Jason Starner, Commercial Team Lead at Conner Insurance, shares his journey from a banking background to insurance professional and the pivotal risks that shaped his career. Reflecting on 25+ years in the industry, he discusses his unexpected path into insurance and the valuable lessons learned along the way.
• Growing up in rural Ohio with a father in banking initially led Jason to assume he would follow that career path
• His first real exposure to insurance came through a finance class at Bowling Green State University
• Early career anxiety about meeting experienced insurance professionals was overcome by purposefully seeking relationships with top agencies
• The transition from carrier representative to agency side required taking a significant risk - "burning the ships" on his previous career
• Transparency with clients and team members has been fundamental to building successful relationships
• Current insurance market continues to be challenging with general liability claims and "nuclear verdicts" driving increases
• Mentoring early career talent provides as much fulfillment now as closing new business
• Taking calculated risks earlier in your career can lead to unexpected growth opportunities
Insurance is about relationships first—listening, empathy, showing up consistently, and following through on promises. If you do these things and focus on transparency, the technical expertise naturally falls into place.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Risk and Resolve, and now for
your hosts, ben Conner and ToddHufford, welcome to another
episode of the Risk and Resolvepod.
Today we have a very specialguest, jason Starner, who is the
commercial team lead here atConner Insurance.
(00:24):
Jason, thanks for joining ustoday.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Yeah, thank you, gentlemen.
I've been looking forward tothis for the last few months,
ever since I heard this wasstarting, so I'm looking forward
to seeing what hopefullysoftball questions you have for
me today.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah, lots of softball questions.
I've got two of those and I'vegot a bunch of fast pitches for
you.
I've been looking forward to ittoo, jason, because, first of
all, we know each other so well,and so I'm hoping that some of
those stories that you know wealready know about you get
shared a little more broadly.
But what I'm really hoping foris that I'm able to uncover
(00:56):
something I don't yet know aboutyou.
So that's my own littlechallenge.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Let's see if we can figure that out.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
You know I thought about this conversation and you
know Jason Starner just equalsinsurance.
I mean, jason's been ininsurance his whole career, been
very successful at it.
Recruit that we do hire to kindof give them a picture as to
(01:24):
what at least one person'strajectory and history was in
getting into insurance.
So take me back to NorthwesternOhio and give me a little
glimpse of what 16, 17,18-year-old Jason Starner
thought he was going to do withhis life 16 and 17.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I would say early on, quite frankly, I figured I
would end up in the bankingbusiness because that was the
business my dad had been in.
So I really felt just naturallykind of looking up to him, just
like I would imagine a lot ofchildren, or particularly sons
and their fathers, do.
You just look up to that andthink you're going to emulate
that and the success in thatcareer path Out of school at
(02:11):
Bowling Green, that's reallywhere I got my first taste of
insurance.
I majored in finance andinternational business and one
of the finance classes to takewas actually from the CPCU, one
of the CPCU books, and that wasreally my first jump into
understanding what insurance was.
(02:31):
Outside of giving my dad $600every year to pay for my car
insurance, I had no plans to goin insurance.
It wasn't the path or thetrajectory that I thought I
would take.
But oddly enough, out of school, I would say, 90% of the jobs
that I ended up interviewing forwere either finance companies
or insurance carriers and whenit really got down to it, the
(02:53):
insurance piece just appealed tome a lot more and the training
programs I was going to go toand the overall the roles that I
was interviewing for werealways in the territory manager
or sales roles with theinsurance carrier, so that
greatly appealed to me.
I think naturally the pull wasthere, because I'm just a people
(03:13):
person.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
So what you're saying is we can debunk the myth that
Jason Starner, as a high schoolstudent, knew he was going to be
a successful insurance magnateknew he was going to be a
successful insurance magnate?
Speaker 3 (03:26):
No, absolutely not.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
So you grew up in a pretty rural area, defiance, I
mean, that's not a bigmetropolis.
Explain what home life was likeback in high school days.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Home life.
Defiance County had between18,000 and 20,000.
I still think it probablyfluctuates in that area as far
as population goes.
So it's right between FortWayne and Toledo.
Fort Wayne, indiana and Toledo,ohio those were the bigger
(03:59):
towns 30 and 40-minute drivewe'd go to if we wanted to go
shopping for anything.
My father was in the bankingbusiness, my mom.
She was in the banking businessuntil my brother was born and
at that point she made thedetermination to have her be a
stay-at-home mom taking care ofmy brother, who was five years
younger than I.
You know, again, insurancewasn't anything that I knew
anything more of outside of whenI turned 16.
(04:23):
Outside of when I turned 16,that was where my dad started to
instill the responsibilities ofthe financial responsibilities,
and one of those was if youwant that car, a, you're going
to pay me for it, and B, you'regoing to pay for gas, and C,
it's going to be here's how muchadditional you're costing me
every year for insurance.
So that was my first look intothe space from the very
(04:46):
beginning.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Rural area.
What kind of farming exposuredid you or your family have?
Speaker 3 (04:53):
I didn't, we didn't, we didn't have any farming.
The only farming exposure Ireally had was as a child I
would grow up with I'd spend alot of time with my grandfather
once quite a bit, and on.
Sundays and the weekends and I'dspend those weekends with him.
There was a rather large farmdown in southeast Ohio, down in
Appalachia in the Hocking Hillsarea, and every Sunday we'd go
(05:18):
out do a few things and wealways ended up at this massive
farm for breakfast.
It was a big dairy farm.
Always ended up at this massivefarm for breakfast.
It was a big dairy farm.
I actually got some experiencethere with dairy farming but
always had extremely fresh andhomemade breakfasts.
So that's about the onlyfarming exposure I've got.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
So you ended up at a big farm on the weekend in
southeastern Ohio.
You didn't say Rio Grande, butgosh, it sounds like a Bob Evans
farm southeastern Ohio.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
You didn't say Rio Grande, but gosh, it sounds like
a Bob Evans farm.
You know Bob Evans had nothingon this place.
I mean, it was homemade ketchup.
You know their own homemadesausage eggs right out of the
coop.
It was legit Awesome.
So you go to Bowling Green.
(06:07):
How did you pick Bowling Greenout of all the places?
I just found it to be middle ofthe road Through high school.
I had initially had my eye onOhio Northern, much more small
and private school, similarprobably to like a Taylor here
in Indiana, size wise.
I like that because I justnaturally, even though I'm a
people person, I naturally havegravitated to smaller things,
(06:30):
meaning I'm not a bigger isbetter type of person.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
And when I went to tour that campus.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Quite frankly, it was a very quick, no, and all they
had was a splashing farawaystoplight.
I think they had a Kfc, I don'tknow how.
And then it looked likesomebody put a bunch of brick
buildings in the middle of acornfield and said let's call
this a couch and it, you know,it's 17, 18 years old.
I was like I, I can't spend 40years.
Um, conversely, you know,obviously those that know me, I
(07:02):
I'm a big Ohio State fan, right,but conversely, ohio State was
just so big and I just was likethat, just I knew that really
wasn't my fit.
So, you know, the middle of theroad was kind of a Mac school.
It's very similar to Ball Statehere in Indiana.
It was Bowling Green.
It was an hour and 20 minutesor so from home, so far enough
(07:28):
to where, if they wanted to getyou, they'd have to call you to
let you know they're coming, butclose enough to get home pretty
quick if you needed to go homeand have mom do laundry or
something like that.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
So four years of finance at international
business at Bowling Green.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
You're a senior at Bowling Green.
Had you had any insuranceinternships at all, or were you
kind of going?
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I did not.
I had no.
The only internship I did I did, um, I did work for some family
friends that owned a ratherdecent size manufacturing
company at home and, uh, Iactually did a bunch of ground
maintenance and things in thesummers.
They provided a job.
They knew my dad and uh, whenone of the owners, marty, said,
(08:04):
hey, you know you're coming backagain next summer, I said no, I
need to really find aninternship.
And his response was he sayswell, you just send me the paper
and tell me what qualificationsit needs to be to qualify and
I'll make sure it qualifiesRight.
So I end up just doing aninternship there, working with
their lead controller andaccounting person there for a
summer.
Working with their leadcontroller and accounting person
(08:25):
there for a summer.
Nothing insurance related.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Well, obviously Ohio for those that don't know is the
domicile and home state formany insurance companies.
So I can imagine going to anyOhio based college.
There's going to be a fairnumber of Ohio insurance
companies recruiting students,who are some of the names I
guess.
Guess you remember recruitingon campus and otherwise.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Well, todd, quite frankly, when I was in college I
never went to one job fair.
Actually, I take that back.
I did go to one and nothingmuch came of it.
I don't remember talking toinsurance carriers.
I, quite frankly, don't evenremember who the heck I remember
talking to it, just naturally.
(09:08):
I do remember sending outresumes galore out of my
apartment using my old wordprocessor.
You know address, just deleteand add, delete and add.
And Lincoln Financial, you know,had at that point in time three
big offices up in Fort Wayne.
You know, had at that point intime three big offices up in
Fort Wayne.
Um, salina Insurance Group,which is down in Salina, ohio,
(09:29):
which was south of the finance,about, you know, an hour and a
half drive or so, was anothersmaller regional insurance
carrier, and there were.
There were a few others as well.
I saw.
I remember talking to StateFarm that was a phone interview
initially, um, but uh, most ofthe others then again were more
in the financial.
You know, hey, you go to afurniture store and we can
finance that business for youworking in an office somewhere
(09:51):
doing something like that.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
So you approached the latter half of your senior year
Growing up in the household youdid.
You knew that responsibilitywas coming your way quickly so
that freshman in the real worldfirst job where'd you land?
The first person that paid you,who we like to say, didn't love
you.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Yeah, the first job I took was with Salina Insurance
Group, a small regional in Ohio.
Like I referenced earlier, theywere primarily personal lines
in the farm and agribusiness.
That's really their forte.
They did commercial as well,but it was more Main Street
mom-and-pop commercial business.
