Latest / Elevate The Hustle / The Future of Insurance Agencies: Who Survives and Who Gets Left Behind | Kevin Panter

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The Future of Insurance Agencies: Who Survives and Who Gets Left Behind | Kevin Panter · Elevate The Hustle

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: The insurance is involved in probably every transaction around the corner somewhere.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and when you can, as I tell people, you know, if you call us for insurance, and and I tell people this routinely, look, you know, everybody wants to save money, but my goal is not to save you money.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: My goal is to save your ass, is what I say to people.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_02: Because at two o'clock in the morning when your house is on fire, you don't care what you're paying in premium.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Elevate the hustle.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Elevate the Hustle, where we break down what it actually means to build teams, scale companies, and lead with intensity.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your host, Stan Mayton.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm Don Picherillo.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: And today we are here with our guest, Kevin Painter, who uh has not just been in the insurance business for 30 years, but has built his business on an incredible reputation.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome, Kevin.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome, guys.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: Let's go.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: Glad to be a part and finally get all connected up with you guys.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: We've had some difficulties.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: We have some technical difficulties.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: We're not going to start to show on a negative note, but we will get into the technical difficulties.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we're very transparent.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: But let I I I have a question.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: I want I want to start this question right off the show, right?
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: What does it mean to you to hustle?
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: To hustle?
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: Somebody somebody that that has hustled.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: You're somebody that has hustled 30 years in the game.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_02: 37 years in the game.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I've been 37 years in the insurance industry, 42 years as a volunteer firefighter in EMT.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: So you have to hustle to stay alive.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: And both of those, both of them, you're in fires, you know, as we all, as we all know from that standpoint.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I think hustle is you have to be, and I just talked about this some guys, you have to be the mayor of your community, the mayor of your area, and you got to hustle.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: You got to be a lot of things to a lot of people.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_02: And most, I think most important is you just got to be genuine and help people.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_02: You do the right thing when no one else is looking.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: And I know we've heard all that before, but there's no better meaning than that.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_02: You just do the right thing when no one else is looking.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: Everything else will take care of itself.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_02: I've had, I have walked away from business before when other people would have forced that business, and I've been, you know, gotten threefold out of it in referrals or writing the account later.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: So uh you just you gotta hustle.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: You gotta hustle.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: So at what point did you decide you're gonna you're gonna be in the insurance game?
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: Is this you growing up in in Georgia?
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: You were like, I think that's worth an I think that's worth a little bit of a story.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: So um because I gotta come back to my firefighter days to start.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_02: I started as a volunteer firefighter at age 17.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: My mom had to sign to let me do that.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: I was just intrigued by firefighting.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: So I was going, I was not going to college, I was going to um go to work fire department.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: I had a job with a full-time department in Metro Atlanta area.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_02: And one day, about a month and a half before college season would have started, my brother and I were uh out jogging and exercise, and he goes, Hey, what are you gonna do in life?
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: I said, I'm going to work for the fire department.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: And he goes, Man, you ought to go to college.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Why would I want to go to college?
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: I got this great job, career opportunity.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_02: He goes, Well, if you go to college, even if you just get a two-year degree, he said, you know, you can advance better in the fire department and you can move up, you know, you'd have some education, something to fall back on, which all made sense.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_02: But he said two key words.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_02: If you go to college, there's girls and beer.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I thought those were very intriguing.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: So I took his advice, went to college, got my associate's degree, went on and uh, but I majored in criminal justice, okay, and that's important.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_02: My degree was in criminal justice, not in insurance.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: While I was at Georgia, I took some risk management classes that got me a little bit more interested in the insurance business.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: My brother is in a life and health business here.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: He's a competitor, really, to me in town.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: But uh I beat him all the time, so he's really not a competitor.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_02: But um but anyway, so let's fast forward to my senior year of college.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_02: I started working in the insurance business, my junior year of college.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_02: I had parents, and my mom's still alive, but I had parents who truly loved me but couldn't afford to send me to college, so I had to work all the way through college.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I was working hard.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_02: I started working in insurance with my brother.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_02: I was coming home every weekend doing life and health insurance.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, in the grind, in the hustle, every weekend, all summer, selling insurance.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_02: Well, let's fast forward to my senior year of college, bachelor's degree of criminal justice, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, highest investigative group in the state, gives me a job opportunity.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_02: The only problem was they offered me$18,600 starting pay.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: Now this was in 1990, pretty good, still get pretty good gig, 18.6 and benefits.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: Well, the only problem with that, I had made$21,000 working part-time in insurance, hustling in insurance.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: And so in insurance, I was going to be able to move back home.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: GBI, I was going to be moving to South Georgia, away from home, and I chose the insurance route.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, that's why we're here today.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_02: Come back, worked for my brother for a few years.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: Brothers can't work together, went out on my own, been through a captive career.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: But the key to it is it was kind of funny.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_02: I hustled and made more in my working part-time in insurance than the Georgia GBI offered me uh with a degree.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_02: So here we are.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_02: How long did you work with your brother?
