that?
Ron (03:25):
We do that through customized solutions that
address property insurance,liability insurance, and then we
also help address some of thebenefit needs that go with that
life and health insurance foremployees so that they can have
a holistic approach, have asingle point of contact.
And since we represent multiplecompanies, we can customize
(03:46):
those solutions to theindividual business or church or
nonprofit organization.
Storie (03:51):
Right.
I mean because every businessand every in every industry is
different, no matter how youslice it.
The pizza parlor right here isdifferent than the one down the
street.
Ron (04:01):
Right, it's.
It's a great way to look at it.
Yeah, the pizza parlor.
Most people will thinkimmediately of the 17-year-old
kid delivering Domino's to yourhouse.
Right, absolutely.
But there's also thatwood-fired Neapolitan, you know,
just down the street over here.
There's a place here inArlington.
I love to go and it's a verydifferent experience.
(04:21):
They have very different needsfrom an insurance standpoint.
Yes, people come in.
One has delivery drivers.
One doesn't.
One has deck ovens, another onehas a big ceramic wood-fired
oven.
Storie (04:35):
Yeah, completely different needs.
So, with your experience in theindustry world prior to this
company that you started, wouldyou say that you've learned the
do's and don'ts of whatcompanies do and don't need and
you've customized that approachand strategy for them?
Ron (04:52):
So part of it does come from that previous experience.
Having been on the corporateside of insurance, especially in
helping price and deliveractual policies to customers, I
learned what the levers werethat you could pull that really
matter.
Where are the most claimshappening?
(05:12):
Where are you going to needthis the most?
And so now when we go into abusiness and we sit down with
them, we go into a church and wesit down with them and we say
what are you doing?
Just like we'll go back to thepizzas, because everybody loves
pizza right.
We ask what that business isdoing on their day to day
operations, what worries them,what are they actually owning at
(05:37):
the moment?
Because some people rent, somepeople own the property.
There's big differences there,and it changes what you need.
We also introduce things thatthey've probably never thought
about.
Workers' compensation insurancein the state of Texas is
optional.
Oh, really but if you carry it,you can't be sued beyond policy
limits.
Storie (05:56):
Wow, I did not know that .
Ron (05:57):
So there's those mechanisms that we try to help them
understand.
Number one.
Number two help them makeeducated decisions about what
they truly need, what are niceto have, where does it fit
inside their budget, and how canwe help them do that
efficiently.
Storie (06:12):
Right, I mean, it follows a lot of what we call
our discovery process, which Ithink you've seen before.
But you cannot build a house onsand, right?
You have to know exactly whattheir struggles are to overcome
them, and I love your customizedstrategy for each one, because
I hate when people throw awaymoney because it's a blank slate
(06:32):
.
Okay, it covers all of this,but do you really need a
quarterback or a big quarterback?
Ron (06:38):
Some things you can't take away.
So there are industry standardswithin policies, that there are
certain things that are alwaysgoing to be there if you meet
those industry standards.
So, the ISO InternationalStandards Organization has
things for insurance policiesjust like they do for other
industries.
Absolutely.
So, there are some things thatwe can't take away.
Storie (06:58):
Right.
Ron (06:58):
But we can always make sure that where it's an option, you
understand the risk.
What does it mean to you?
Our goal is to provide apromise of certainty.
So the thing with insurance,it's not like going to the store
and buying a Coke you can'ttouch it, you can't feel it, you
can't smell it, you can't tasteit.
(07:19):
You can't hug it, you can'thold it, but when your world
gets turned upside down, youreally want it.
Storie (07:28):
Absolutely.
Ron (07:29):
And so we try to put that promise of certainty that it's
going to be OK through thosesolutions in place.
Storie (07:36):
Wow.
So how?
How do you approach?
Or you know your target market.
Obviously, you like thechurches.
You love the childhooddevelopment facilities, which I
love um as well.
I have a soft spot in my heartfor nonprofits and for educating
children as much as possible.
But, um, how do you reach thatdemographic?
(07:58):
How do you reach the churches?
What would you say is the bestmarketing value you get?
Ron (08:04):
So our main strategic focus is a digital presence.
We do a lot through organicsearch.
Now we tie into that socialpush.
We tie into that drop-ins inplaces.
We've done trade show events, wewill do some door knocking from
(08:25):
time to time, but the lion'sshare of our presence truly is
digital, online through ourwebsite.
Right, okay, what we do?
Once we create that content, webegin to repurpose it and use
it in lots of different places,because it now becomes an email.
It can become a text, it canbecome a LinkedIn article.
It can become a LinkedIn post.
It can become short, it canbecome a reel.
It can become a text.
It can become a LinkedInarticle.
(08:45):
It can become a LinkedIn post.
It can become a short, it canbecome a reel.
It can become a video onYouTube.
Storie (08:48):
So you're really maximizing on each and every
part of your marketing knowledge, which is a great strategy to
have, because when you have allthose linked together, like you
said, your organic growth andyour presence goes up up the
beautiful thing today that wasnot there call it seven years,
(09:10):
eight years ago, when we startedis the hot button topic du jour
AI.
Ron (09:11):
Right, I can take the content that we produce, feed it
into an engine and my wife hasthe prompts and she sits and she
makes sure that it gets to allthose other places produces a
video script for me to record,she does the editing and we're
off to the races and we'regetting all of the value we can
(09:32):
out of the work to produce asingle piece of content.
Storie (09:34):
Absolutely Just like this podcast.
You can take this podcast andyou can break it down into so
many platforms, because part ofthe struggle which I feel like
you've really really strategizedon is who is your audience and
what do they want to see.
Ron (09:50):
We look so when we define that audience and we'll pick on
the churches because it's aneasy one.
Storie (09:54):
Right.
Ron (09:55):
First off, we know that there's a lot of them.
Like we're in Texas.
They're on every corner rightthere's lots of churches, so
it's a plentiful audience.
It's also currently an audiencethat has gone through a lot of
turmoil.
The property market, propertyinsurance market in the state of
(10:16):
Texas is well documented.
It's been a dumpster fire forthe last two years.
My own personal home insurancepremium has more than tripled
Like we're all in the same boattogether.
But when you think about achurch is more than triple like
we're all in the same boattogether.
But when you think about achurch, churches are large and
what comes with a large buildinglarge roofs absolutely hail
falls on large roofs and createsclaims and the insurance
companies don't like that.
So it's a marketplace that hashad a lot of turmoil.
(10:40):
So people are in that inside ofthat turmoil, are looking for
relief, they're looking foranswers, they're looking to
understand how it can be madebetter.
If you have content that isfriendly to the Googles and the
LinkedIn's and the places likethat, it allows you to be found.
Storie (11:02):
It's that brand awareness they say it's like 7
to 15 touch points or visuallyseeing something to really stay
with you.
And I think it's great thatyou're specifically making sure
that you're out there all thetime, because ideally I assume
you would want to be proactiveand make sure they have coverage
prior to but man when the roofliterally falls in.
(11:25):
You want to make sure you havesomebody prior to but man when
something, when the roofliterally falls in, you want to
make sure you have somebody tocall, right.
Ron (11:32):
That that's the premise and that's that's part of what we
do.
I mean, I've I've had one ofour customers went through a
fire a couple of years ago Ishowed up at their house on a
sunday afternoon, put my armaround them and we walked
through it with them.
They're not going anywhere.
Storie (11:44):
They're our customer for life and that personal touch is
so important.
It's in this digital landscape,in this world.
Ron (11:50):
Now I feel like I would appreciate that personal touch
we try to take that digitalimprint and make it as personal
as possible.
We do that through story.
We do that, you know, throughthe interactions we have.
We try to facilitate and makethe process of securing what you
need as frictionless aspossible.
Storie (12:08):
Right.
Ron (12:09):
We're going to make that Nobody comes into our office,
right?
Storie (12:14):
No, I don't think I've ever woke up and was like, yeah,
let's go see him today.
But to that point I tell peopleall the time you're not in
sales.
If you say you're in sales,that word irks me.
You're really creatingrelationships Once you earn
someone's trust and you showthem your value and how you can
(12:34):
benefit them, and your mindsetseems to be very, very much
aligned with that.