(10:34):
So, you know, it was a greatstart though, because they were
hiring at that point in timefour individuals, fresh right
out of college, to come in andgo through a whole year long
training session.
So we are in a basement, nowindows, you know one door, no
(10:55):
computers, right and literallyinsurance manuals and policy
forms in front of us.
And that's how we learn readingthe form.
And we there were days we'dspent you know four hours on how
this one word changed thecoverage and that's.
And then our test work.
Here's the form, here's thequestion tell me where and how
and why.
And that that was my training.
(11:16):
But that training was trainingus all to be in the marketing
territory, rep position.
So that that was has alwaysbeen the 15 years I was on the
carrier side.
That was always um, those werealways the positions I was in.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
So, jason, after Celina, uh, what?
What was your next stop?
Um, cause, we're leading up tothis build, to where you were at
Philly, and then we can.
We can leave from there, buttell us about after.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Celina Insurance.
What happened?
So, celina, I moved to AcuityInsurance.
I was at Celina for five years.
Primary duties were reallyagency relations in the state of
Indiana and at a big eyeconvention after about five
years I had met an individual atAcuity up out of Wisconsin and,
(12:07):
lo and behold, it was about ayear later or so.
He kept my card and calls me upand says, hey, you know, we
have a position opening up, andactually initially the position
was for a territory rep job inWisconsin, but that just wasn't
going to work at that point withmy wife and I.
(12:29):
So that ceased conversation Sixmonths later he calls back and
says, hey, what if you didn'thave to move?
We have a position in Indiana.
Away that conversation went andI ended up taking up the same,
very similar position withAcuity.
From Salina to Acuity, reallythe biggest difference there
much bigger carrier At thatpoint, more of a regional
Midwest carrier.
Today they're more of a superregional.
The big difference was theywere primarily commercial driven
(12:52):
with very much small, almost aflip commercial to personal.
So for me it was a greatprofessional growth opportunity
to learn a lot more on thecommercial side of the business
and really expand my knowledgebase there.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Yes.
What were some of the keytakeaways?
Because those were a few earlycareer job opportunities.
What do you feel like was themain takeaway from those early
career opportunities, especiallyin the insurance space?
Speaker 3 (13:27):
opportunities, especially in the insurance
space Takeaways.
Well, you know, at that point Iwas 25, 26, I think, when I was
leaving Salina to go to, youknow, to go to Acuity, and still
, I mean, that's pretty young,you still really.
I think you're stuck trying tofigure out is this what I want
to do with my lifeprofessionally?
Would I move potentially evento a wisconsin or something else
?
Would that be in the cards formy wife and my family?
(13:48):
Um, you know, as you're outthere in the field, you just
don't.
Well, particularly at thatpoint, you know, technology
isn't what it is today.
So, connecting via team zoomand and all the fashions that we
do today, and we're there uh.
So the carriers did their bestto make you feel part of the
group internally, you know, andyou'd get to the home office
(14:09):
three, four, five times a year.
But you were still out there onyour own on this island and,
while I always felt you couldmake an impact, I always
wondered was the impact enoughand was I being heard and seen
enough internally to potentiallyposition myself to make that
next move, which wouldpotentially mean I moved to a
(14:30):
home office somewhere rightWisconsin, columbus, wherever
that would be?
So I just constantly tried toposition myself, to be in front
of the right people and and beseen and heard where appropriate
.
So if those opportunities wereto arise, I was seen as a good
candidate for that.
I mean, I went as far andduring one of my jobs, my
(14:53):
manager asked me you know,what's the one thing you need
from me?
And my very direct answer asyou guys know me, I'm pretty
direct my direct answer was Ineed you to train me to take
your job.
That was, and I quote that was,and he sat back and says really
I said, yes, I'm not out to getyou, but I also, you know, in
(15:14):
the progress of my career I wantupward mobility right and if
it's with this carrier oranother carrier, it likely would
mean a position that he sat inright and I needed him to mentor
me to help prepare me for that.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
He understood it completely and actually was one
of the better managers I hadthought process of being early
in career and being placed infront of very technical
(15:49):
insurance people.
Um, how did you like prepare?
What was your mindset Like?
Can you like recall like thatperiod of your life and what
that part of the situation waslike?
Speaker 3 (16:00):
It was um, you know, when you're young like that, you
don't know what you don't know.
Um, most people that knew meback in high school, um, would
not probably fully back then.
They would have not recognizedthe confident and seemingly
(16:21):
outgoing person that you seetoday.
It was, it was, it was.
So there you go.
I mean, Todd, you want to coversomething that that may be one.
It was almost the completeopposite.
You know, I wasn't the socialbutterfly, I wasn't the real
talk that it won.
I just it was the opposite ofwhat you see today.
So, being young like that andstepping into a role that was
very outwardly facing, walkinginto agents that you never knew,
(16:45):
that had been in the businessfor 20, 30, 40, 50 years, that
knew far more than you didtechnically, it was very
nerve-wracking.
So I approached that initiallywith Celina.
I said, okay, who are my topfour or five largest insurance
agents in my territory?
And I made it priority one tobe in their office nonstop to
(17:08):
get to know them, because Ifigured well A very selfishly
they would likely give me themost amount of time because they
had the most business with us,right?
So at that point, stepping intothere and I asked them a ton of
questions and a couple of themwere just incredibly open doors
and they would I mean one ofthem actually had me work in
(17:31):
their agency for the day,answering the phone, working
alongside their account managers, just to get a feel for what
that operation looked like.
Which again technical detailscontinue to come out.
That operation looked like,which again technical details
continue to come out, and itjust continued to build that
confidence in myself and myknowledge base.
And as time goes on, obviouslyyou learn more and more and more
(17:52):
and at some point you startrealizing wait a minute, I
probably am the smartest personin the room on these details.
I'm worried about it, but theodds are I probably know more
than the average bear that I'mtalking to.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
So over time you start to build this to just fake
it and pretend I knew a lotyou're like hey, like I, what I
(18:30):
can be really good at right nowis like relationship and
building that while I'm learning.
So I'm going to lean intosomething that I can, I can
control, that I can, like youknow, be successful at with with
preparation, and that's where Ithink that on that is great
advice, cause I think there's alot out there and certainly
(18:53):
there's an element that you haveto step into the unknown to
some degree.
Right, and like just figure itout, but there's always a part
of a situation where you canlean into a strength.
So that's really good.
So not to go through like awhole resume by any means, but
(19:18):
you ended up at philly,philadelphia insurance and you,
uh, um, you were the expert,like you knew what you were
doing.
I don't really share with uslike that experience and like
that you know where you were atin your career, like how long,
how many years, you've been aprofessional and then, and then
from there you came over toconnor and because that's how we
(19:41):
met is when you're atphiladelphia insurance as a as a
carrier rep, but just kind ofrecount that circumstance and
like what that transition waslike to come to the agency side
and maybe even some like hey, Ithought this about the agency
side, but getting over here itwas actually maybe different or
(20:02):
a lot of what I expected.
I don't know.
You tell us.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, a couple of things beforeI answer that question directly
to your point of theintimidation and being young and
how actually I can tie thisdirectly into Connor.
Even back in my Salina days, Iremember coming into this office
and at that point of course youguys weren't here, but I sat
(20:24):
because a part of my job at thatpoint was also appointing new
agencies to grow the territory,and I walked in to the door and
I walked in and I asked I forgetwho was the receptionist at
that point to speak to aprincipal or a partner.
And Jack actually was the onethat got the lucky opportunity
(20:47):
and I remember sitting in ourconference room around the round
table I can almost tell youexactly where I was sitting and
where he was sitting.
And I sat in there in those bigburgundy chairs and I'm out of
my league here.
And Jack walks in and we allknow Jack right, I'm out of my
league here.
Jack walks in and we all knowJack right, and and he, you know
, if you didn't know him, ofcourse in my twenties it can be,
intimidating Right and Iremember sitting there trying to
(21:09):
go through it and I thoughtthis isn't going to work.
I'm just I'm, I'm overshootingit here.
So to tie in it's.
It's interesting that I'm nowhere at Connor insurance and
I've gotten to know Jack prettywell over the years and how that
goes, you know, from 15 yearsto today.
Anyway, left Acuity, went toPhiladelphia Insurance, worked
(21:30):
there for five years, same thingin the carrier rep position,
which is where I met you guys.
A large part of Philadelphia'sbook, they're the King of the
Hill, you know, when it comes tononprofit social service
business, private charterschools, a lot of things like
that, a lot of things thatConnor Insurance did then and
still does today very well.
We write a lot of business andhave a lot of relationships in
(21:50):
that space.
So, working with you guys.
That's how I got to know Connor.
Really I spent a lot of time,ben I know, with you on Heritage
Christian.
I believe back then you werestill doing more PNC at that
time, but of course I remembersitting at the roundtable with
the AMs multiple times as well,with Karen and Debbie and Todd.
(22:16):
At some point I think I got toknow you working on the Humane
Society I forget what account itwas, but that's my intro
working for Philly into reallygetting to know and understand
counterinsurance, you know, andat that point in time I quickly
realized you know, you do whatyou say and say what you do.
(22:37):
That's the type of people I wasdealing with here, and Ben, in
particular, your dad.
I worked with him on multipleaccounts and I quickly realized
if I did and I hit this number,here's what you need to do to
win and if I did it nine timesout of 10, I was going to get
the win and I was going to writebusiness.
So I was in here at least onceor twice a month.
(22:59):
Sometimes it would just be inthe library and I'd talk to a
few people, other times I'd getthe whole crew.
But that enabled me A, to buildincredible relationships with
everybody on the team, but alsoget to understand what it took
to grow a business.
And at that point I mean Ivividly remember because you
were one of my higher growthagencies during my tenure there
we went from somewhere in thehundred and some thousand dollar
(23:19):
range to well over a milliondollar book of business.
Uh, just through building thoserelationships and that trust
factor that we established.