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: What was that like?
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, it was like a year and a half of uh I would say some bad things.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I worked about a year and a half, two years.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_02: A year and a half, two years, but I was given an opportunity with a captive company, a small regional company out of Georgia to open my own.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_02: It was a big fight.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_02: My I will never will forget, and I have to tell my brother said, you can't make it out on your own.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and so I tend to say I'm gonna interrupt you.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_02: Your brother told you you cannot make it on your own.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_02: He goes, You'll you won't make it on your own.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: You need to be staying with me.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_02: Uh he was, I guess he's seen a lot of potential in me and knew that I was going to build something special, and so he wanted to share in that wealth.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_02: Brothers can be jealous sometimes, I guess, right?
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_02: What happens when somebody tells you you cannot do this?
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_02: What do you Oh, that just gave me more more drive.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_02: I asked him about 10 years ago if he needed to borrow any money.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_02: So how much did you give him?
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I didn't give him any.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_02: Didn't give him any.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_02: But it was just the opportunity, uh, just of being able to say, you need to borrow some money.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_02: But uh, you know, I've been blessed in this business.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_02: This business has been very, very good to me.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_02: But I've did it the right way.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_02: It's not always been easy.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I've gone through trials and tribulations in this business like any anybody has, but I've stayed the course, always done the right thing, uh, took some chances and and, you know, here today and been, you know, I'm getting close to the end of my career.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_02: I I still plan on working another five or ten years, but you know, I look back at the times when we were beat down, you know, where I come back up and flourished.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_02: Kind of like that Kentucky Derby horse.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_02: I cannot think of any better things to use today than what that happened.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_02: That horse was in last place.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_02: How many times have we been in last place and we stayed the course and we hustled around the end and won our battle?
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that is just incredible, uh, you know, to to that.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_02: So do you like being the underdog?
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_02: Is that do you like to have a I've been the underdog in everything I've ever done?
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: I've always been an underdog.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: I drank the second, you know, I drank Pepsi versus Coke most of the time.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_02: They're always the underdog.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_02: I'm in Georgia, you know, Coke.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_02: I've I've always typically been the underdog, but you know, I've always stayed the course and, you know, I've been blessed.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_02: You know, God's been good to me, and and here we are today still rolling.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: What was the biggest challenge you faced?
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: You said you've had a lot of trials and tribulations.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like what was the give us some there?
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I was a captive agent, you know, and anybody, you know, Dom, I know you know, and Stan, you probably know up, but I worked particularly one company.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_02: And so here in this small community, now I want you to get the picture.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_02: I am in Blue Ridge, Georgia.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_02: Population of the whole county is only 27,000.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_02: When I first started the insurance business.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_02: Do you know every single person?
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_02: They're akin to me.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_02: They're my relatives, my cousins.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_02: I used to be, I used to know about but yeah, our whole county.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_02: Y'all got that in a couple square miles where y'all are sitting at today, or one square mile.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_02: But uh, so I started on that um as a captive agent and built that, built that agency.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_02: And what I found out, you know, with one company, one product, it's hard to be all things to take care of your clients.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: And so I just kept getting frustrated.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: I was the number one agent with my company uh then, you know, because I always worked hard.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: But I started seeing the writing on the wall that I could do better for myself and do better for my customers.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: So I I started transitioning knowing that I was going to leave.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: And I did it kind of secretly, didn't tell anybody uh about it other than my family what I was going to do.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_02: And then I did it one day.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_02: I finished my CIC class, come back in, faxed my resignation, and started over the next day as an independent agent.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I started that in 06 and 07.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, Dom's way too little for that.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_02: But Stan, you're probably meant that was a very tough insurance market.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: That was Stan Stan, I thought you're older than Dom.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_02: You're a little you're older than Dom, but you're closer to me.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I understand.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_03: I got a hair.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_02: It's the hair, Stanley.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_02: You're right.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_02: You know what?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: You're the ghost.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: I am old.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's okay.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_02: Let's keep it going.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: So uh it was very tough to get markets.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: Companies was not giving out contracts, and even though I'd had a successful career and done everything in my previous company, they didn't care what my record was.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_02: They was like, what can you do for us today?