Ron (12:40):
If we serve people well, we are building that relationship.
And yes, we sell things.
Like I make money from sellingthings right.
But there's an old adage peopleknow that they're being sold,
but they don't want to feel likethey're being sold.
Storie (12:57):
Absolutely.
That's a key point to make.
I like the way you said that,and how do you overcome that?
Ron (13:04):
So we do it a lot through education.
You know, I told you at thevery beginning, I was a school
teacher.
Once upon a time I convinced 15year olds that algebra didn't
totally suck Right.
Storie (13:15):
That's impressive.
Ron (13:16):
So that's what we did.
So education is buried deep inthe DNA of our business and
ultimately, whether you buy fromus or not, we want to make sure
that you understand thedecision that you're making, and
if we do that enough times, wedevelop trust, we develop
relationship, and you may notbuy from us today, but good
(13:38):
marketing automation says we'regoing to keep chirping in your
ear and eventually you're goingto raise your hand Absolutely
Well.
Storie (13:43):
Eventually they'll need you right?
The odds are against them, socan you tell me what are some of
the most common misconceptionsmedium to small businesses have
about insurance and how do youhelp them reframe that, those
beliefs.
Ron (13:58):
So there is a common misconception with lawsuits.
I see this.
There is an ongoing discussionamongst physicians.
Full disclosure.
My wife is a physician.
We do malpractice forphysicians around the country.
One of those conversations thatthey have in the state of Texas
(14:24):
is that you can't be sued formore than $250,000.
As a business.
Storie (14:30):
As a person, as a person as a business an injury claim
oh wow.
Ron (14:35):
Court reform was passed several years ago and there is
this idea that you can't be suedfor more than $250,000.
Interesting For pain andsuffering.
Storie (14:46):
Ah, I see Okay.
Ron (14:48):
And while that's true for pain and suffering, there is the
concept of what is known asmonetary damages and
non-monetary damages.
So if you were in an autoaccident and you were hurt and
you had to go to the hospitaland you were there for a
prolonged period of time, youcouldn't come into work, for
we'll call it six months.
(15:08):
Okay.
The company loves you, butthey're not probably going to
continue to pay you if you'renot working.
Right, and you're laid up inthe hospital and you're accruing
medical bills, and if you'rethere for six months and you're
off work for six months, it'snot inconceivable for that total
to go well over a milliondollars.
Storie (15:29):
Absolutely so.
Ron (15:29):
With that being said, so all of those medical bills, all
of those lost wages, all of therehab, those are monetary
damages.
Storie (15:39):
Oh, so that doesn't fall under the umbrella Of the cap
of tort reform, so you can besued.
Ron (15:45):
Well beyond that and there was a story that was in the news
about 12 to 18 months ago inPlano Lady went into an urgent
care center as well Documented.
It was on the local TV here 10o'clock news and she was
mistreated and she ended upbecoming a paraplegic as a
result oh my God, because therewas blood issues in her spinal
(16:06):
cord that were ignored by theattending physician.
Oh my goodness, she was awarded$10.5 million.
Wow.
Storie (16:14):
With or without insurance.
So, I don't know.
Ron (16:17):
Is it changeable?
No, so the judge awarded the$10.5 million.
It's my understanding that thephysician didn't have
appropriate levels of coveragefor that and I've got friends
that are injury attorneys herein Fort Worth and they've said
that if you've had a divorce allof your assets go into that
(16:40):
public record of the courtrecord when they're divided
right.
I now have public record ofeverything that you own that can
be gone after to satisfy myjudgment.
People don't think about thatand they go.
I don't really need thatinsurance because nothing's
going to happen to me and it'sall great until it's not.
Storie (16:58):
Famous last words right, and it's all great until it's
not Famous.
Ron (17:02):
last words right, and so that idea of I can't be sued, or
this won't affect me isprobably the single biggest
misconception that small andmedium business owners have.
Storie (17:10):
I am so glad you put that out there because that is
something I've heard.
I have personal injuryattorneys that I just networked
with that I think have mentionedthe same thing, but the way you
frame it is very teacher-like.
It's a lot more helpful becauseit's like, okay, I may not need
(17:37):
this, but will I for all theseother things.
And the education portion ofwhat you do, I think, is the
most pivotal in this day and age, because so many people just
want to throw you informationand then move on to the rest and
the automation.
You know what I mean.
Ron (17:48):
It becomes very transactional.
People want to get it done asquick as they can.
They don't want to think aboutit.
They don't want anybody else tothink about it.
They just want to know what thecheapest price is.
They want to charge a maximumprice for their expertise, but
they discount other people'sexpertise.
It's something we all do, rightI can go to google and figure
(18:08):
that out, it's okay absolutelyright but the, especially if
you're a business owner andyou're not thinking about those
things.
It only takes one bad moment toruin the future.
Storie (18:21):
Take everything, and that leeway is me into.
The question that I askedbefore y'all on air is how many
business owners do or don't knowabout cybersecurity in this
digital world now?
Ron (18:30):
so sadly, it's an alarmingly low number that
actually know about itterrifying.
It's one of the things that wetalk about frequently with our
business and church andnonprofit, customers and
prospects and people who comeinto our ecosystem, because the
(18:51):
reality is most of us are takingelectronic payments.
Churches have online givingplatforms.
We're storing identifyinginformation in CRMs.
I do it.
Storie (19:04):
Right, you are, you are.
It's all out there.
Ron (19:07):
It's all out there and if you give up that breach, most
people don't realize it's a perperson fine.
Storie (19:16):
Really.
Ron (19:17):
So if you have a thousand people in your database and my
CRM has more than 10,000.
Absolutely, and you've got allof that PPI in there that is
traceable back to that person.
At that point.
You're fined per person forthat.
Storie (19:35):
Oh, my goodness.
Ron (19:37):
So the total that you can be liable for escalates very
quickly.
Plus, you have to providecredit monitoring for those
people.
You have to provide creditrestoration for those people.
You have to do the quarantineand the forensics to figure out
how many people were affected,what information was exposed.
You have to do reputationmanagement on the back end.
(19:58):
You have to restore your systemso that they're functional.
Do you want to pay for all thatout of your pocket?
Storie (20:06):
Right, I mean as a marketing, a digital marketing
agency.
That's one of the things, notthat portion of it.
But one of the things weemphasize is go with someone
that's certified in your digitallandscape, because if you're
not ADA compliant, if you don'thave that infrastructure
security put in place, you mightas well just stop wasting your
(20:27):
money.
Ron (20:28):
The other thing that I would emphasize with that is
having some form of protection.
Storie (20:35):
Absolutely See, and I didn't know this was an option.
It's kind of like doggyinsurance.
I just found out about this acouple of years ago.
You now have doggy insurance.
If y'all didn't know, this wasan option.
It's kind of like doggyinsurance.
I just found out about this acouple years ago.
You now have doggy insurance,if y'all didn't know.
But the cybersecurity it needsto be brought to light more for
these businesses, especially thesmall businesses.
Ron (20:53):
The criminals, the hacks.
They're going deeper down thefishing pot, deeper down the
fishing pond, meaning thesmaller businesses they
understand small to mediumbusinesses have way less
sophisticated security than thereally large businesses.
They're also really good atgetting into the sophisticated
security.
If you remember, 18 months agothe MGM Grand in Las Vegas was
(21:18):
completely compromised and allof that was shut down.
I was there in the aftermath ofall that and couldn't even get
a reservation to a restaurant atthe Bellagio.
Storie (21:30):
And it completely just cripples you as a business.
Ron (21:33):
And if you think that them being down several months was a
problem, what are you going todo as a small to medium business
owner?
Storie (21:42):
You're already surviving month to month right, trying to
cover your costs.
So how does it?
You said that if you don't havethe insurance coverage, you'll
have to pay all these differentthings per person.
So how does that coverageprotect them and what does it
protect?
Ron (21:58):
So the way that the cyber coverage will protect them
number one it's going to helpwith the forensics.
So you're going to alert thecyber insurance company.
They're going to bring theirpeople in to help do the
forensics on what happened, whatwas compromised, how do we fix
it.