So and then, of course, Ihappened to be in here one day,
um sitting then with you andyour dad working on a school
account, and the opportunitiescame up.
Uh, you know, um, and here Iknow, and here I am today.
(23:42):
Here I am today.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
So about that were you looking?
Were you at a point in yourcareer where you were open to
looking, or was it kind of asurprise ask that changed the
trajectory of what you weredoing?
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Yeah, no, I wasn't.
Well, was I actively looking?
No, I think anybody that has agrowth mindset is constantly
looking to grow themselvesprofessionally and potentially
look at what that nextopportunity may be.
So from that aspect I wasn'tactively looking, but I'm always
listening for that nextopportunity.
(24:19):
And I believe it was a few weeksbefore I was actually sitting
in Jim Ben, your dad's office, Ithink you two were actually at
Philadelphia Roadshow over inColumbus, ohio, and we chatted
for a bit.
Anyway, then, fast forward tothat meeting in your dad's
office, somebody on the boardyour dad had asked would you be
happy to come out and presentand help us present?
(24:41):
I said absolutely.
And the person on the boardthat was coming out from that
school worked at Travelers and Imade a very just meant nothing,
just to say well, I have to askthem if they're hired.
And I remember very vividly,ben, you and your dad kind of
looked at each other and you gotup and left the room and went
to your office.
You came back with a piece ofpaper from that roadshow and
(25:07):
across he said well, actually,and he pointed at the bottom and
it said recruit Jason Starner.
And evidently you told me youtwo had had a conversation
coming back from Columbus aboutme.
So one, it was very flattering.
Two, even more so from thepeople that were asking me In
(25:29):
the carrier rep position, as notjust me because I'm special,
but most reps, I believe.
If you're worth a darn, you'rein and out of literally hundreds
.
I was in and out of, but darn,you're in and out of literally
hundreds.
I was in and out of, over thecourse of 15 years on the
carrier side, hundreds andhundreds of different insurance
(25:50):
agencies, from two and three manshops and in the middle of the
farm country to the largestbrokerages in the country.
You're approached often withhey, you know, have you ever
thought about this or thoughtabout that?
We'd love to talk to you and,quite frankly, it's just for one
reason or another a lack oftrust, understanding how they
(26:10):
treated their employees, knowinghow they treated and interacted
with their clients For whateverreason it was very, very, very
few were ones that I would haveever considered to take a job
with.
Um, and you know, when thatopportunity popped up that day
with you and your dad again, Iknow you guys have heard this,
but I I remember right where Iwas parked outside, I walked out
(26:35):
to my car and I to myself saidthat could work and that that
that was kind of the start ofwhat led me here today.
That was what 10 years ago itwould have been probably about
12, closer to 12 years ago.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Yeah, one of the reasons I think that you and I
get along so well.
I mean, there's a lot ofreasons actually, but one of
them is we both have a passionfor that early career talent.
And you look at our team wehave some early career talent,
but we also have some seasonedtalent, which you need.
A balance of both and, ofcourse, you and I talking about
(27:10):
welcoming early career talent tothe team is at our own jeopardy
as we get closer and closer tobeing not even anywhere near the
definition of early careertalent.
From your standpoint, what doesthat phrase mean and why is it
important for any agency tofocus on that, to build systems
(27:31):
and means to attract thoseindividuals into the industry?
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Yeah, you know, I think a lesser confident person
at 49 years old would sit thereand be worried about it.
But as part of the team now, Iused to use Ben, your dad, on
occasion to pull gray hairedinto the meetings with me to
have gray hair.
Well, I've had now two peopleon our team pull me into
(28:00):
meetings for that and I'm likeOK, so we've entered that phase
of life.
It's actually quite humblingthat they look to you for that
and it's a great responsibilitythat we have to, whether it's
our own children or the peoplehere at work, right, to do that.
You know, if you're not growing, where are you going?
Right, you're dying on the vine.
So for that growth, where areyou going?
(28:22):
Right, you're dying on the vine.
So for that growth, you know weneed to continue to recruit
young career talent and I thinkall too often, in my opinion,
young career talent, with a lotof people, gets associated with
somebody right out of highschool or college.
Right, yes, they're young, butthat may not be young in their
career.
Right, look, maybe they, maybe,maybe they're 30 years old and
they've done something else for10 years, but they've made that
(28:43):
transition and said that's notit.
Insurance is for me now.
That's where I want to go.
I've learned enough.
That's that.
That's my trajectory.
I would still consider thatyoung career talent.
Right Now we start getting toour fifties, that may be a
little different story, but Ithink it's incredibly important
that we do that.
Um, I myself over the years andI still enjoy it to this day
(29:08):
greatly going out, whittlingthrough an opportunity and
leading it to the close and theyes.
But I think, as with mostpeople, as you get older, your
bucket gets filled also byhelping others to become
successful and imparting yourwisdom.
It's you know, of what you'velearned, your experiences and
(29:29):
shared experiences with them forthem to compete or compete in
the marketplace and to winpersonally and professionally.
And my bucket, I would say, isprobably about half full between
going out and still gettingwins, and that they're probably
about 50-50 right now with whereI'm at in my career, still
getting wins in that they'reprobably about 50-50 right now
with where I'm at in my career.
(29:50):
Yeah, and some of that enteredtoo, todd, because you know
being a father as well.
It greatly changes yourperspective on life personally
and professionally.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Yeah, you're managing current accounts, prospecting
new business, managing a teamwhich involves not just the
people part of it, but theprocesses, and even, just this
week, getting into differentaccounting details, and so
you're getting the full spectrumof it.
You know, over my shoulder hereis that ship, and we oftentimes
use that phrase burn the ships.
(30:17):
Have you burned the ships yet?
You know, when you started here, third generation had not yet
purchased the agency, but you'resmart and you knew what you
were looking at.
And so, while Jim was very muchin the room and Jack was
involved and Tom was involved,you knew that you were coming on
(30:38):
to a team that was, you know,not going to be led by them long
term, but by us.
Was there a point in those last10 years, 12 years where you
proverbially had to burn theships on any other plan B in
your life, where you said, no,this is it, this is where I'm
going to do it, I'm going tomake all my dreams and hopes and
(30:59):
dreams come true here.
Was there a moment like that?
I mean?
Speaker 3 (31:04):
I don't know if there was a.
I mean, quite frankly, thatmoment probably was best, when I
finally got the nerve up toaccept the position, to come
here.
Quite frankly, you know, asyou're aware, you made the offer
to me sometime in like May, andI didn't start until October,
and you and I and you wereextremely patient, which again
(31:24):
told me you were looking for theright person, not just to throw
bodies at the wall and seewho's stuck.
Right, that was actually aquestion I asked you, ben I said
well, how many people are youtalking to, what's the list look
like and where am I at?
You're like it's a list of one.
But again, no matter who Italked to, I got the same
message Right and it was aboutthe person and it was about the
(31:47):
fit.
So you take that along with.
It was very clear that you knowthe third generation was going
to come in, of which I morerelate to age-wise, and in
conversations and meetings thatwe had, I knew the trajectory
that you guys wanted to takethis thing Right and I
(32:08):
specifically remember I wouldlove to be a part of that ride.
So in 15, 20 years we look backand say, wow, that was
incredible.
And you know, and I couldsomehow at that point, whatever
my role would be in that.
I mean, I take extreme pride inwhere we've gone, even in the
last 11 years since I've beenhere.
So, yeah, it took a lot of nervefor me to make that choice and
(32:34):
I took a pay cut to do it.
It was very nerve wracking butI looked at it as an investment
in myself, greater control overmy time, and at that point, of
course, we were pregnant withour first, you know, with
Solaire.
So it gave me greater controlover my time and at that point,
(32:56):
of course, we were pregnant withour first, you know, with
Solaire.
So it gave me greater controlover my income.
It gave me greater control overmy time and aligned better with
me personally and missionallywith where I needed to go.
So, todd, really, quite frankly, that probably was the time I
burned the ships, because, asI've said this was, this wasn't,
this was my retirement plan.
Right, invest in it, see itthrough, make it work, because
if it works, you know, hotdiggity dog things could be good
(33:17):
, right?
So, uh, and you know, knock onwood, things have been, things
have been great.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Absolutely.
Um, you know, jason, I thinkyou have just an incredible
talent for not only clients andconsulting and helping them
navigate decisions around.
You know risk and risk transferas it relates to insurance.
You need to just know whatyou're doing.
(33:44):
Just a phenomenal consultant inthat.
What is your mindset around howyou approach doing your job?
How did you get to this spot ofhoning those skills
(34:06):
relationally?
Speaker 3 (34:07):
but also technically so well, I say this all the time
what we do isn't rocket science, it's not.
Most of it comes down to justpure relationships Listening,
being empathetic, let peopleknow they're heard, showing up
(34:30):
and say what you're going to doand do what you're going to say
and the rest I feel naturally.
If you do those things and focuson those things, I think a lot
of the other stuff justnaturally falls into place.
Right, you clearly in our, inour roles, need to then add in
the technical expertise ofinsurance to make it all
function.
But I think I would like tothink that a large part of the
(34:53):
reason why I've been able toeither gain new relationships,
maintain the current ones andjust in general, even with the
team here, internally keepthings moving, is because I feel
that those are my strengths,that I excel at, and I think the
people that are around me seethat it's a very sincere and
empathetic approach that I taketo it.
(35:14):
You know, and if you do thatand you educate your clients,
you communicate regularly withthem along the way, don't bring
surprises to them, and you justdo it through building, you know
, on the foundation of yourrelationships, things just,
things just, will naturally takecare of themselves.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
What do you?
What do you?
What do you wish C-suiteleaders knew about?
You know, like, what's missingthat C-suite leaders need to
know, I guess about the approachto insurance that you see that
they might be missing in yourinteraction of like man.
This relationship could bebetter, but their mindset isn't
(35:57):
right.