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I had no book of business to offer them because I left all that book of business.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, why did you leave like mentally you're you're you're a successful insurance broker, you're servicing your community, right?
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: What's that breaking point where you're like, you know what?
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: I I I'm gonna leave this world and I'm gonna start from scratch.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it was when every day I would get frustrated when I couldn't do best for my clients.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_02: I could not do the best for them, which was not the best for me.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know, I was with a company that was, I think, doing some unethical things, and I just knew deep down it wasn't the right thing to do, and I couldn't continue on that track and I could do better.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_02: I knew.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_02: And so um, you know, and and I had a pretty good following after I left, it rattled the whole company.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so I had all these people, gosh, if Kevin's leaving, what's going on?
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_02: And and had a lot of there's probably 50 agents left after that that had kind of followed my lead, and I give them the courage uh to to leave.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, many of them have been successful since then.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: So, what'd you do?
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Are you you started from zero now?
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: You're you're going with your hand out to these companies.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: I've had to do that.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's a miserable experience.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: They make you feel like you're a loser because you don't have all this business to give them.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like, did you did you actually get an appointment?
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: Did you have to like go a different route?
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_02: Funny story.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_02: Funny story.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_02: I bet on myself, Dom.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_02: You know, anytime you bet on yourself, you'll usually do.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: I got my CIC, my certified insurance counselor, and I say today, if National Alliance is listening, they probably maybe heard me say this before, but that was probably one of my keys to my success.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_02: I went and got my CIC when you had to go from city to city to do it.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: There was no virtual stuff that you could do it.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_02: But I got it in six and a half months.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_02: That's very difficult to get your five tests, right?
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_02: I think five tests, 40 questions, three days each, traveling to a different city over six months in 05 and 06.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like paragraphs, it's not multiple guests, right?
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_02: No, you got to write it out.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's essay.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_02: It's all essay.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_02: So there you go.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_02: So I did all did all that, and then uh I don't even know where I was going with that.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: So I, you know, I I bet on myself.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_02: Funny story.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_02: So I went to one of the companies and I said, Hey, you know, uh a guy had given me a warm introduction to this company looking for some appointments.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_02: I went to the lady and I said, Hey, I'm Kevin Painter, you know, done all these things with my former company.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know, I'd love to talk to you about appointments.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: She goes, how much business you got you can move to us?
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_02: I said, Well, I don't have anything, but I've done this, this, this, and this.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_02: She goes, How much business have you got to move to us?
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_02: I said, Yeah, but I've done this, this, and this.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: She goes, How much business have you got to move to us?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_02: I said, Zero.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_02: She said, Well, yeah, call me back when you get some.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I membered that lady.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_02: So about six months later, six months later, I am setting in my CIC update class.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_02: Got my CIC, and I walked up to her and I said, Hey, Dorothy, I said, I want to introduce myself.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Kevin Paynel.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_02: We talked on the phone.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_02: Remember you wouldn't.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_02: She goes, Kevin, you're a CIC?
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_02: I said, Yeah, yeah.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_02: She goes, Oh my gosh, you know, some things have changed now.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: She said, we can appoint some people.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_02: Where are you?
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and it opened up the conversation.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_02: The funny story is she kind of works indirectly for me today.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_02: She uh I started a network aggregator that y'all know a little about, Southeastern network agencies.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_02: I helped start that.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: She's our executive director, so she she kind of works for us now.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_02: So you you know, you just never know.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_02: You're always crossing those bridges.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_02: You always got to cross those bridges back over.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: But good good thing you didn't do the Julia Roberts move where you're like, big mistake.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_02: She, if you would have seen her, I walked up to her, tapped her on the shoulder in class.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_02: Hey Dorothy, raise your hand.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Kevin Painter.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_02: Remember the guy you talked to?
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_02: She goes, You got your your CIC?