They're going to help you withthe restoration of your data so
that you can get back to whereyou were.
(22:18):
Wow, they're going to work ongetting the fines taken care of.
They're going to work on thecredit monitoring for all the
people that were affected.
They're going to work on thereputation management on the
back end to make sure thatpeople know that they can still
trust you.
Wow, and that is that PR sideof it is huge, especially if
you're a church, if you're aprivate school that is reliant
(22:43):
upon people giving up thathard-earned money every month.
Storie (22:47):
Absolutely you have to have that trust, because if you
don't and you lose it.
Just one time, I worked on thefinancial industry prior to this
and you would not believe howmany times we didn't get hacked,
but you wouldn't believe howmany times we didn't get hacked,
but you wouldn't believe howmany times they attempt to do it
a day.
Yes, these hackers out here,yes, and and so the larger
(23:08):
corporations and companies, Iwould assume, have this, this
type of insurance protection,but I work primarily with small
and medium businesses, evennon-profit, and this is
something that I've never heardsomeone mention that they have
or need.
Ron (23:24):
Send them our way.
Storie (23:26):
Right, that was a perfect plug for that, right.
So let me ask you you wererecently recognized as the
fastest growing commercialagency in your network, so
what's been the biggest driverof that growth?
Ron (23:39):
So we're part of a 600-agency nationwide network of
independent insurance agencies.
It's headquartered in Denverand we finished 2025 as the
fastest-growing commercialagency and it has been a project
that's had two main drivers.
Number one we niched out.
(24:00):
We didn't try to be everythingto all people.
We said we're going afterchurches, early childhood
education centers and technologycompanies.
You know your target market andthat's where we focus.
The second thing we did is werelentlessly published across
that digital landscape that wetalked about earlier content
(24:22):
Monday through Friday, so thatpeople could absolutely find us.
Part of that emanated from thatlandscape being in turmoil.
When you're the person who'srunning into the burning
building, people are looking forany arm that they can grab to
pull them out right.
Storie (24:37):
Absolutely so.
Ron (24:38):
that was a big part of what we did arm that they can grab
to pull them out, right,absolutely so that was a big
part of what we did.
We looked for that distressedmarket.
We targeted it, we foundsolutions.
We helped people.
The people that we helped arenow sending people to us
absolutely because we helpedpull them out of the burning
building, and the content isthere, always working on the on
(24:58):
the internet for us while we'resleeping, taking care of
customers doing other things.
Storie (25:04):
And you perfectly describe the customer journey
right.
You bring them in, you givethem the brand awareness so that
they can find you, because weall know if we've said anything
around our social media, we'regoing to see an ad for it.
You have to have those adsavailable to see it right.
And then the advocation and thereferrals.
That's the part that mostbusinesses, salespeople,
(25:27):
business owners forget is thatyou can get the leads in.
You can get the leads in.
Some can retain those leads.
It's the advocation and thereoccurring business that you
forget at the end of the daybecause the referral.
I'm going to take a referralfrom one of my trusted friends
over an app.
Right, sure, at the end of theday.
Ron (25:48):
If you get both of those to come together in one it's, it's
over.
Storie (25:53):
It's flawless.
So that was the reason for foryour growth and that award this
year, which is amazing.
So the customer journey I justmentioned that.
But how did you build yourinitial marketing and CRM
infrastructure when you startedwith zero customers, like, how
did you know what to do or have?
Ron (26:14):
So I have spent a lot of time learning blood, sweat and
tears, but also being a part ofeducation.
Um, I, I read a lot, um, I ampersonally involved in a direct
response marketing mastermind ofbusiness owners and marketers
that are around the world.
We get together every Thursdaymorning that's where I'll be
(26:36):
tomorrow morning um, for two anda half hours, and I have spent
a lot of time in those kinds ofenvironments, reading what I can
, testing what I can.
Storie (26:46):
OK, OK.
Ron (26:48):
I get crazy ideas and I'm like we'll see if it works.
Storie (26:51):
Why not?
You can only learn I tell mykids this all the time through
making mistakes.
We've made some big ones.
Opportunity to learn and growright?
Ron (27:03):
Sure, yeah, we've made some big ones.
We've made some big ones umsome more expensive than others.
But what?
What we do is we say, okay,even if it didn't work.
What did we learn?
Because I used to work for, fora very influential, wealthy
person in Fort Worth many yearsago and we had a really bad day
and he pulled us in and he wentaround the table and he said
what did you learn?
And we all told him and he said, okay, all is not lost If
(27:27):
something is learned go fix it,that's a true leader.
And so we've tried to apply thatnot only to our marketing, but
how we run business as well.
My people are like hey, can wetry this Sure, as long as we're,
you know, staying within theguardrails of what makes us who
we are?
Storie (27:45):
Absolutely, and have those guardrails set up.
Ron (27:48):
Sure, we do have those guardrails.
And we spent, you know, I tookum the the large part of my
sales team we did three days ata trade show last fall so that
we could get elbow to elbow withthese church members that we
were trying to win theirbusiness Absolutely, and we had
conversations, we had coffee, wehad dinner, we had lunch.
(28:09):
We shut down the office mostlyto take care of doing those
activities in conjunction witheverything else we did.
They know our face.
Storie (28:20):
Touch and intimate relationship is, I would say,
the reason for your exponentialgrowth.
To me.
In my mind, that would mean alot to me For you to shut down
your whole building because youwant to have lunch with me
that's amazing.
It really is a personal touchthat I can't emphasize enough
that you have to have is apersonal touch that I can't
(28:43):
emphasize enough that you haveto have.
So, in the build launch, growscale strategy that we have,
what phase of that four-stepprocess would you say that
you're competing now?
Ron (28:51):
We are currently in the scaling Okay, so we are.
Excuse me, we have taken themarketing that we've done.
That is working.
We're now generating, onaverage, every month
approximately 120 new businessdeals Wow.
That are spread across our salesteam.
Wow, and that's personal,commercial life health.
(29:14):
It's across the board, and weare in the process of helping
those salespeople sell as manyof them as they can.
We also have systems running inthe background.
Just because you don't buy fromme now doesn't mean you're not
going to buy from me later,right?
Absolutely?
Buy or die, I believe, is thephrase most marketers use, right
?
Yes, and so we are using thatever-replenishing lead flow to
(29:41):
build and scale the agency sothat we can bring more people in
to continue to do the samething.
Storie (29:48):
Absolutely, and in your strategy and your process that
you've really refined I meanit's so exceptional and having
the different variations of thedifferent industries that you've
already learned your wife andthe medical industry you've
really kind of jumped throughall the hurdles of the what ifs
right.
Ron (30:06):
We've seen a lot of them.
There's always new ones thatare coming, but we've seen a lot
of them.
Storie (30:10):
Oh, my goodness.
So you mentioned that you havechildren.
What do your daughters think ofthe work you do and how do you
hope being an entrepreneur andthat journey will, will you?
Know, influence them.
Ron (30:25):
So it's, it's pretty funny.
You asked what my daughtersthink about the work that I do.
So they always expect the dadjokes Um, my oldest daughter,
who is 25, um, she just turned25.
She is late going to college.
She didn't know what she wantedto do when she was 18.
And I was the only person inthe family that said stop going
(30:52):
to class.
And I'm a school teacher, right.
And she looked at me with wideeyes and she goes, why?
And I said well, you'respending all this money.
You have no idea what you wantto do with it.
You're taking one or twoclasses at a time, so it's
costing you exponentially moreOver a long period.
(31:12):
Over a long period of time,it's going to keep you from
learning how to live life.
Storie (31:19):
You get lost in the rut, the monotony.
Ron (31:21):
You need to figure out what it means to live on your own
pay bills.
Understand that that may meanhot dogs and ramen at the end of
the month.
That's right.
And you need to figure out whatit is you want to do.
And so a year ago, when shecame to me and said I'm ready to
go back to college, I saidthat's awesome.
(31:43):
What's your plan to do it?
Storie (31:46):
I love it.
Ron (31:47):
And she succinctly laid it out and she's now following
through with it.