Like what would you tellemployers about around mindset
and engaging with their agent ortheir insurance advisor?
Speaker 3 (36:08):
One word comes to mind initially would be
transparency.
Going back over the differentplaces I've been along with the
different managers I've had andI would honestly say
transparency, and I believe alarge part of that.
I think I've gotten the most ofit by far and away here,
(36:31):
particularly with you, toddright, you've always been
extremely.
It's like.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
I've said you know, you're the Wizard of.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
Oz, but you pull back that curtain right and that
allows that allows me tounderstand the inner workings of
what's going on and that led usto the decision to get us there
, and then how my piece, or myteam's members, my team member
pieces, work in that and then Iunderstand that picture of how
to make it work for the greaterwhole some places they don't
(37:01):
right, it's just hey, here's ournumber, if you need to write
four million dollars in newbusiness this year.
They give you no consultation,they don't ask you your opinion
on, hey, what are the agenciesdoing?
What are you seeing in themarket?
It's just more throwing it atyou with no real explanation,
and then you're sat there tryingto kind of backfill it with
very little explanation as towhy or input into why.
(37:26):
So I think that's somethingthat here with our team that
we're very good at, and in turnI try to do that, you know, all
the way down, even with the restof my team members.
So there is no, there is noquestion Like this, is it so?
And I try to be that way withmy clients, very transparent
(37:50):
with them.
If I leave that meeting or thatoffice space and they walk away
scratching their head onwhatever it is, then I've
clearly missed.
I've missed the mark and I'venot done my job.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Well, I know one of the things you do really well
and I know this because we askour clients, you know, after
renewals, what they think andone of the things they
oftentimes talk about is the waythat you and the account
managers you work with sharewith our clients and our
prospects the state of themarket, and you know these are
people in businesses doing otherthings.
(38:19):
They don't know if it'srestrictive or open season.
You know, for those that arelistening to the podcast, you
know here we are sitting in Q12025.
What's a brief update on thecommercial property and casualty
market.
Speaker 3 (38:34):
Yep, I do one for every one of my clients at
Renewal and even provide themupdates throughout the year if I
happen to be on a phone callwith them or whatever.
You know a lot of it is againTodd.
It's just the education andbeing transparent with what's
going on.
I tell them.
I think it's important youunderstand what's going on
nationally, or even in our world, globally, in the insurance
(38:56):
marketplace, because it alltrickles down to the end user
right the person buying a homeor car, the business owner, et
cetera.
So the current market today iswe're still in a hard market.
Right Pricing continues tostill push up.
That started late in 2019.
So carriers are still chasingtheir tail and trying to
(39:17):
increase their profitability.
The biggest changes, I tell myclients right now that is
occurring is the percentage ofincreases that carriers were
looking for compared to four andfive years ago, back in 2020 to
today is coming down.
So that's good news.
The other major thing is thelines of coverage that is
(39:39):
driving the bigger portions ofincreases has shifted Back in
2020, it was a lot on initiallywith COVID, it was directors and
officers and your managementliabilities and cyber
liabilities and some of thosethings that were driving it.
You know it shifted over time,once COVID and the freaking out
that everybody did.
Once that started to calm downand the industry started to
(40:03):
realize, ok, you know, we'regoing to be fine from that At
that point.
Then property ramped up reallyfast.
Property is still there, there'sstill pushes on ITVs and
deductibles and things, but theoverall rate increases are
starting to trickle down and getsmaller Carriers and
(40:25):
publications.
You're starting to hear thebuzzwords rate adequacy a lot in
that space, additional capitalflooding into that space, which
means at some point reinsurancetreaties they sign with will
ease up and that should ease upfor all of us.
Really, the biggest thing rightnow that's ramping up big time
(40:45):
are general liability, justliability claims in general.
So you know you hear terms likenuclear verdicts, millennial
juries.
You know, depending on thecoverage line, some statutes or
limitations have been waived inmany states allowing things to
go back.
So these verdicts and even theinvestments made to bring these
(41:06):
lawsuits, it's absolutely insanefor what it takes to settle
some of these claims these days.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Let's fast forward a number of years.
You're at the end of yourprofessional career and you're
deciding to hang up the gloves.
We've talked about where you'vecome thus far.
What are some things that youwant to make sure you accomplish
between now and you say goodbyeto the insurance industry?
Speaker 3 (41:34):
Yeah, I still don't really know what that looks like
.
You know, you think about it.
Lips is here and there.
You think about it from atimeline standpoint.
You know, at 49 years old, I'ma lot closer to retirement than
I'd like to be.
You know, is that another?
You know, can I do it another10 years and call it quits 15
(41:57):
years, 20 years?
I don't know, timeline wise,what that looks like.
I enjoy what I do and I don'tknow I can't just sit at home.
No, you cannot, yeah.
So initially, my thought on thetimeline is I'm going to, I'm
going to play this out until Iphysically or mentally probably
(42:17):
can't do it.
Or you guys will say you know,get out of here, because I,
quite frankly, you know, again,it's not rocket science.
If you like what you do and Ido, if you like what you're
doing it with, and that involvesour team here at connor as well
as the clients you're doing itwith it's not really a job,
(42:37):
right?
You hear it all the time.
Um, so I could see myself doingthis another 20, 25 years?
um, we're at.
You know, over time, I wouldyou know.
I could see myself, though,spending more time at the lake,
or doing it from a differentlocation, remotely here a little
more often, or at a differentremote location in Florida.
Maybe Todd's sitting on theporch with you somewhere on a
(42:59):
farm making maple syrup, I don'tknow.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
Could be anywhere.
Yeah, I could see myself doingit from different locales.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
I could see myself doing it from different locales.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
You bring up a good point.
This industry allows smart,experienced, intelligent people
(43:36):
to stay in it a long time.
That's one of the concerns Ihave about just the amount of
people retiring.
Speaker 3 (43:39):
I get it, they're at retirement age but there's a lot
of brain drain that's happening.
That why I'm so passionateabout bringing on those early
careers to capture'm hoping Idon't have to really think about
that.
Like I said, as long as I feelI'm adding value to the clients
and the team in some way shapeor form, and it may be in a
different capacity at that point, in 15 or 20 years, then I
(44:04):
likely want to be involved inhelping to do my part.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
I have a question before Todd ends us with the,
with our two standard questionswhat, what, what advice would
you give your 22 year old self,just kind of looking back at
what you've experienced over thelast many years of professional
experience?
What would you tell yourself?
Speaker 3 (44:40):
What would I tell myself?
You know it's easy to look back, 26, 27 years later and
understand it now versus then.
You know, the first thing Iwould probably tell myself is
don't be so darned afraid oftaking more risk.
You know, again, going back toburning the ships and that
decision to make the jump fromthe carrier to the private side
(45:01):
here, it was a big decision.
Again, it took me five monthsto get up the nerve to do it and
I wish, you know, I've toldpeople before I wish I would
have done it earlier in mycareer.
Knowing what I know now, I wishI would have done it when I was
25 or 30.
I mean, for a multitude ofreasons.
But again, you don't know whatyou don't know.
(45:24):
And you know we're, we're,quite frankly, again, we're not
in control, right, there's apath that's already set for us
and we just got to do our bestto navigate that path and um,
we're, we're along for the ride,you know.
But if, looking back, I wouldtell myself take more risk,
don't be afraid to take somerisks and you may lose, you may
(45:45):
fall, you may set yourself backa step or two, but take that
risk a little bit more oftenbecause you just don't know
where that potentially couldlead to and it could just take
off.
Or I mean, you know it may not,but you're going to learn
something from it that likelywill set you up for more success
down the road risk.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
That's perfect, jason .
I think those that know you onthe team and clients know that
they probably already know everysingle bit of this podcast
information because you are sotransparent.
But on the point of taking arisk, you have always been very
good to remind people thatyou're there with a pretty big
safety net for them, whichencourages people to kind of
move into that risk.
Which brings us perfectly toour two questions that we like
(46:30):
to ask everybody.
First question I think I mightknow what this is, but we'll see
.
You might throw a curveball.
What is a risk that you havetaken that has changed your life
?
Speaker 3 (46:43):
We've covered that.
Really it was.
You know it was go back to theburn of the ships and really
making I can't exaggerate howbig of a deal that was for me
and the sleepless nights I hadtrying to make that decision to
go from the comfort of knowingthe carrier's life for 15 years,
yeah, and what that entailedfinancially, etc.
(47:05):
And making that jump into it.
I'm going to work forcommission.
What Right.
And that that was by far andaway Right.
But if I wish I would havetaken that risk earlier and
knowing what I know now.
But it's worked out and I Ilooking back on it and you guys
(47:28):
have heard me say this it wasthe best thing that I did not
knowing it at the time,personally, professionally,
spiritually I mean spirituallyfor for multitude of reasons,
looking back, it was like thatwas the right time and I
understand now why it was theright time.
Right.
Speaker 2 (47:44):
Second, final question what is an what's
unfinished that you have theresolve to complete in the near
future?
Speaker 3 (47:55):
This podcast?
No, no, what's unresolved ishonestly not.
You know we have the, we havethe vision and we have the plan
here right, and we've set thesegoals for our firm and each
department and each team.
(48:16):
So what's left unfinished isseeing that through bringing in
the new talent, educating them,mentoring them, passing along
what we can to them to achievethose goals, while also
nurturing and being empatheticand helping those that have been
here for a long time play theircareer out here as long as they
want to be here, because that'sthe foundation that we've got
(48:37):
to build on right.
I would say that's what's leftunfinished and how my role looks
in it.
I mean, I know what it is today, but that's going to change
right.
We have to learn and change andadapt each one of us as we add
another 10, 15, 25 employees toour staff.
That's what's left unfinishedGreat answer.
Speaker 2 (48:59):
Thanks for your time, jason.
Thanks for your dedication tothe team and the team members,
the clients.
If anybody doesn't know, Ireceive all the feedback from
your clients.