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, our things change.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_02: We can appoint somebody now.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: You know how how quickly we laugh.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_02: I have used that against her in multiple times.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: I told her when I called her up, she retired and she still wanted to be in business.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_02: I give, I said, Dorothy, I'm gonna give you the opportunity that you didn't give me.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I feel like do you made the right decision, but start feeling comfortable that you're you know, you're about to hit that groove and and really start building something big here.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you know, my book of business back in those days in 06, you know, a a large book of business, two million dollars in premium was a large book of business, and that's about what I had with my previous career that I walked away from that I had built from scratch.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: So I'd walked away from that, but we wrote a million one of that back in the first year.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so you know, and I'm selling, but that was a lot of 16, 18 hour days.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we kept breaking records after records.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: But in this independent business, you know, I I seen the light knowing that, you know, we're we're right now we're 20 million in premium, got about 20, 19, 20 employees.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_02: But when I got to about that, you know, seven to eight million dollar mark, I knew that we were going to continue to grow and break strides.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: And we've every year we have grown 20, 15 to 25 percent almost in every year.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's amazing.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: So we've done and we've done it in a small community.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we'll we'll talk about the community, but 14, 16 hour days.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: As you're going through this process, are you like, oh my god, I'm burning out, or are you like fueled by it?
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: I I got that chip on my shoulder here.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna kick some ass over here.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: I love I got my brother breathing down my neck.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I knew I had a product that I knew I had a product every day when I come to work that I could help my clients with that I didn't know when I was on the captain world.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_02: I knew on this independent world I had access to a product or a company that could help my clients.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: And so uh that's you know, when I would, I never get every day I would wake up, oh, this is gonna be good.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_02: I gotta call client A, client B.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna write them.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_02: I know they're with XYZ company.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_02: Try not to mention companies, but I know, you know, we're gonna be able to rewrite the we've got a market, we got a company for them.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_02: And so it I've never slowed down.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_02: Cardiologist told me I needed to slow down a couple years ago when I had a had a small heart attack.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_02: And so uh it's like, you know, I tried there for a little bit, and I'm probably busier now than than I've ever been.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_02: So are you still working 16, 18 hour days?
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_02: Have you toned it back a little bit?
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_02: Like no, no, I'm still that's just my DNA.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, g people, you know, these type eight personalities like me, those we would die.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_02: We would die.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_02: We would be like a grape that would shrivel up on a vine if we tried to only work six or eight hours a day, you know.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk about the small town, the community.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: You know, walk our audience through I know you said twenty-seven thousand people in the same in the entire county, but I'm I'm you're describing small community.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: I'm assuming you're like the mayor of the town over there.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody knows your name, right?
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: They they you ensure everybody like like walk us through that feeling what with that action.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_02: Well, like I said, and and I grew up born and raised here, you know, and when I went off to college, kind of gives you perspective.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: We were about a 16 to 18,000 population county.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_02: We've really grown.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_02: And we can be on a weekend, we can be 50,000, 60,000.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_02: We're a tourist town hour and a half north of Atlanta, up in the mountains.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_02: The Appalachian Trail starts in our community.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_02: And as Dom and I know, it's a mountain town.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_02: Dom said, I we'll get on to that story later.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_02: But but you know, you uh I do know everybody.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_02: My firefighting and volunteerism, uh, I think I'll put my volunteerism up against anyone.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, all the things I do with the fire department, but I'm big advocate.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_02: I've served as chairman of our chamber of commerce board.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_02: I currently still serve on the board.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_02: I'm on boards at church, I'm on boards at every facet.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_02: I will be our state association president of the independent insurance agency of Georgia next year.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_02: I'm constantly wanting to engage people.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_02: This is a people business, so engaging people, helping people, making contacts, uh, you know, it's what it's all about.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_02: But in our community, I guess one of the most kind of unique things was my mom.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_02: I had to take her to the doctor appointment about two, three years ago.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_02: And we walked in to meet a new doctor.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_02: She was having knee surgery.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I never will forget the doctor came up and he introduced himself.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_02: And we're in a county, three counties away.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_02: We're we're an hour away.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_02: And so I introduced myself.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_02: I said, Hey, I'm Kevin Painter.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: I said, It's my mom, Freddie.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I said, uh, he goes, I know who you are.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_02: I said, Really?