She's she's on her path tobecome a counselor, which was
something that that shebenefited from, and she knows
she couldn't operate inside myworld because it's she's like I
don't know how you sit at a deskall day.
That sucks.
Storie (32:06):
Right, that's just not her.
Ron (32:07):
It's not her personality, my, my other daughter who is
about to turn 12 this weekend.
She comes from a very differentplace.
We were talking about work andshe goes.
Dad, you're the boss, you cando whatever you want.
Storie (32:25):
Right, oh girlfriend, right Girlfriend.
Ron (32:28):
It's not quite that simple and we have to talk about.
What does it mean?
You have to work every day.
You have to do the things thatmost other people aren't willing
to do, over and over and overagain, to get to where you want
to be Now.
I don't know that she's evergoing to take over my business
eventually.
I have no preconceived ideasabout that.
(32:49):
I want her to chart her ownpath.
Storie (32:51):
Absolutely Just like her older sister is just like I did
.
Ron (32:54):
Because the statistics say my background, being a poor kid
from small towns in the midwest,I shouldn't be sitting here at
this table with you.
What are statistics anymore?
I say as a math guy.
They're, they're, they're,they're things, but it's, it's
putting into the those two girls.
You can do hard things.
(33:15):
You can do things you don'tthink are possible.
You can chart your own course.
You don't have to look likeeveryone else and you have to
pursue what's right for you.
Storie (33:26):
Absolutely, and then watching you has to be something
.
I mean, that's core.
My parents were entrepreneursand I truly feel like I never
wanted to be one, but it's in mygenes.
Know that that natural and thatcomes from watching your
parents a lot of it does and howthey overcome things, because
so many people can say it's abad day, not a bad life.
Ron (33:46):
But when you see your parents go through those hurdles
, sometimes it's a bad week or abad moment, but yeah, and
that's okay, but we're gonna getthrough it.
Right, we keep pushing through,for sure at the end of day,
right?
Storie (33:58):
So tell me about the launch of True Texas Technology
Insurance.
Ron (34:04):
So we we have some federally registered trademarks
in the business.
Ok, we've tried to protect ourintellectual property.
So we are the home of TrueTexas Home Insurance, true Texas
Church Insurance, true TexasEducation Insurance and we have
in the last few months launchedTrue Texas Technology Insurance.
(34:24):
Wow.
So that is a customized solutionthat fits your individual tech
business, whether it's acomputer repair shop, a data
center, a software developmentcompany, a consulting company.
Digital marketing fits in thereas well.
We come in, we sit down, we asklots of questions.
(34:44):
Some people just it doesn'tresonate with them, and that's
okay.
We ask you lots of questions.
Our goal is to find out what.
What is it that you do?
What makes you unique?
What makes you special?
What are the things that youhave to protect so that your
financial future is secure?
Right, absolutely and then weput that customized plan
(35:06):
together so that you canproperly protect what matters
most to you.
Storie (35:11):
And you're there through the whole process from the
beginning, onboarding themthrough their insurance coverage
with you.
You're able to contact reach,show up at any point in time.
Ron (35:21):
You can send Carrie, your pigeon, if you want.
Storie (35:23):
I love it.
Somebody actually mentionedthat the other day.
Ron (35:26):
Yeah, so you know we laugh.
You can text us, you canFacebook Messenger us, you can
call us.
You can send us an email.
We do use video to sendmessages to people, to send
proposals to people.
If schedules aren't jiving,we'll record a two to five,
seven minute video and runthrough everything you need to
(35:46):
know.
That's vital and core.
Here it is.
You can send us one back.
You can schedule coffee.
You can meet us in the officeif you want.
You got to let us know inadvance because we're not always
there.
All my people work remote, butwe do that so we can meet us in
the office.
If you want, you got to let usknow in advance because we're
not always there.
All my people work remote, butwe do that so we can meet you
where you are and we can providethat personalized, customized
(36:07):
service that you deserve.
Storie (36:08):
Wow, you really are leading the way when it comes to
how people frame insurancecompanies.
It's a lot of verbiage and veryconfusing and I think was what
most people think and you reallydived into the digital age and
environment we're in and made itaccessible to all generations.
Ron (36:26):
really, you've made it very accessible we, we have a couple
that we ensure their home cards, who are not far from where
we're sitting, and I've stoppedby and picked up a check once
because they didn't know howelse to do it.
Okay and, and we, we will dothat on occasion.
We don't we can't do it all thetime, right Cause I'd be, we'd
(36:48):
be running ragged, um, but itallows us to meet people where
they are and provide um, even ina digital format, that old
school service that a lot ofpeople still want.
Storie (37:01):
And crave Absolutely, but with that availability
everybody wants as well right,correct.
So to circle things back?
I mean, I could talk to you fordays about everything I need to
get done, but to circle thingsback if a small business owner
is listening right now.
But to circle things back if asmall business owner is
(37:21):
listening right now, what that's?
Dreading their next insurancecoverage or dreading having to
renew?
Ron (37:27):
What's one mindset shift?
You want them to walk away withEverybody's upset about the
price of insurance today.
Like I'm going to say theelephant in the room right up
front.
Thank you, it's even mine'sexpensive.
Yours everyone's is expensive,right.
When you're a business owner.
You can't leave yourselfexposed, especially the lawsuit.
Storie (37:52):
Absolutely.
Ron (37:53):
You may be able to find a way to rebuild a building.
You may be able to find a wayto relocate your operations to
another spot.
If you get sued and you have nocoverage, everything's at risk.
Storie (38:07):
Absolutely, so you can pay an attorney or you can pay a
lot less for insurance coverage.
Ron (38:12):
It's liability coverage.
Unless you're in some superrisky stuff is not the most
expensive thing in the world Ifyou need to figure out how to
find some creative ways to loweryour property coverage so that
it's less expensive.
We can help you do that, butmost importantly, we want to
(38:32):
make sure that you don't getsued into the sun and have to go
work a job someplace just topay off that debt.
Storie (38:40):
That's a wonderful point to make, because I feel like in
the past few years, a lot ofpeople are kind of looking at
these businesses like, oh,that'd be a nice payout right.
Ron (38:48):
Right, Well, I mean if you watch local TV at all, so go
home and watch the 6 o'clocknews tonight and the 10 o'clock
news.
Watch the six o'clock newstonight and the 10 o'clock news,
two thirds of the commercials.
Storie (39:04):
Since it's not political season, are injury attorneys
looking for new prospects tofile lawsuits for?
Absolutely, and they're outthere looking to file lawsuits.
Right, they are.
That's how they get paid, manWell.
Thank you so much for sharingall this important information
with us, and if any of you outthere would like to learn more
or at least get your options ofwhat you should or shouldn't be
doing in terms of your businessor your personal, please reach
(39:25):
out to Ron.
I'll put his information in thebio below and until next time
we'll see ya.
Welcome back to Market it with Atmo, where we share the
tips, tools and strategies tohelp your business be successful
.
With Atmo, where we share thetips, tools and strategies to
help your business be successful.
Today we have on the show MrRon Wadley.
He is the owner of Insurancefor Texas and he is on a mission
to make sure business ownershave the essential information
(00:38):
and needs to make sure theirbusiness is successful.
Welcome, ron.
Ron (00:42):
Thank you, it's great to be here.
Storie (00:44):
I'm so excited to have you today because I mentioned
before we started recording thatI had someone on yesterday that
really emphasized what types ofinsurance businesses should
have.
So tell me more about you andwhat navigated you to owning
your own business and thisbusiness specifically, owning
your own business and thisbusiness specifically.
Ron (01:04):
So the journey has been here, there and everywhere.
I started as a high school mathteacher and basketball coach a
long time ago.
Really, yes, that's amazing.
Yeah, so when I left, that.
I went into the world ofinsurance on the corporate side,
Okay, Spent several yearsworking with actuaries.
Even spent time in a hedge fundin Fort Worth did consulting
(01:29):
for a company that helped healthsystems and physician groups
leverage the insurance toimprove patient outcomes and
make more money.
And.
I walked away from that in late2013 because I was done with
corporate America.
Storie (01:46):
I can't imagine.
I mean the industry andcorporate America together.
I mean it's a stressfulenvironment.