If anybody doesn't know, Ireceive all the feedback from
your clients and there has never, ever, ever been a disparaging
comment from any one of thecustomers.
It's always been super positive.
So it's always fun to get themand to send them to you and be
like here's another winner, youknow.
(49:21):
So we appreciate and enjoy andlove that you take care of the
customer so well and, of course,in your role as the commercial
lines department lead, that youtake care of the team so well.
That's almost more important,and so thanks for that and
thanks for your time today.
Thank you, guys for having me.
Speaker 3 (49:33):
It's been a pleasure.
You're listening to Risk and Resolve, and now for
your hosts, ben Conner and ToddHufford, welcome to another
episode of the Risk and Resolvepod.
Today we have a very specialguest, jason Starner, who is the
commercial team lead here atConner Insurance.
(00:24):
Jason, thanks for joining ustoday.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Yeah, thank you, gentlemen.
I've been looking forward tothis for the last few months,
ever since I heard this wasstarting, so I'm looking forward
to seeing what hopefullysoftball questions you have for
me today.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah, lots of softball questions.
I've got two of those and I'vegot a bunch of fast pitches for
you.
I've been looking forward to ittoo, jason, because, first of
all, we know each other so well,and so I'm hoping that some of
those stories that you know wealready know about you get
shared a little more broadly.
But what I'm really hoping foris that I'm able to uncover
(00:56):
something I don't yet know aboutyou.
So that's my own littlechallenge.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Let's see if we can figure that out.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
You know I thought about this conversation and you
know Jason Starner just equalsinsurance.
I mean, jason's been ininsurance his whole career, been
very successful at it.
Recruit that we do hire to kindof give them a picture as to
(01:24):
what at least one person'strajectory and history was in
getting into insurance.
So take me back to NorthwesternOhio and give me a little
glimpse of what 16, 17,18-year-old Jason Starner
thought he was going to do withhis life 16 and 17.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I would say early on, quite frankly, I figured I
would end up in the bankingbusiness because that was the
business my dad had been in.
So I really felt just naturallykind of looking up to him, just
like I would imagine a lot ofchildren, or particularly sons
and their fathers, do.
You just look up to that andthink you're going to emulate
that and the success in thatcareer path Out of school at
(02:11):
Bowling Green, that's reallywhere I got my first taste of
insurance.
I majored in finance andinternational business and one
of the finance classes to takewas actually from the CPCU, one
of the CPCU books, and that wasreally my first jump into
understanding what insurance was.
(02:31):
Outside of giving my dad $600every year to pay for my car
insurance, I had no plans to goin insurance.
It wasn't the path or thetrajectory that I thought I
would take.
But oddly enough, out of school, I would say, 90% of the jobs
that I ended up interviewing forwere either finance companies
or insurance carriers and whenit really got down to it, the
(02:53):
insurance piece just appealed tome a lot more and the training
programs I was going to go toand the overall the roles that I
was interviewing for werealways in the territory manager
or sales roles with theinsurance carrier, so that
greatly appealed to me.
I think naturally the pull wasthere, because I'm just a people
(03:13):
person.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
So what you're saying is we can debunk the myth that
Jason Starner, as a high schoolstudent, knew he was going to be
a successful insurance magnateknew he was going to be a
successful insurance magnate?
Speaker 3 (03:26):
No, absolutely not.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
So you grew up in a pretty rural area, defiance, I
mean, that's not a bigmetropolis.
Explain what home life was likeback in high school days.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Home life.
Defiance County had between18,000 and 20,000.
I still think it probablyfluctuates in that area as far
as population goes.
So it's right between FortWayne and Toledo.
Fort Wayne, indiana and Toledo,ohio those were the bigger
(03:59):
towns 30 and 40-minute drivewe'd go to if we wanted to go
shopping for anything.
My father was in the bankingbusiness, my mom.
She was in the banking businessuntil my brother was born and
at that point she made thedetermination to have her be a
stay-at-home mom taking care ofmy brother, who was five years
younger than I.
You know, again, insurancewasn't anything that I knew
anything more of outside of whenI turned 16.
(04:23):
Outside of when I turned 16,that was where my dad started to
instill the responsibilities ofthe financial responsibilities,
and one of those was if youwant that car, a, you're going
to pay me for it, and B, you'regoing to pay for gas, and C,
it's going to be here's how muchadditional you're costing me
every year for insurance.
So that was my first look intothe space from the very
(04:46):
beginning.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Rural area.
What kind of farming exposuredid you or your family have?
Speaker 3 (04:53):
I didn't, we didn't, we didn't have any farming.
The only farming exposure Ireally had was as a child I
would grow up with I'd spend alot of time with my grandfather
once quite a bit, and on.
Sundays and the weekends and I'dspend those weekends with him.
There was a rather large farmdown in southeast Ohio, down in
Appalachia in the Hocking Hillsarea, and every Sunday we'd go
(05:18):
out do a few things and wealways ended up at this massive
farm for breakfast.
It was a big dairy farm.
Always ended up at this massivefarm for breakfast.
It was a big dairy farm.
I actually got some experiencethere with dairy farming but
always had extremely fresh andhomemade breakfasts.
So that's about the onlyfarming exposure I've got.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
So you ended up at a big farm on the weekend in
southeastern Ohio.
You didn't say Rio Grande, butgosh, it sounds like a Bob Evans
farm southeastern Ohio.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
You didn't say Rio Grande, but gosh, it sounds like
a Bob Evans farm.
You know Bob Evans had nothingon this place.
I mean, it was homemade ketchup.
You know their own homemadesausage eggs right out of the
coop.
It was legit Awesome.
So you go to Bowling Green.
(06:07):
How did you pick Bowling Greenout of all the places?
I just found it to be middle ofthe road Through high school.
I had initially had my eye onOhio Northern, much more small
and private school, similarprobably to like a Taylor here
in Indiana, size wise.
I like that because I justnaturally, even though I'm a
people person, I naturally havegravitated to smaller things,
(06:30):
meaning I'm not a bigger isbetter type of person.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
And when I went to tour that campus.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Quite frankly, it was a very quick, no, and all they
had was a splashing farawaystoplight.
I think they had a Kfc, I don'tknow how.
And then it looked likesomebody put a bunch of brick
buildings in the middle of acornfield and said let's call
this a couch and it, you know,it's 17, 18 years old.
I was like I, I can't spend 40years.
Um, conversely, you know,obviously those that know me, I
(07:02):
I'm a big Ohio State fan, right,but conversely, ohio State was
just so big and I just was likethat, just I knew that really
wasn't my fit.
So, you know, the middle of theroad was kind of a Mac school.
It's very similar to Ball Statehere in Indiana.
It was Bowling Green.
It was an hour and 20 minutesor so from home, so far enough
(07:28):
to where, if they wanted to getyou, they'd have to call you to
let you know they're coming, butclose enough to get home pretty
quick if you needed to go homeand have mom do laundry or
something like that.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
So four years of finance at international
business at Bowling Green.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
You're a senior at Bowling Green.
Had you had any insuranceinternships at all, or were you
kind of going?
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I did not.
I had no.
The only internship I did I did, um, I did work for some family
friends that owned a ratherdecent size manufacturing
company at home and, uh, Iactually did a bunch of ground
maintenance and things in thesummers.
They provided a job.
They knew my dad and uh, whenone of the owners, marty, said,
(08:04):
hey, you know you're coming backagain next summer, I said no, I
need to really find aninternship.
And his response was he sayswell, you just send me the paper
and tell me what qualificationsit needs to be to qualify and
I'll make sure it qualifiesRight.
So I end up just doing aninternship there, working with
their lead controller andaccounting person there for a
summer.
Working with their leadcontroller and accounting person
(08:25):
there for a summer.
Nothing insurance related.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Well, obviously Ohio for those that don't know is the
domicile and home state formany insurance companies.
So I can imagine going to anyOhio based college.
There's going to be a fairnumber of Ohio insurance
companies recruiting students,who are some of the names I
guess.
Guess you remember recruitingon campus and otherwise.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Well, todd, quite frankly, when I was in college I
never went to one job fair.
Actually, I take that back.
I did go to one and nothingmuch came of it.
I don't remember talking toinsurance carriers.
I, quite frankly, don't evenremember who the heck I remember
talking to it, just naturally.
(09:08):
I do remember sending outresumes galore out of my
apartment using my old wordprocessor.
You know address, just deleteand add, delete and add.
And Lincoln Financial, you know,had at that point in time three
big offices up in Fort Wayne.
You know, had at that point intime three big offices up in
Fort Wayne.
Um, salina Insurance Group,which is down in Salina, ohio,
(09:29):
which was south of the finance,about, you know, an hour and a
half drive or so, was anothersmaller regional insurance
carrier, and there were.
There were a few others as well.
I saw.
I remember talking to StateFarm that was a phone interview
initially, um, but uh, most ofthe others then again were more
in the financial.
You know, hey, you go to afurniture store and we can
finance that business for youworking in an office somewhere
(09:51):
doing something like that.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
So you approached the latter half of your senior year
Growing up in the household youdid.
You knew that responsibilitywas coming your way quickly so
that freshman in the real worldfirst job where'd you land?
The first person that paid you,who we like to say, didn't love
you.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Yeah, the first job I took was with Salina Insurance
Group, a small regional in Ohio.
Like I referenced earlier, theywere primarily personal lines
in the farm and agribusiness.
That's really their forte.
They did commercial as well,but it was more Main Street
mom-and-pop commercial business.
(10:34):
So, you know, it was a greatstart though, because they were
hiring at that point in timefour individuals, fresh right
out of college, to come in andgo through a whole year long
training session.
So we are in a basement, nowindows, you know one door, no
(10:55):
computers, right and literallyinsurance manuals and policy
forms in front of us.
And that's how we learn readingthe form.
And we there were days we'dspent you know four hours on how
this one word changed thecoverage and that's.
And then our test work.
Here's the form, here's thequestion tell me where and how
and why.