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_02: I said, we met before.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_02: He goes, well, kinda.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_02: He goes, man, I he said about 15 years ago, he said, I don't know if you remember 15, 20 years ago.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: He said, I've been, I should have come by and seen you.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: I told myself I was come see you.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: He goes, You were on a car wreck.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_02: Me and my dad wrecked on on Highway 5.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_02: He said, and I never forget you come up, you had me, you took care of me, you told me everything was gonna be okay, you took care of us.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: And he said, I always said I was gonna come back and thank you, and I never did that, and I apologize.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_02: He said, So thank you.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_02: And that was in a doctor's he it was a guy that you know worked had a car wreck.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_02: I helped the kid, helped the dad.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: He said, I seen you help my dad.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_02: He said, and that gave me comfort as well that day.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_02: And so uh I I didn't didn't remember the wreck.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_02: I remember always remember the wrecks.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_02: I had him tell me the location and I remembered it, but but you know, it's just again, those are the things you do in your communities to be the mayor, to help people in your community, to build up to do the right things for your your family and friends.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: You're you know, you're like Superman.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: You're like fighting fire, fighting fires at night, but like singing insurance by day.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, my firefighting at age 59 has had to slow down a little bit.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_02: That doesn't mean I don't love it, but I still go on car wrecks daily.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_02: I still carry my fire department pager.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_02: We get them on phone.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: So you know, how we hold down like how many hours a week are you going on firefighters?
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I I probably run still average running three to five calls a week.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_02: You know, different stuff.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_02: I'm hoping for like instructing people.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: You're not like let me go first.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: Are you running in are you first in the burning building still?
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: No, I still I still go in anytime I can go in.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_02: The problem of it is I used to go in a house fire and stay 30, 45 minutes and come out.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_02: Now I can go in for five or ten minutes and I'm out getting stuck in the house.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: I go in the soda for 10 minutes and that's tough for me.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_02: But you probably, yeah, no, y'all may have read about my little thing on the airplane the other night at 39,000 feet over Kansas.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_02: We had a lady, we had a lady uh pass out on the plane.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't hesitate.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_02: I seen something going on.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_02: That's just the DNA of people like me who, you know, who are firefighters, who are EMTs, who want to help in their community.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_02: I go run to the run to the calls.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: Are you like are you like Batman where they throw Up like the Kevin Painter sign in your town and you just like rush to the fire.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of people.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of people that want to stab me in the back and those at you.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: You didn't had a lot of villains had a lot of villains, right?
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's it's yeah.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: We gotta we gotta we got a whole like soap opera here or a super.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I've been again, I've been lucky, I've been blessed.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_02: I could have been killed multiple times.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: I probably have should have died three or four times.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_02: I hope I live another hundred years.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_02: But life's been good to me, and you know, I want to continue on sharing and helping people in my community, in my industry, and and just doing the right thing.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: So so you mentioned that you're on the board of a bunch of different things, you're involved in a lot of different things.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: And it it's very clear you want to help people, you want to be a great community member.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: But what it what is it that you want to help them achieve, right?
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: It like even let's talk about the insurance industry.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: You're you're on the board, you're you're gonna be the president of the Georgia chapter.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like what's the goal?
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: What what do you really want to get out of it or influence you want to help make?
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_02: Well, our industry, as we well know, is is is tough in need of people.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of people, you know, our industry is dying out.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_02: You know, our seniors are, you know, between 55 and 60, everybody is retiring, selling their agency.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_02: So you there's not a lot of youth in this industry.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we've got to have youth in this industry to keep it alive.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_02: Things don't happen in this world without insurance.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_02: Things do not happen in this world without insurance.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_02: You can't go build that Home Depot that I'm looking at.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_02: You can't uh drive this car up and down the road, you can't successfully take care of a family without insurance being involved.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_02: The insurance is involved in probably every transaction around the corner somewhere.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, and when you can, as I tell people, you know, if you call us for insurance, and and I tell people this routinely, look, you know, everybody wants to save money, but my goal is not to save you money.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_02: My goal is to save your ass, is what I say to people.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_02: Because at two o'clock in the morning when your house is on fire, you don't care what you're paying in premium.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_02: You want to know what your coverage is and you're taken care of.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: And that's our job.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: That's what I relay to my clients.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_02: I said, if you can't do the right thing for the client, put them in a better position, better their coverages, then we need to go on to the next client, you know.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: And and I mean, I agree with that, right?
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: I I I like that take, right?
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's it's kind of you are you're not like me as a normal person that's paying for my home insurance.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not thinking about the the worst thing that could potentially happen.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just thinking about my bill is really high.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but but let me give you an example.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_02: Would you rather have the best coverage possible and you have a ten thousand dollar deductible versus having half crappy insurance and having a thousand dollar deductible?