Ron (01:53):
The thing that was most stressful was that you could see
these problems, you could seewhat was going on and you could
do nothing about it.
Storie (02:04):
And I looked at my wife and I said I got to get out of
this and we went back and forth.
Ron (02:09):
She said I don't care what you're going to do, Just do it
and shut up.
Storie (02:12):
Right.
Be happy with what you do right.
Ron (02:15):
Yeah.
So I launched as a captiveinsurance agent with one of the
big companies that advertises onTV, spent a couple of years
building that business up, soldit off in 2017, and decided to
jump into the independentinsurance agency world and open
insurance for Texans.
(02:35):
Then we work with manycompanies now.
We did that.
I made that jump so that wecould have multiple tools in the
toolbox.
Storie (02:40):
The old saying is if you're a hammer, everything
looks like a nail Right, and wewanted to have screwdrivers and
saws and wrenches and all of thepower tools power tools
especially so it seems like youreally found your niche and what
you wanted to do with the restof your life and how you wanted
to approach it.
So tell me what you're doingright now.
What is the main goal ormission for insurance
(03:03):
protections?
Ron (03:04):
So our main goal today?
We still service people, sohomes and cars and things of
that nature, but our primaryfocus, our niche, is really on
helping churches, earlychildhood education centers and
technology businesses properlyprotect their future financially
.
Storie (03:23):
Wow, okay, and how do you do that?
Ron (03:25):
We do that through customized solutions that
address property insurance,liability insurance, and then we
also help address some of thebenefit needs that go with that
life and health insurance foremployees so that they can have
a holistic approach, have asingle point of contact.
And since we represent multiplecompanies, we can customize
(03:46):
those solutions to theindividual business or church or
nonprofit organization.
Storie (03:51):
Right.
I mean because every businessand every in every industry is
different, no matter how youslice it.
The pizza parlor right here isdifferent than the one down the
street.
Ron (04:01):
Right, it's.
It's a great way to look at it.
Yeah, the pizza parlor.
Most people will thinkimmediately of the 17-year-old
kid delivering Domino's to yourhouse.
Right, absolutely.
But there's also thatwood-fired Neapolitan, you know,
just down the street over here.
There's a place here inArlington.
I love to go and it's a verydifferent experience.
(04:21):
They have very different needsfrom an insurance standpoint.
Yes, people come in.
One has delivery drivers.
One doesn't.
One has deck ovens, another onehas a big ceramic wood-fired
oven.
Storie (04:35):
Yeah, completely different needs.
So, with your experience in theindustry world prior to this
company that you started, wouldyou say that you've learned the
do's and don'ts of whatcompanies do and don't need and
you've customized that approachand strategy for them?
Ron (04:52):
So part of it does come from that previous experience.
Having been on the corporateside of insurance, especially in
helping price and deliveractual policies to customers, I
learned what the levers werethat you could pull that really
matter.
Where are the most claimshappening?
(05:12):
Where are you going to needthis the most?
And so now when we go into abusiness and we sit down with
them, we go into a church and wesit down with them and we say
what are you doing?
Just like we'll go back to thepizzas, because everybody loves
pizza right.
We ask what that business isdoing on their day to day
operations, what worries them,what are they actually owning at
(05:37):
the moment?
Because some people rent, somepeople own the property.
There's big differences there,and it changes what you need.
We also introduce things thatthey've probably never thought
about.
Workers' compensation insurancein the state of Texas is
optional.
Oh, really but if you carry it,you can't be sued beyond policy
limits.
Storie (05:56):
Wow, I did not know that .
Ron (05:57):
So there's those mechanisms that we try to help them
understand.
Number one.
Number two help them makeeducated decisions about what
they truly need, what are niceto have, where does it fit
inside their budget, and how canwe help them do that
efficiently.
Storie (06:12):
Right, I mean, it follows a lot of what we call
our discovery process, which Ithink you've seen before.
But you cannot build a house onsand, right?
You have to know exactly whattheir struggles are to overcome
them, and I love your customizedstrategy for each one, because
I hate when people throw awaymoney because it's a blank slate
(06:32):
.
Okay, it covers all of this,but do you really need a
quarterback or a big quarterback?
Ron (06:38):
Some things you can't take away.
So there are industry standardswithin policies, that there are
certain things that are alwaysgoing to be there if you meet
those industry standards.
So, the ISO InternationalStandards Organization has
things for insurance policiesjust like they do for other
industries.
Absolutely.
So, there are some things thatwe can't take away.
Storie (06:58):
Right.
Ron (06:58):
But we can always make sure that where it's an option, you
understand the risk.
What does it mean to you?
Our goal is to provide apromise of certainty.
So the thing with insurance,it's not like going to the store
and buying a Coke you can'ttouch it, you can't feel it, you
can't smell it, you can't tasteit.
(07:19):
You can't hug it, you can'thold it, but when your world
gets turned upside down, youreally want it.
Storie (07:28):
Absolutely.
Ron (07:29):
And so we try to put that promise of certainty that it's
going to be OK through thosesolutions in place.
Storie (07:36):
Wow.
So how?
How do you approach?
Or you know your target market.
Obviously, you like thechurches.
You love the childhooddevelopment facilities, which I
love um as well.
I have a soft spot in my heartfor nonprofits and for educating
children as much as possible.
But, um, how do you reach thatdemographic?
(07:58):
How do you reach the churches?
What would you say is the bestmarketing value you get?
Ron (08:04):
So our main strategic focus is a digital presence.
We do a lot through organicsearch.
Now we tie into that socialpush.
We tie into that drop-ins inplaces.
We've done trade show events, wewill do some door knocking from
(08:25):
time to time, but the lion'sshare of our presence truly is
digital, online through ourwebsite.
Right, okay, what we do?
Once we create that content, webegin to repurpose it and use
it in lots of different places,because it now becomes an email.
It can become a text, it canbecome a LinkedIn article.
It can become a LinkedIn post.
It can become short, it canbecome a reel.
It can become a text.
It can become a LinkedInarticle.
(08:45):
It can become a LinkedIn post.
It can become a short, it canbecome a reel.
It can become a video onYouTube.
Storie (08:48):
So you're really maximizing on each and every
part of your marketing knowledge, which is a great strategy to
have, because when you have allthose linked together, like you
said, your organic growth andyour presence goes up up the
beautiful thing today that wasnot there call it seven years,
(09:10):
eight years ago, when we startedis the hot button topic du jour
AI.
Ron (09:11):
Right, I can take the content that we produce, feed it
into an engine and my wife hasthe prompts and she sits and she
makes sure that it gets to allthose other places produces a
video script for me to record,she does the editing and we're
off to the races and we'regetting all of the value we can
(09:32):
out of the work to produce asingle piece of content.
Storie (09:34):
Absolutely Just like this podcast.
You can take this podcast andyou can break it down into so
many platforms, because part ofthe struggle which I feel like
you've really really strategizedon is who is your audience and
what do they want to see.
Ron (09:50):
We look so when we define that audience and we'll pick on
the churches because it's aneasy one.
Storie (09:54):
Right.
Ron (09:55):
First off, we know that there's a lot of them.
Like we're in Texas.
They're on every corner rightthere's lots of churches, so
it's a plentiful audience.
It's also currently an audiencethat has gone through a lot of
turmoil.
The property market, propertyinsurance market in the state of
(10:16):
Texas is well documented.
It's been a dumpster fire forthe last two years.
My own personal home insurancepremium has more than tripled
Like we're all in the same boattogether.
But when you think about achurch is more than triple like
we're all in the same boattogether.
But when you think about achurch, churches are large and
what comes with a large buildinglarge roofs absolutely hail
falls on large roofs and createsclaims and the insurance
companies don't like that.
So it's a marketplace that hashad a lot of turmoil.
(10:40):
So people are in that inside ofthat turmoil, are looking for
relief, they're looking foranswers, they're looking to
understand how it can be madebetter.
If you have content that isfriendly to the Googles and the
LinkedIn's and the places likethat, it allows you to be found.
Storie (11:02):
It's that brand awareness they say it's like 7
to 15 touch points or visuallyseeing something to really stay
with you.