And that that was my training.
(11:16):
But that training was trainingus all to be in the marketing
territory, rep position.
So that that was has alwaysbeen the 15 years I was on the
carrier side.
That was always um, those werealways the positions I was in.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
So, jason, after Celina, uh, what?
What was your next stop?
Um, cause, we're leading up tothis build, to where you were at
Philly, and then we can.
We can leave from there, buttell us about after.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Celina Insurance.
What happened?
So, celina, I moved to AcuityInsurance.
I was at Celina for five years.
Primary duties were reallyagency relations in the state of
Indiana and at a big eyeconvention after about five
years I had met an individual atAcuity up out of Wisconsin and,
(12:07):
lo and behold, it was about ayear later or so.
He kept my card and calls me upand says, hey, you know, we
have a position opening up, andactually initially the position
was for a territory rep job inWisconsin, but that just wasn't
going to work at that point withmy wife and I.
(12:29):
So that ceased conversation Sixmonths later he calls back and
says, hey, what if you didn'thave to move?
We have a position in Indiana.
Away that conversation went andI ended up taking up the same,
very similar position withAcuity.
From Salina to Acuity, reallythe biggest difference there
much bigger carrier At thatpoint, more of a regional
Midwest carrier.
Today they're more of a superregional.
The big difference was theywere primarily commercial driven
(12:52):
with very much small, almost aflip commercial to personal.
So for me it was a greatprofessional growth opportunity
to learn a lot more on thecommercial side of the business
and really expand my knowledgebase there.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Yes.
What were some of the keytakeaways?
Because those were a few earlycareer job opportunities.
What do you feel like was themain takeaway from those early
career opportunities, especiallyin the insurance space?
Speaker 3 (13:27):
opportunities, especially in the insurance
space Takeaways.
Well, you know, at that point Iwas 25, 26, I think, when I was
leaving Salina to go to, youknow, to go to Acuity, and still
, I mean, that's pretty young,you still really.
I think you're stuck trying tofigure out is this what I want
to do with my lifeprofessionally?
Would I move potentially evento a wisconsin or something else
?
Would that be in the cards formy wife and my family?
(13:48):
Um, you know, as you're outthere in the field, you just
don't.
Well, particularly at thatpoint, you know, technology
isn't what it is today.
So, connecting via team zoomand and all the fashions that we
do today, and we're there uh.
So the carriers did their bestto make you feel part of the
group internally, you know, andyou'd get to the home office
(14:09):
three, four, five times a year.
But you were still out there onyour own on this island and,
while I always felt you couldmake an impact, I always
wondered was the impact enoughand was I being heard and seen
enough internally to potentiallyposition myself to make that
next move, which wouldpotentially mean I moved to a
(14:30):
home office somewhere rightWisconsin, columbus, wherever
that would be?
So I just constantly tried toposition myself, to be in front
of the right people and and beseen and heard where appropriate
.
So if those opportunities wereto arise, I was seen as a good
candidate for that.
I mean, I went as far andduring one of my jobs, my
(14:53):
manager asked me you know,what's the one thing you need
from me?
And my very direct answer asyou guys know me, I'm pretty
direct my direct answer was Ineed you to train me to take
your job.
That was, and I quote that was,and he sat back and says really
I said, yes, I'm not out to getyou, but I also, you know, in
(15:14):
the progress of my career I wantupward mobility right and if
it's with this carrier oranother carrier, it likely would
mean a position that he sat inright and I needed him to mentor
me to help prepare me for that.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
He understood it completely and actually was one
of the better managers I hadthought process of being early
in career and being placed infront of very technical
(15:49):
insurance people.
Um, how did you like prepare?
What was your mindset Like?
Can you like recall like thatperiod of your life and what
that part of the situation waslike?
Speaker 3 (16:00):
It was um, you know, when you're young like that, you
don't know what you don't know.
Um, most people that knew meback in high school, um, would
not probably fully back then.
They would have not recognizedthe confident and seemingly
(16:21):
outgoing person that you seetoday.
It was, it was, it was.
So there you go.
I mean, Todd, you want to coversomething that that may be one.
It was almost the completeopposite.
You know, I wasn't the socialbutterfly, I wasn't the real
talk that it won.
I just it was the opposite ofwhat you see today.
So, being young like that andstepping into a role that was
very outwardly facing, walkinginto agents that you never knew,
(16:45):
that had been in the businessfor 20, 30, 40, 50 years, that
knew far more than you didtechnically, it was very
nerve-wracking.
So I approached that initiallywith Celina.
I said, okay, who are my topfour or five largest insurance
agents in my territory?
And I made it priority one tobe in their office nonstop to
(17:08):
get to know them, because Ifigured well A very selfishly
they would likely give me themost amount of time because they
had the most business with us,right?
So at that point, stepping intothere and I asked them a ton of
questions and a couple of themwere just incredibly open doors
and they would I mean one ofthem actually had me work in
(17:31):
their agency for the day,answering the phone, working
alongside their account managers, just to get a feel for what
that operation looked like.
Which again technical detailscontinue to come out.
That operation looked like,which again technical details
continue to come out, and itjust continued to build that
confidence in myself and myknowledge base.
And as time goes on, obviouslyyou learn more and more and more
(17:52):
and at some point you startrealizing wait a minute, I
probably am the smartest personin the room on these details.
I'm worried about it, but theodds are I probably know more
than the average bear that I'mtalking to.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
So over time you start to build this to just fake
it and pretend I knew a lotyou're like hey, like I, what I
(18:30):
can be really good at right nowis like relationship and
building that while I'm learning.
So I'm going to lean intosomething that I can, I can
control, that I can, like youknow, be successful at with with
preparation, and that's where Ithink that on that is great
advice, cause I think there's alot out there and certainly
(18:53):
there's an element that you haveto step into the unknown to
some degree.
Right, and like just figure itout, but there's always a part
of a situation where you canlean into a strength.
So that's really good.
So not to go through like awhole resume by any means, but
(19:18):
you ended up at philly,philadelphia insurance and you,
uh, um, you were the expert,like you knew what you were
doing.
I don't really share with uslike that experience and like
that you know where you were atin your career, like how long,
how many years, you've been aprofessional and then, and then
from there you came over toconnor and because that's how we
(19:41):
met is when you're atphiladelphia insurance as a as a
carrier rep, but just kind ofrecount that circumstance and
like what that transition waslike to come to the agency side
and maybe even some like hey, Ithought this about the agency
side, but getting over here itwas actually maybe different or
(20:02):
a lot of what I expected.
I don't know.
You tell us.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, a couple of things beforeI answer that question directly
to your point of theintimidation and being young and
how actually I can tie thisdirectly into Connor.
Even back in my Salina days, Iremember coming into this office
and at that point of course youguys weren't here, but I sat
(20:24):
because a part of my job at thatpoint was also appointing new
agencies to grow the territory,and I walked in to the door and
I walked in and I asked I forgetwho was the receptionist at
that point to speak to aprincipal or a partner.
And Jack actually was the onethat got the lucky opportunity
(20:47):
and I remember sitting in ourconference room around the round
table I can almost tell youexactly where I was sitting and
where he was sitting.
And I sat in there in those bigburgundy chairs and I'm out of
my league here.
And Jack walks in and we allknow Jack right, I'm out of my
league here.
Jack walks in and we all knowJack right, and and he, you know
, if you didn't know him, ofcourse in my twenties it can be,
intimidating Right and Iremember sitting there trying to
(21:09):
go through it and I thoughtthis isn't going to work.
I'm just I'm, I'm overshootingit here.
So to tie in it's.
It's interesting that I'm nowhere at Connor insurance and
I've gotten to know Jack prettywell over the years and how that
goes, you know, from 15 yearsto today.
Anyway, left Acuity, went toPhiladelphia Insurance, worked
(21:30):
there for five years, same thingin the carrier rep position,
which is where I met you guys.
A large part of Philadelphia'sbook, they're the King of the
Hill, you know, when it comes tononprofit social service
business, private charterschools, a lot of things like
that, a lot of things thatConnor Insurance did then and
still does today very well.
We write a lot of business andhave a lot of relationships in
(21:50):
that space.
So, working with you guys.
That's how I got to know Connor.
Really I spent a lot of time,ben I know, with you on Heritage
Christian.
I believe back then you werestill doing more PNC at that
time, but of course I remembersitting at the roundtable with
the AMs multiple times as well,with Karen and Debbie and Todd.
(22:16):
At some point I think I got toknow you working on the Humane
Society I forget what account itwas, but that's my intro
working for Philly into reallygetting to know and understand
counterinsurance, you know, andat that point in time I quickly
realized you know, you do whatyou say and say what you do.
(22:37):
That's the type of people I wasdealing with here, and Ben, in
particular, your dad.
I worked with him on multipleaccounts and I quickly realized
if I did and I hit this number,here's what you need to do to
win and if I did it nine timesout of 10, I was going to get
the win and I was going to writebusiness.
So I was in here at least onceor twice a month.
(22:59):
Sometimes it would just be inthe library and I'd talk to a
few people, other times I'd getthe whole crew.
But that enabled me A, to buildincredible relationships with
everybody on the team, but alsoget to understand what it took
to grow a business.
And at that point I mean Ivividly remember because you
were one of my higher growthagencies during my tenure there
we went from somewhere in thehundred and some thousand dollar
(23:19):
range to well over a milliondollar book of business.
Uh, just through building thoserelationships and that trust
factor that we established.
So and then, of course, Ihappened to be in here one day,
um sitting then with you andyour dad working on a school
account, and the opportunitiescame up.
Uh, you know, um, and here Iknow, and here I am today.
(23:42):
Here I am today.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
So about that were you looking?
Were you at a point in yourcareer where you were open to
looking, or was it kind of asurprise ask that changed the
trajectory of what you weredoing?
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Yeah, no, I wasn't.
Well, was I actively looking?