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_02: You can afford the ten thousand dollar deductible and have the best coverage possible.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_02: But and if the premium for that could be the same as that, less coverage, not as many claims triggers, and a thousand dollar deductible.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_02: You sold me.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_02: Do you cover Florida?
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_02: You want to call it?
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_02: We can't.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_02: I am licensed in Florida as well.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um I'm a much better I didn't sell out Loch Dom.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't take the big money and run.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_02: I am still working today, Stanley, my cell phone.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_02: I'll give you my number, you call me and I'll take care of it.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: But now now, well, apparently I'm a new insurance broker.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: But let's let's talk about that actually.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: You didn't sell out.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: You you you I'm sure private equity is calling you temperature.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: Every day.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: Every day.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: And one let's talk about two things.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: One, let's talk about that.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: Your son often is now in the business.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I'm sure he did he want to get in the business where you're like, hey son, come work for me.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_02: No, that's a great story as well.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_02: And just to add to it, my daughter, who is finishing up her master's degree, is a golf, she's a uh golf graduate assistant at a golf tournament today.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_02: Matter of fact, she's already she went on her own and got her insurance license in December on her own, passed it the first time.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_02: So but my son has been here working for us for three years.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_02: Why don't I sell, make life simpler, and everything, is because it doesn't matter that I'm looking at there and seeing that sign that said Kevin Painter Insurance.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_02: They could take that sign down today.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_02: But I know that my son, I've instilled enough in him that he will carry on the same tradition of helping people, and I've seen it already in him.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_02: He's he's seen enough along the way that he knows that helping people is is there's dividends to be paid for that.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um so he's been here with us for three years, doing great.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want to sell out because I feel like I'd be selling out my children from that standpoint.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: Now, if they decide that they don't want to be in it, I'll sell that thing and and you know, call it good and go figure out another way to help people.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_02: But uh, you know, there's there's more to it than money, in my opinion.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: I I love how you're calling it selling out.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: Like you're really like if you sell to you're selling out, you're not just selling.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but but but you know, today the problem of it is the majority of companies who buy out people, the majority, and I mean majority, probably 90-95%, they change the whole landscap, uh, the whole landscape of the agency.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_02: They change the DNA of the employees, they drive it down to a multiple because it becomes a profit source for them.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_02: If they can drive it down and yeah, we can't pay for your Chamber of Commerce dues anymore, we can't pay for you sponsoring the teachers association, I'm going to the Teacher of the Year banquet tonight.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_02: You know, they drive it down to multiples that you're taking away of what small business America, what is built small towns.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a small mom and pop organization.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_02: I give back into my community.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_02: I've said it so many times.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_02: If you you take care of your community, your community will take care of you.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_02: And that's what's what's helped us right there in that.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_02: But, you know, I see my son do it every day.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_02: You know, he he he's working to take care of those clients.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_02: And we can't help every client, but we can help them in a way, as I tell people, if we can't help them with one of our companies, let's restructure their coverage where it needs to be.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_02: You know, got a couple now, their daughter just had an accident.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, I don't want to move them.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_02: I might could save them a dollar, but it's best for them to stay with that carrier uh right now because of that accident.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_02: So we help them, we get their coverages in line.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_02: People appreciate that.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_02: And as I tell them, you're not gonna be my client today, but you will be in three years.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so insurance is a small community in and of itself, although there's plenty of agencies and lots of people working in it.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um but when we met in person a couple months ago, we uh we you were telling me uh about where you lived and your community and how you're up in the mountains in Georgia, and I was like, oh, I think I know someone uh from that area.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_02: Uh there's a huge lesson to be learned here, isn't there, Dom?
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I'll say that, and probably probably the person we're talking about will probably listen to this podcast at some point.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_02: And I will say, I will say to that, that person left.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_02: There's a certain ethical way you leave people.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_02: You know, if I I'm always hiring people and I've had people ditch me, not work out of notice and stuff, and that's just the wrong way.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_02: This is a very small world.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_02: I will say that that particular person, Shalanda, thank you.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_02: She she left me, had some family situations that needed to change.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_02: We made some accommodations and it was good for a while, but ultimately she had a better opportunity.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_02: But the story in it is she had a better opportunity and she was going to be working for an agency in New York.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, you better watch these young Yankees.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_02: They're they're gonna work you like.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_02: But anyway, so let's fast forward to uh a month ago when you and I finally meet and we get to talking.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_02: We realized that my former employee in a small town of North Georgia was became your employee.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_02: She left me to go to work.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_02: I stole her from you.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, you stole her, just flat out stole her.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_02: But uh, you know, and the whole thing.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm still here today.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know where she's at today.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: But we're still going the war started, right?