And I think it's great thatyou're specifically making sure
that you're out there all thetime, because ideally I assume
you would want to be proactiveand make sure they have coverage
prior to but man when the roofliterally falls in.
(11:25):
You want to make sure you havesomebody prior to but man when
something, when the roofliterally falls in, you want to
make sure you have somebody tocall, right.
Ron (11:32):
That that's the premise and that's that's part of what we
do.
I mean, I've I've had one ofour customers went through a
fire a couple of years ago Ishowed up at their house on a
sunday afternoon, put my armaround them and we walked
through it with them.
They're not going anywhere.
Storie (11:44):
They're our customer for life and that personal touch is
so important.
It's in this digital landscape,in this world.
Ron (11:50):
Now I feel like I would appreciate that personal touch
we try to take that digitalimprint and make it as personal
as possible.
We do that through story.
We do that, you know, throughthe interactions we have.
We try to facilitate and makethe process of securing what you
need as frictionless aspossible.
Storie (12:08):
Right.
Ron (12:09):
We're going to make that Nobody comes into our office,
right?
Storie (12:14):
No, I don't think I've ever woke up and was like, yeah,
let's go see him today.
But to that point I tell peopleall the time you're not in
sales.
If you say you're in sales,that word irks me.
You're really creatingrelationships Once you earn
someone's trust and you showthem your value and how you can
(12:34):
benefit them, and your mindsetseems to be very, very much
aligned with that.
Ron (12:40):
If we serve people well, we are building that relationship.
And yes, we sell things.
Like I make money from sellingthings right.
But there's an old adage peopleknow that they're being sold,
but they don't want to feel likethey're being sold.
Storie (12:57):
Absolutely.
That's a key point to make.
I like the way you said that,and how do you overcome that?
Ron (13:04):
So we do it a lot through education.
You know, I told you at thevery beginning, I was a school
teacher.
Once upon a time I convinced 15year olds that algebra didn't
totally suck Right.
Storie (13:15):
That's impressive.
Ron (13:16):
So that's what we did.
So education is buried deep inthe DNA of our business and
ultimately, whether you buy fromus or not, we want to make sure
that you understand thedecision that you're making, and
if we do that enough times, wedevelop trust, we develop
relationship, and you may notbuy from us today, but good
(13:38):
marketing automation says we'regoing to keep chirping in your
ear and eventually you're goingto raise your hand Absolutely
Well.
Storie (13:43):
Eventually they'll need you right?
The odds are against them, socan you tell me what are some of
the most common misconceptionsmedium to small businesses have
about insurance and how do youhelp them reframe that, those
beliefs.
Ron (13:58):
So there is a common misconception with lawsuits.
I see this.
There is an ongoing discussionamongst physicians.
Full disclosure.
My wife is a physician.
We do malpractice forphysicians around the country.
One of those conversations thatthey have in the state of Texas
(14:24):
is that you can't be sued formore than $250,000.
As a business.
Storie (14:30):
As a person, as a person as a business an injury claim
oh wow.
Ron (14:35):
Court reform was passed several years ago and there is
this idea that you can't be suedfor more than $250,000.
Interesting For pain andsuffering.
Storie (14:46):
Ah, I see Okay.
Ron (14:48):
And while that's true for pain and suffering, there is the
concept of what is known asmonetary damages and
non-monetary damages.
So if you were in an autoaccident and you were hurt and
you had to go to the hospitaland you were there for a
prolonged period of time, youcouldn't come into work, for
we'll call it six months.
(15:08):
Okay.
The company loves you, butthey're not probably going to
continue to pay you if you'renot working.
Right, and you're laid up inthe hospital and you're accruing
medical bills, and if you'rethere for six months and you're
off work for six months, it'snot inconceivable for that total
to go well over a milliondollars.
Storie (15:29):
Absolutely so.
Ron (15:29):
With that being said, so all of those medical bills, all
of those lost wages, all of therehab, those are monetary
damages.
Storie (15:39):
Oh, so that doesn't fall under the umbrella Of the cap
of tort reform, so you can besued.
Ron (15:45):
Well beyond that and there was a story that was in the news
about 12 to 18 months ago inPlano Lady went into an urgent
care center as well Documented.
It was on the local TV here 10o'clock news and she was
mistreated and she ended upbecoming a paraplegic as a
result oh my God, because therewas blood issues in her spinal
(16:06):
cord that were ignored by theattending physician.
Oh my goodness, she was awarded$10.5 million.
Wow.
Storie (16:14):
With or without insurance.
So, I don't know.
Ron (16:17):
Is it changeable?
No, so the judge awarded the$10.5 million.
It's my understanding that thephysician didn't have
appropriate levels of coveragefor that and I've got friends
that are injury attorneys herein Fort Worth and they've said
that if you've had a divorce allof your assets go into that
(16:40):
public record of the courtrecord when they're divided
right.
I now have public record ofeverything that you own that can
be gone after to satisfy myjudgment.
People don't think about thatand they go.
I don't really need thatinsurance because nothing's
going to happen to me and it'sall great until it's not.
Storie (16:58):
Famous last words right, and it's all great until it's
not Famous.
Ron (17:02):
last words right, and so that idea of I can't be sued, or
this won't affect me isprobably the single biggest
misconception that small andmedium business owners have.
Storie (17:10):
I am so glad you put that out there because that is
something I've heard.
I have personal injuryattorneys that I just networked
with that I think have mentionedthe same thing, but the way you
frame it is very teacher-like.
It's a lot more helpful becauseit's like, okay, I may not need
(17:37):
this, but will I for all theseother things.
And the education portion ofwhat you do, I think, is the
most pivotal in this day and age, because so many people just
want to throw you informationand then move on to the rest and
the automation.
You know what I mean.
Ron (17:48):
It becomes very transactional.
People want to get it done asquick as they can.
They don't want to think aboutit.
They don't want anybody else tothink about it.
They just want to know what thecheapest price is.
They want to charge a maximumprice for their expertise, but
they discount other people'sexpertise.
It's something we all do, rightI can go to google and figure
(18:08):
that out, it's okay absolutelyright but the, especially if
you're a business owner andyou're not thinking about those
things.
It only takes one bad moment toruin the future.
Storie (18:21):
Take everything, and that leeway is me into.
The question that I askedbefore y'all on air is how many
business owners do or don't knowabout cybersecurity in this
digital world now?
Ron (18:30):
so sadly, it's an alarmingly low number that
actually know about itterrifying.
It's one of the things that wetalk about frequently with our
business and church andnonprofit, customers and
prospects and people who comeinto our ecosystem, because the
(18:51):
reality is most of us are takingelectronic payments.
Churches have online givingplatforms.
We're storing identifyinginformation in CRMs.
I do it.
Storie (19:04):
Right, you are, you are.
It's all out there.
Ron (19:07):
It's all out there and if you give up that breach, most
people don't realize it's a perperson fine.
Storie (19:16):
Really.
Ron (19:17):
So if you have a thousand people in your database and my
CRM has more than 10,000.
Absolutely, and you've got allof that PPI in there that is
traceable back to that person.
At that point.
You're fined per person forthat.
Storie (19:35):
Oh, my goodness.
Ron (19:37):
So the total that you can be liable for escalates very
quickly.
Plus, you have to providecredit monitoring for those
people.
You have to provide creditrestoration for those people.
You have to do the quarantineand the forensics to figure out
how many people were affected,what information was exposed.
You have to do reputationmanagement on the back end.
(19:58):
You have to restore your systemso that they're functional.
Do you want to pay for all thatout of your pocket?
Storie (20:06):
Right, I mean as a marketing, a digital marketing
agency.
That's one of the things, notthat portion of it.
But one of the things weemphasize is go with someone
that's certified in your digitallandscape, because if you're
not ADA compliant, if you don'thave that infrastructure
security put in place, you mightas well just stop wasting your
(20:27):
money.
Ron (20:28):
The other thing that I would emphasize with that is
having some form of protection.
Storie (20:35):
Absolutely See, and I didn't know this was an option.
It's kind of like doggyinsurance.
I just found out about this acouple of years ago.
You now have doggy insurance.