No, I think anybody that has agrowth mindset is constantly
looking to grow themselvesprofessionally and potentially
look at what that nextopportunity may be.
So from that aspect I wasn'tactively looking, but I'm always
listening for that nextopportunity.
(24:19):
And I believe it was a few weeksbefore I was actually sitting
in Jim Ben, your dad's office, Ithink you two were actually at
Philadelphia Roadshow over inColumbus, ohio, and we chatted
for a bit.
Anyway, then, fast forward tothat meeting in your dad's
office, somebody on the boardyour dad had asked would you be
happy to come out and presentand help us present?
(24:41):
I said absolutely.
And the person on the boardthat was coming out from that
school worked at Travelers and Imade a very just meant nothing,
just to say well, I have to askthem if they're hired.
And I remember very vividly,ben, you and your dad kind of
looked at each other and you gotup and left the room and went
to your office.
You came back with a piece ofpaper from that roadshow and
(25:07):
across he said well, actually,and he pointed at the bottom and
it said recruit Jason Starner.
And evidently you told me youtwo had had a conversation
coming back from Columbus aboutme.
So one, it was very flattering.
Two, even more so from thepeople that were asking me In
(25:29):
the carrier rep position, as notjust me because I'm special,
but most reps, I believe.
If you're worth a darn, you'rein and out of literally hundreds
.
I was in and out of, but darn,you're in and out of literally
hundreds.
I was in and out of, over thecourse of 15 years on the
carrier side, hundreds andhundreds of different insurance
(25:50):
agencies, from two and three manshops and in the middle of the
farm country to the largestbrokerages in the country.
You're approached often withhey, you know, have you ever
thought about this or thoughtabout that?
We'd love to talk to you and,quite frankly, it's just for one
reason or another a lack oftrust, understanding how they
(26:10):
treated their employees, knowinghow they treated and interacted
with their clients For whateverreason it was very, very, very
few were ones that I would haveever considered to take a job
with.
Um, and you know, when thatopportunity popped up that day
with you and your dad again, Iknow you guys have heard this,
but I I remember right where Iwas parked outside, I walked out
(26:35):
to my car and I to myself saidthat could work and that that
that was kind of the start ofwhat led me here today.
That was what 10 years ago itwould have been probably about
12, closer to 12 years ago.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Yeah, one of the reasons I think that you and I
get along so well.
I mean, there's a lot ofreasons actually, but one of
them is we both have a passionfor that early career talent.
And you look at our team wehave some early career talent,
but we also have some seasonedtalent, which you need.
A balance of both and, ofcourse, you and I talking about
(27:10):
welcoming early career talent tothe team is at our own jeopardy
as we get closer and closer tobeing not even anywhere near the
definition of early careertalent.
From your standpoint, what doesthat phrase mean and why is it
important for any agency tofocus on that, to build systems
(27:31):
and means to attract thoseindividuals into the industry?
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Yeah, you know, I think a lesser confident person
at 49 years old would sit thereand be worried about it.
But as part of the team now, Iused to use Ben, your dad, on
occasion to pull gray hairedinto the meetings with me to
have gray hair.
Well, I've had now two peopleon our team pull me into
(28:00):
meetings for that and I'm likeOK, so we've entered that phase
of life.
It's actually quite humblingthat they look to you for that
and it's a great responsibilitythat we have to, whether it's
our own children or the peoplehere at work, right, to do that.
You know, if you're not growing, where are you going?
Right, you're dying on the vine.
So for that growth, where areyou going?
(28:22):
Right, you're dying on the vine.
So for that growth, you know weneed to continue to recruit
young career talent and I thinkall too often, in my opinion,
young career talent, with a lotof people, gets associated with
somebody right out of highschool or college.
Right, yes, they're young, butthat may not be young in their
career.
Right, look, maybe they, maybe,maybe they're 30 years old and
they've done something else for10 years, but they've made that
(28:43):
transition and said that's notit.
Insurance is for me now.
That's where I want to go.
I've learned enough.
That's that.
That's my trajectory.
I would still consider thatyoung career talent.
Right Now we start getting toour fifties, that may be a
little different story, but Ithink it's incredibly important
that we do that.
Um, I myself over the years andI still enjoy it to this day
(29:08):
greatly going out, whittlingthrough an opportunity and
leading it to the close and theyes.
But I think, as with mostpeople, as you get older, your
bucket gets filled also byhelping others to become
successful and imparting yourwisdom.
It's you know, of what you'velearned, your experiences and
(29:29):
shared experiences with them forthem to compete or compete in
the marketplace and to winpersonally and professionally.
And my bucket, I would say, isprobably about half full between
going out and still gettingwins, and that they're probably
about 50-50 right now with whereI'm at in my career, still
getting wins in that they'reprobably about 50-50 right now
with where I'm at in my career.
(29:50):
Yeah, and some of that enteredtoo, todd, because you know
being a father as well.
It greatly changes yourperspective on life personally
and professionally.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Yeah, you're managing current accounts, prospecting
new business, managing a teamwhich involves not just the
people part of it, but theprocesses, and even, just this
week, getting into differentaccounting details, and so
you're getting the full spectrumof it.
You know, over my shoulder hereis that ship, and we oftentimes
use that phrase burn the ships.
(30:17):
Have you burned the ships yet?
You know, when you started here, third generation had not yet
purchased the agency, but you'resmart and you knew what you
were looking at.
And so, while Jim was very muchin the room and Jack was
involved and Tom was involved,you knew that you were coming on
(30:38):
to a team that was, you know,not going to be led by them long
term, but by us.
Was there a point in those last10 years, 12 years where you
proverbially had to burn theships on any other plan B in
your life, where you said, no,this is it, this is where I'm
going to do it, I'm going tomake all my dreams and hopes and
(30:59):
dreams come true here.
Was there a moment like that?
I mean?
Speaker 3 (31:04):
I don't know if there was a.
I mean, quite frankly, thatmoment probably was best, when I
finally got the nerve up toaccept the position, to come
here.
Quite frankly, you know, asyou're aware, you made the offer
to me sometime in like May, andI didn't start until October,
and you and I and you wereextremely patient, which again
(31:24):
told me you were looking for theright person, not just to throw
bodies at the wall and seewho's stuck.
Right, that was actually aquestion I asked you, ben I said
well, how many people are youtalking to, what's the list look
like and where am I at?
You're like it's a list of one.
But again, no matter who Italked to, I got the same
message Right and it was aboutthe person and it was about the
(31:47):
fit.
So you take that along with.
It was very clear that you knowthe third generation was going
to come in, of which I morerelate to age-wise, and in
conversations and meetings thatwe had, I knew the trajectory
that you guys wanted to takethis thing Right and I
(32:08):
specifically remember I wouldlove to be a part of that ride.
So in 15, 20 years we look backand say, wow, that was
incredible.
And you know, and I couldsomehow at that point, whatever
my role would be in that.
I mean, I take extreme pride inwhere we've gone, even in the
last 11 years since I've beenhere.
So, yeah, it took a lot of nervefor me to make that choice and
(32:34):
I took a pay cut to do it.
It was very nerve wracking butI looked at it as an investment
in myself, greater control overmy time, and at that point, of
course, we were pregnant withour first, you know, with
Solaire.
So it gave me greater controlover my time and at that point,
(32:56):
of course, we were pregnant withour first, you know, with
Solaire.
So it gave me greater controlover my income.
It gave me greater control overmy time and aligned better with
me personally and missionallywith where I needed to go.
So, todd, really, quite frankly, that probably was the time I
burned the ships, because, asI've said this was, this wasn't,
this was my retirement plan.
Right, invest in it, see itthrough, make it work, because
if it works, you know, hotdiggity dog things could be good
(33:17):
, right?
So, uh, and you know, knock onwood, things have been, things
have been great.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Absolutely.
Um, you know, jason, I thinkyou have just an incredible
talent for not only clients andconsulting and helping them
navigate decisions around.
You know risk and risk transferas it relates to insurance.
You need to just know whatyou're doing.
(33:44):
Just a phenomenal consultant inthat.
What is your mindset around howyou approach doing your job?
How did you get to this spot ofhoning those skills
(34:06):
relationally?
Speaker 3 (34:07):
but also technically so well, I say this all the time
what we do isn't rocket science, it's not.
Most of it comes down to justpure relationships Listening,
being empathetic, let peopleknow they're heard, showing up
(34:30):
and say what you're going to doand do what you're going to say
and the rest I feel naturally.
If you do those things and focuson those things, I think a lot
of the other stuff justnaturally falls into place.
Right, you clearly in our, inour roles, need to then add in
the technical expertise ofinsurance to make it all
function.
But I think I would like tothink that a large part of the
(34:53):
reason why I've been able toeither gain new relationships,
maintain the current ones andjust in general, even with the
team here, internally keepthings moving, is because I feel
that those are my strengths,that I excel at, and I think the
people that are around me seethat it's a very sincere and
empathetic approach that I taketo it.
(35:14):
You know, and if you do thatand you educate your clients,
you communicate regularly withthem along the way, don't bring
surprises to them, and you justdo it through building, you know
, on the foundation of yourrelationships, things just,
things just, will naturally takecare of themselves.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
What do you?
What do you?
What do you wish C-suiteleaders knew about?
You know, like, what's missingthat C-suite leaders need to
know, I guess about the approachto insurance that you see that
they might be missing in yourinteraction of like man.
This relationship could bebetter, but their mindset isn't
(35:57):
right.
Like what would you tellemployers about around mindset
and engaging with their agent ortheir insurance advisor?
Speaker 3 (36:08):
One word comes to mind initially would be
transparency.
Going back over the differentplaces I've been along with the
different managers I've had andI would honestly say
transparency, and I believe alarge part of that.
I think I've gotten the most ofit by far and away here,
(36:31):
particularly with you, toddright, you've always been
extremely.