If y'all didn't know, this wasan option.
It's kind of like doggyinsurance.
I just found out about this acouple years ago.
You now have doggy insurance,if y'all didn't know.
But the cybersecurity it needsto be brought to light more for
these businesses, especially thesmall businesses.
Ron (20:53):
The criminals, the hacks.
They're going deeper down thefishing pot, deeper down the
fishing pond, meaning thesmaller businesses they
understand small to mediumbusinesses have way less
sophisticated security than thereally large businesses.
They're also really good atgetting into the sophisticated
security.
If you remember, 18 months agothe MGM Grand in Las Vegas was
(21:18):
completely compromised and allof that was shut down.
I was there in the aftermath ofall that and couldn't even get
a reservation to a restaurant atthe Bellagio.
Storie (21:30):
And it completely just cripples you as a business.
Ron (21:33):
And if you think that them being down several months was a
problem, what are you going todo as a small to medium business
owner?
Storie (21:42):
You're already surviving month to month right, trying to
cover your costs.
So how does it?
You said that if you don't havethe insurance coverage, you'll
have to pay all these differentthings per person.
So how does that coverageprotect them and what does it
protect?
Ron (21:58):
So the way that the cyber coverage will protect them
number one it's going to helpwith the forensics.
So you're going to alert thecyber insurance company.
They're going to bring theirpeople in to help do the
forensics on what happened, whatwas compromised, how do we fix
it.
They're going to help you withthe restoration of your data so
that you can get back to whereyou were.
(22:18):
Wow, they're going to work ongetting the fines taken care of.
They're going to work on thecredit monitoring for all the
people that were affected.
They're going to work on thereputation management on the
back end to make sure thatpeople know that they can still
trust you.
Wow, and that is that PR sideof it is huge, especially if
you're a church, if you're aprivate school that is reliant
(22:43):
upon people giving up thathard-earned money every month.
Storie (22:47):
Absolutely you have to have that trust, because if you
don't and you lose it.
Just one time, I worked on thefinancial industry prior to this
and you would not believe howmany times we didn't get hacked,
but you wouldn't believe howmany times we didn't get hacked,
but you wouldn't believe howmany times they attempt to do it
a day.
Yes, these hackers out here,yes, and and so the larger
(23:08):
corporations and companies, Iwould assume, have this, this
type of insurance protection,but I work primarily with small
and medium businesses, evennon-profit, and this is
something that I've never heardsomeone mention that they have
or need.
Ron (23:24):
Send them our way.
Storie (23:26):
Right, that was a perfect plug for that, right.
So let me ask you you wererecently recognized as the
fastest growing commercialagency in your network, so
what's been the biggest driverof that growth?
Ron (23:39):
So we're part of a 600-agency nationwide network of
independent insurance agencies.
It's headquartered in Denverand we finished 2025 as the
fastest-growing commercialagency and it has been a project
that's had two main drivers.
Number one we niched out.
(24:00):
We didn't try to be everythingto all people.
We said we're going afterchurches, early childhood
education centers and technologycompanies.
You know your target market andthat's where we focus.
The second thing we did is werelentlessly published across
that digital landscape that wetalked about earlier content
(24:22):
Monday through Friday, so thatpeople could absolutely find us.
Part of that emanated from thatlandscape being in turmoil.
When you're the person who'srunning into the burning
building, people are looking forany arm that they can grab to
pull them out right.
Storie (24:37):
Absolutely so.
Ron (24:38):
that was a big part of what we did arm that they can grab
to pull them out, right,absolutely so that was a big
part of what we did.
We looked for that distressedmarket.
We targeted it, we foundsolutions.
We helped people.
The people that we helped arenow sending people to us
absolutely because we helpedpull them out of the burning
building, and the content isthere, always working on the on
(24:58):
the internet for us while we'resleeping, taking care of
customers doing other things.
Storie (25:04):
And you perfectly describe the customer journey
right.
You bring them in, you givethem the brand awareness so that
they can find you, because weall know if we've said anything
around our social media, we'regoing to see an ad for it.
You have to have those adsavailable to see it right.
And then the advocation and thereferrals.
That's the part that mostbusinesses, salespeople,
(25:27):
business owners forget is thatyou can get the leads in.
You can get the leads in.
Some can retain those leads.
It's the advocation and thereoccurring business that you
forget at the end of the daybecause the referral.
I'm going to take a referralfrom one of my trusted friends
over an app.
Right, sure, at the end of theday.
Ron (25:48):
If you get both of those to come together in one it's, it's
over.
Storie (25:53):
It's flawless.
So that was the reason for foryour growth and that award this
year, which is amazing.
So the customer journey I justmentioned that.
But how did you build yourinitial marketing and CRM
infrastructure when you startedwith zero customers, like, how
did you know what to do or have?
Ron (26:14):
So I have spent a lot of time learning blood, sweat and
tears, but also being a part ofeducation.
Um, I, I read a lot, um, I ampersonally involved in a direct
response marketing mastermind ofbusiness owners and marketers
that are around the world.
We get together every Thursdaymorning that's where I'll be
(26:36):
tomorrow morning um, for two anda half hours, and I have spent
a lot of time in those kinds ofenvironments, reading what I can
, testing what I can.
Storie (26:46):
OK, OK.
Ron (26:48):
I get crazy ideas and I'm like we'll see if it works.
Storie (26:51):
Why not?
You can only learn I tell mykids this all the time through
making mistakes.
We've made some big ones.
Opportunity to learn and growright?
Ron (27:03):
Sure, yeah, we've made some big ones.
We've made some big ones umsome more expensive than others.
But what?
What we do is we say, okay,even if it didn't work.
What did we learn?
Because I used to work for, fora very influential, wealthy
person in Fort Worth many yearsago and we had a really bad day
and he pulled us in and he wentaround the table and he said
what did you learn?
And we all told him and he said, okay, all is not lost If
(27:27):
something is learned go fix it,that's a true leader.
And so we've tried to apply thatnot only to our marketing, but
how we run business as well.
My people are like hey, can wetry this Sure, as long as we're,
you know, staying within theguardrails of what makes us who
we are?
Storie (27:45):
Absolutely, and have those guardrails set up.
Ron (27:48):
Sure, we do have those guardrails.
And we spent, you know, I tookum the the large part of my
sales team we did three days ata trade show last fall so that
we could get elbow to elbow withthese church members that we
were trying to win theirbusiness Absolutely, and we had
conversations, we had coffee, wehad dinner, we had lunch.
(28:09):
We shut down the office mostlyto take care of doing those
activities in conjunction witheverything else we did.
They know our face.
Storie (28:20):
Touch and intimate relationship is, I would say,
the reason for your exponentialgrowth.
To me.
In my mind, that would mean alot to me For you to shut down
your whole building because youwant to have lunch with me
that's amazing.
It really is a personal touchthat I can't emphasize enough
that you have to have is apersonal touch that I can't
(28:43):
emphasize enough that you haveto have.
So, in the build launch, growscale strategy that we have,
what phase of that four-stepprocess would you say that
you're competing now?
Ron (28:51):
We are currently in the scaling Okay, so we are.
Excuse me, we have taken themarketing that we've done.
That is working.
We're now generating, onaverage, every month
approximately 120 new businessdeals Wow.
That are spread across our salesteam.
Wow, and that's personal,commercial life health.
(29:14):
It's across the board, and weare in the process of helping
those salespeople sell as manyof them as they can.
We also have systems running inthe background.
Just because you don't buy fromme now doesn't mean you're not
going to buy from me later,right?
Absolutely?
Buy or die, I believe, is thephrase most marketers use, right
?
Yes, and so we are using thatever-replenishing lead flow to
(29:41):
build and scale the agency sothat we can bring more people in
to continue to do the samething.
Storie (29:48):
Absolutely, and in your strategy and your process that
you've really refined I meanit's so exceptional and having
the different variations of thedifferent industries that you've
already learned your wife andthe medical industry you've
really kind of jumped throughall the hurdles of the what ifs
right.
Ron (30:06):
We've seen a lot of them.
There's always new ones thatare coming, but we've seen a lot
of them.
Storie (30:10):
Oh, my goodness.