It's like.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
I've said you know, you're the Wizard of.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
Oz, but you pull back that curtain right and that
allows that allows me tounderstand the inner workings of
what's going on and that led usto the decision to get us there
, and then how my piece, or myteam's members, my team member
pieces, work in that and then Iunderstand that picture of how
to make it work for the greaterwhole some places they don't
(37:01):
right, it's just hey, here's ournumber, if you need to write
four million dollars in newbusiness this year.
They give you no consultation,they don't ask you your opinion
on, hey, what are the agenciesdoing?
What are you seeing in themarket?
It's just more throwing it atyou with no real explanation,
and then you're sat there tryingto kind of backfill it with
very little explanation as towhy or input into why.
(37:26):
So I think that's somethingthat here with our team that
we're very good at, and in turnI try to do that, you know, all
the way down, even with the restof my team members.
So there is no, there is noquestion Like this, is it so?
And I try to be that way withmy clients, very transparent
(37:50):
with them.
If I leave that meeting or thatoffice space and they walk away
scratching their head onwhatever it is, then I've
clearly missed.
I've missed the mark and I'venot done my job.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Well, I know one of the things you do really well
and I know this because we askour clients, you know, after
renewals, what they think andone of the things they
oftentimes talk about is the waythat you and the account
managers you work with sharewith our clients and our
prospects the state of themarket, and you know these are
people in businesses doing otherthings.
(38:19):
They don't know if it'srestrictive or open season.
You know, for those that arelistening to the podcast, you
know here we are sitting in Q12025.
What's a brief update on thecommercial property and casualty
market.
Speaker 3 (38:34):
Yep, I do one for every one of my clients at
Renewal and even provide themupdates throughout the year if I
happen to be on a phone callwith them or whatever.
You know a lot of it is againTodd.
It's just the education andbeing transparent with what's
going on.
I tell them.
I think it's important youunderstand what's going on
nationally, or even in our world, globally, in the insurance
(38:56):
marketplace, because it alltrickles down to the end user
right the person buying a homeor car, the business owner, et
cetera.
So the current market today iswe're still in a hard market.
Right Pricing continues tostill push up.
That started late in 2019.
So carriers are still chasingtheir tail and trying to
(39:17):
increase their profitability.
The biggest changes, I tell myclients right now that is
occurring is the percentage ofincreases that carriers were
looking for compared to four andfive years ago, back in 2020 to
today is coming down.
So that's good news.
The other major thing is thelines of coverage that is
(39:39):
driving the bigger portions ofincreases has shifted Back in
2020, it was a lot on initiallywith COVID, it was directors and
officers and your managementliabilities and cyber
liabilities and some of thosethings that were driving it.
You know it shifted over time,once COVID and the freaking out
that everybody did.
Once that started to calm downand the industry started to
(40:03):
realize, ok, you know, we'regoing to be fine from that At
that point.
Then property ramped up reallyfast.
Property is still there, there'sstill pushes on ITVs and
deductibles and things, but theoverall rate increases are
starting to trickle down and getsmaller Carriers and
(40:25):
publications.
You're starting to hear thebuzzwords rate adequacy a lot in
that space, additional capitalflooding into that space, which
means at some point reinsurancetreaties they sign with will
ease up and that should ease upfor all of us.
Really, the biggest thing rightnow that's ramping up big time
(40:45):
are general liability, justliability claims in general.
So you know you hear terms likenuclear verdicts, millennial
juries.
You know, depending on thecoverage line, some statutes or
limitations have been waived inmany states allowing things to
go back.
So these verdicts and even theinvestments made to bring these
(41:06):
lawsuits, it's absolutely insanefor what it takes to settle
some of these claims these days.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Let's fast forward a number of years.
You're at the end of yourprofessional career and you're
deciding to hang up the gloves.
We've talked about where you'vecome thus far.
What are some things that youwant to make sure you accomplish
between now and you say goodbyeto the insurance industry?
Speaker 3 (41:34):
Yeah, I still don't really know what that looks like
.
You know, you think about it.
Lips is here and there.
You think about it from atimeline standpoint.
You know, at 49 years old, I'ma lot closer to retirement than
I'd like to be.
You know, is that another?
You know, can I do it another10 years and call it quits 15
(41:57):
years, 20 years?
I don't know, timeline wise,what that looks like.
I enjoy what I do and I don'tknow I can't just sit at home.
No, you cannot, yeah.
So initially, my thought on thetimeline is I'm going to, I'm
going to play this out until Iphysically or mentally probably
(42:17):
can't do it.
Or you guys will say you know,get out of here, because I,
quite frankly, you know, again,it's not rocket science.
If you like what you do and Ido, if you like what you're
doing it with, and that involvesour team here at connor as well
as the clients you're doing itwith it's not really a job,
(42:37):
right?
You hear it all the time.
Um, so I could see myself doingthis another 20, 25 years?
um, we're at.
You know, over time, I wouldyou know.
I could see myself, though,spending more time at the lake,
or doing it from a differentlocation, remotely here a little
more often, or at a differentremote location in Florida.
Maybe Todd's sitting on theporch with you somewhere on a
(42:59):
farm making maple syrup, I don'tknow.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
Could be anywhere.
Yeah, I could see myself doingit from different locales.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
I could see myself doing it from different locales.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
You bring up a good point.
This industry allows smart,experienced, intelligent people
(43:36):
to stay in it a long time.
That's one of the concerns Ihave about just the amount of
people retiring.
Speaker 3 (43:39):
I get it, they're at retirement age but there's a lot
of brain drain that's happening.
That why I'm so passionateabout bringing on those early
careers to capture'm hoping Idon't have to really think about
that.
Like I said, as long as I feelI'm adding value to the clients
and the team in some way shapeor form, and it may be in a
different capacity at that point, in 15 or 20 years, then I
(44:04):
likely want to be involved inhelping to do my part.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
I have a question before Todd ends us with the,
with our two standard questionswhat, what, what advice would
you give your 22 year old self,just kind of looking back at
what you've experienced over thelast many years of professional
experience?
What would you tell yourself?
Speaker 3 (44:40):
What would I tell myself?
You know it's easy to look back, 26, 27 years later and
understand it now versus then.
You know, the first thing Iwould probably tell myself is
don't be so darned afraid oftaking more risk.
You know, again, going back toburning the ships and that
decision to make the jump fromthe carrier to the private side
(45:01):
here, it was a big decision.
Again, it took me five monthsto get up the nerve to do it and
I wish, you know, I've toldpeople before I wish I would
have done it earlier in mycareer.
Knowing what I know now, I wishI would have done it when I was
25 or 30.
I mean, for a multitude ofreasons.
But again, you don't know whatyou don't know.
(45:24):
And you know we're, we're,quite frankly, again, we're not
in control, right, there's apath that's already set for us
and we just got to do our bestto navigate that path and um,
we're, we're along for the ride,you know.
But if, looking back, I wouldtell myself take more risk,
don't be afraid to take somerisks and you may lose, you may
(45:45):
fall, you may set yourself backa step or two, but take that
risk a little bit more oftenbecause you just don't know
where that potentially couldlead to and it could just take
off.
Or I mean, you know it may not,but you're going to learn
something from it that likelywill set you up for more success
down the road risk.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
That's perfect, jason .
I think those that know you onthe team and clients know that
they probably already know everysingle bit of this podcast
information because you are sotransparent.
But on the point of taking arisk, you have always been very
good to remind people thatyou're there with a pretty big
safety net for them, whichencourages people to kind of
move into that risk.
Which brings us perfectly toour two questions that we like
(46:30):
to ask everybody.
First question I think I mightknow what this is, but we'll see
.
You might throw a curveball.
What is a risk that you havetaken that has changed your life
?
Speaker 3 (46:43):
We've covered that.
Really it was.
You know it was go back to theburn of the ships and really
making I can't exaggerate howbig of a deal that was for me
and the sleepless nights I hadtrying to make that decision to
go from the comfort of knowingthe carrier's life for 15 years,
yeah, and what that entailedfinancially, etc.
(47:05):
And making that jump into it.
I'm going to work forcommission.
What Right.
And that that was by far andaway Right.
But if I wish I would havetaken that risk earlier and
knowing what I know now.
But it's worked out and I Ilooking back on it and you guys
(47:28):
have heard me say this it wasthe best thing that I did not
knowing it at the time,personally, professionally,
spiritually I mean spirituallyfor for multitude of reasons,
looking back, it was like thatwas the right time and I
understand now why it was theright time.
Right.
Speaker 2 (47:44):
Second, final question what is an what's
unfinished that you have theresolve to complete in the near
future?
Speaker 3 (47:55):
This podcast?
No, no, what's unresolved ishonestly not.
You know we have the, we havethe vision and we have the plan
here right, and we've set thesegoals for our firm and each
department and each team.
(48:16):
So what's left unfinished isseeing that through bringing in
the new talent, educating them,mentoring them, passing along
what we can to them to achievethose goals, while also
nurturing and being empatheticand helping those that have been
here for a long time play theircareer out here as long as they
want to be here, because that'sthe foundation that we've got
(48:37):
to build on right.
I would say that's what's leftunfinished and how my role looks
in it.
I mean, I know what it is today, but that's going to change
right.
We have to learn and change andadapt each one of us as we add
another 10, 15, 25 employees toour staff.
That's what's left unfinishedGreat answer.
Speaker 2 (48:59):
Thanks for your time, jason.
Thanks for your dedication tothe team and the team members,
the clients.
If anybody doesn't know, Ireceive all the feedback from
your clients.
If anybody doesn't know, Ireceive all the feedback from
your clients and there has never, ever, ever been a disparaging
comment from any one of thecustomers.
It's always been super positive.
So it's always fun to get themand to send them to you and be
like here's another winner, youknow.
(49:21):
So we appreciate and enjoy andlove that you take care of the
customer so well and, of course,in your role as the commercial
lines department lead, that youtake care of the team so well.
That's almost more important,and so thanks for that and
thanks for your time today.
Thank you, guys for having me.
Speaker 3 (49:33):
It's been a pleasure.
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