So you mentioned that you havechildren.
What do your daughters think ofthe work you do and how do you
hope being an entrepreneur andthat journey will, will you?
Know, influence them.
Ron (30:25):
So it's, it's pretty funny.
You asked what my daughtersthink about the work that I do.
So they always expect the dadjokes Um, my oldest daughter,
who is 25, um, she just turned25.
She is late going to college.
She didn't know what she wantedto do when she was 18.
And I was the only person inthe family that said stop going
(30:52):
to class.
And I'm a school teacher, right.
And she looked at me with wideeyes and she goes, why?
And I said well, you'respending all this money.
You have no idea what you wantto do with it.
You're taking one or twoclasses at a time, so it's
costing you exponentially moreOver a long period.
(31:12):
Over a long period of time,it's going to keep you from
learning how to live life.
Storie (31:19):
You get lost in the rut, the monotony.
Ron (31:21):
You need to figure out what it means to live on your own
pay bills.
Understand that that may meanhot dogs and ramen at the end of
the month.
That's right.
And you need to figure out whatit is you want to do.
And so a year ago, when shecame to me and said I'm ready to
go back to college, I saidthat's awesome.
(31:43):
What's your plan to do it?
Storie (31:46):
I love it.
Ron (31:47):
And she succinctly laid it out and she's now following
through with it.
She's she's on her path tobecome a counselor, which was
something that that shebenefited from, and she knows
she couldn't operate inside myworld because it's she's like I
don't know how you sit at a deskall day.
That sucks.
Storie (32:06):
Right, that's just not her.
Ron (32:07):
It's not her personality, my, my other daughter who is
about to turn 12 this weekend.
She comes from a very differentplace.
We were talking about work andshe goes.
Dad, you're the boss, you cando whatever you want.
Storie (32:25):
Right, oh girlfriend, right Girlfriend.
Ron (32:28):
It's not quite that simple and we have to talk about.
What does it mean?
You have to work every day.
You have to do the things thatmost other people aren't willing
to do, over and over and overagain, to get to where you want
to be Now.
I don't know that she's evergoing to take over my business
eventually.
I have no preconceived ideasabout that.
(32:49):
I want her to chart her ownpath.
Storie (32:51):
Absolutely Just like her older sister is just like I did
.
Ron (32:54):
Because the statistics say my background, being a poor kid
from small towns in the midwest,I shouldn't be sitting here at
this table with you.
What are statistics anymore?
I say as a math guy.
They're, they're, they're,they're things, but it's, it's
putting into the those two girls.
You can do hard things.
(33:15):
You can do things you don'tthink are possible.
You can chart your own course.
You don't have to look likeeveryone else and you have to
pursue what's right for you.
Storie (33:26):
Absolutely, and then watching you has to be something
.
I mean, that's core.
My parents were entrepreneursand I truly feel like I never
wanted to be one, but it's in mygenes.
Know that that natural and thatcomes from watching your
parents a lot of it does and howthey overcome things, because
so many people can say it's abad day, not a bad life.
Ron (33:46):
But when you see your parents go through those hurdles
, sometimes it's a bad week or abad moment, but yeah, and
that's okay, but we're gonna getthrough it.
Right, we keep pushing through,for sure at the end of day,
right?
Storie (33:58):
So tell me about the launch of True Texas Technology
Insurance.
Ron (34:04):
So we we have some federally registered trademarks
in the business.
Ok, we've tried to protect ourintellectual property.
So we are the home of TrueTexas Home Insurance, true Texas
Church Insurance, true TexasEducation Insurance and we have
in the last few months launchedTrue Texas Technology Insurance.
(34:24):
Wow.
So that is a customized solutionthat fits your individual tech
business, whether it's acomputer repair shop, a data
center, a software developmentcompany, a consulting company.
Digital marketing fits in thereas well.
We come in, we sit down, we asklots of questions.
(34:44):
Some people just it doesn'tresonate with them, and that's
okay.
We ask you lots of questions.
Our goal is to find out what.
What is it that you do?
What makes you unique?
What makes you special?
What are the things that youhave to protect so that your
financial future is secure?
Right, absolutely and then weput that customized plan
(35:06):
together so that you canproperly protect what matters
most to you.
Storie (35:11):
And you're there through the whole process from the
beginning, onboarding themthrough their insurance coverage
with you.
You're able to contact reach,show up at any point in time.
Ron (35:21):
You can send Carrie, your pigeon, if you want.
Storie (35:23):
I love it.
Somebody actually mentionedthat the other day.
Ron (35:26):
Yeah, so you know we laugh.
You can text us, you canFacebook Messenger us, you can
call us.
You can send us an email.
We do use video to sendmessages to people, to send
proposals to people.
If schedules aren't jiving,we'll record a two to five,
seven minute video and runthrough everything you need to
(35:46):
know.
That's vital and core.
Here it is.
You can send us one back.
You can schedule coffee.
You can meet us in the officeif you want.
You got to let us know inadvance because we're not always
there.
All my people work remote, butwe do that so we can meet us in
the office.
If you want, you got to let usknow in advance because we're
not always there.
All my people work remote, butwe do that so we can meet you
where you are and we can providethat personalized, customized
(36:07):
service that you deserve.
Storie (36:08):
Wow, you really are leading the way when it comes to
how people frame insurancecompanies.
It's a lot of verbiage and veryconfusing and I think was what
most people think and you reallydived into the digital age and
environment we're in and made itaccessible to all generations.
Ron (36:26):
really, you've made it very accessible we, we have a couple
that we ensure their home cards, who are not far from where
we're sitting, and I've stoppedby and picked up a check once
because they didn't know howelse to do it.
Okay and, and we, we will dothat on occasion.
We don't we can't do it all thetime, right Cause I'd be, we'd
(36:48):
be running ragged, um, but itallows us to meet people where
they are and provide um, even ina digital format, that old
school service that a lot ofpeople still want.
Storie (37:01):
And crave Absolutely, but with that availability
everybody wants as well right,correct.
So to circle things back?
I mean, I could talk to you fordays about everything I need to
get done, but to circle thingsback if a small business owner
is listening right now.
But to circle things back if asmall business owner is
(37:21):
listening right now, what that's?
Dreading their next insurancecoverage or dreading having to
renew?
Ron (37:27):
What's one mindset shift?
You want them to walk away withEverybody's upset about the
price of insurance today.
Like I'm going to say theelephant in the room right up
front.
Thank you, it's even mine'sexpensive.
Yours everyone's is expensive,right.
When you're a business owner.
You can't leave yourselfexposed, especially the lawsuit.
Storie (37:52):
Absolutely.
Ron (37:53):
You may be able to find a way to rebuild a building.
You may be able to find a wayto relocate your operations to
another spot.
If you get sued and you have nocoverage, everything's at risk.
Storie (38:07):
Absolutely, so you can pay an attorney or you can pay a
lot less for insurance coverage.
Ron (38:12):
It's liability coverage.
Unless you're in some superrisky stuff is not the most
expensive thing in the world Ifyou need to figure out how to
find some creative ways to loweryour property coverage so that
it's less expensive.
We can help you do that, butmost importantly, we want to
(38:32):
make sure that you don't getsued into the sun and have to go
work a job someplace just topay off that debt.
Storie (38:40):
That's a wonderful point to make, because I feel like in
the past few years, a lot ofpeople are kind of looking at
these businesses like, oh,that'd be a nice payout right.
Ron (38:48):
Right, Well, I mean if you watch local TV at all, so go
home and watch the 6 o'clocknews tonight and the 10 o'clock
news.
Watch the six o'clock newstonight and the 10 o'clock news,
two thirds of the commercials.
Storie (39:04):
Since it's not political season, are injury attorneys
looking for new prospects tofile lawsuits for?
Absolutely, and they're outthere looking to file lawsuits.
Right, they are.
That's how they get paid, manWell.
Thank you so much for sharingall this important information
with us, and if any of you outthere would like to learn more
or at least get your options ofwhat you should or shouldn't be
doing in terms of your businessor your personal, please reach
(39:25):
out to Ron.
I'll put his information in thebio below and until next time
we'll see ya.
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