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like Yeah.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_02: I you know, here's the thing.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_02: If I see Dom on the side of the road with the flat tire, I probably won't stop and help him, but I'll call triple I'll call triple A to go help him.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, Donald's planning to move to Georgia, but now he's true because you get what he better hope his house don't catch on fire.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_02: He better hope he don't have a heart attacker's house catch on fire.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_02: Could be in trouble.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_02: But but to back to that point, this is a very small, you know, in the big scheme of insurance world, it is, and in any business, you know, there's ethical ways to do things, and sometimes you have to cross those bridges back over.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_02: You better not burn those bridges.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_02: I've got a few people that have done me wrong.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_02: They're going to cross that bridge again someday.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um so you know, be careful.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_01: Don't don't be don't don't don't drive your car in Georgia because uh they're gonna be a little delayed on on those fire recipes.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um I will always help anyone, even my worst enemy.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_01: No, we're talking, but it is it is interesting.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, we were we were having uh we were hot hops off and we met Kevin and we were talking, and it was a great conversation, and and then that whole conversation came out of dumb folk.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_02: I mean five years five years later, how bizarre is that?
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_02: Two guys on the other side living in opposite ends of the country per se, find out that he stole one of my employees one time.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's a great start.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_01: It really is a great story.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_02: But it's got a it's got a good story behind it, and is you do things the right way.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_02: And she did.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_02: She line de left in in the right way.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_02: So uh kudos.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: She came to me from a recruiter.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like I had you, you know, singled out, Cabinet.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, whose employees can I pick off?
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: Let me find the guy in the city.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_02: Let's go to this little redneck.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: Let's go to this little redneck country community.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: Boom, right there.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: So you're not giving up.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I mean, not I don't want to say you're not giving up.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: You you're you're not selling out.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_01: You're not down.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: You're you're you're you're gonna continue to move at a hundred miles an hour.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: It seems like sixteen, eighteen hour days are your days, I'm sure, are structured a little differently now, right?
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_01: That that you have a whole team and a little differently?
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, what walk us through what a day in the life of Kevin looks like.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Stanley, y'all have employees and you have people.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's just a different, you know, I've got 20 people with problems now coming at me, and I'm needing to help them solve a problem for those clientele.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_02: So uh, you know, when we get off this podcast, I'm gonna be responding back to 20 text messages that need some attention, sampling.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, so it is it is different.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_02: I if I didn't enjoy it, I would not be here today, you know, from that standpoint.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I still do enjoy it and still investing in this industry and in my community and moving forward.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_02: But uh, you know, they're there.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I feel like stretch armstrong sometime.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_02: I've getting pulled over here and pulled back here and pulled up here and and everything.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you love it.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_02: It it gets the juices flowing, gets the keeps keeps me going.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_02: Uh my dog growled at me the other night.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_02: I had not been home.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_02: I'd been gone for four weeks off and on, just coming home for a day or two.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_02: And my dog kind of growled at me like he didn't know who I was.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I tell people.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_01: What what is you you've been in this business for a long time, you've seen it all.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_01: What what is what does the insurance industry look like in the next five to ten years?
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you know, the insurance industry is obviously artificial intelligence is changing a lot of this industry, and I feel sorry for those agents who are not listening to the warning because they are going to be forced to sell uh from those.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_02: There's so many agents out there today who are not informing themselves.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_02: I go to a lot of conferences.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_02: I try to stay right on top of everything because, you know, there's always better, you know, better ways to do things.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_02: Like your company, the company that y'all own.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_02: I would have eight years ago, I would have never ever considered a virtual assistant or a virtual employee for that matter.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_02: Never would have considered it.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_02: Nope, I'm gonna have hometown people take your hometown.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_02: But the industry, the economy, and stuff.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_02: And then we found out that, you know, companies like yourself who offer a great service, great people, you know, you you invest in your employees, you bring the best employees to people like me uh to do it.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_02: I have a choice.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_02: There's 40, 50, maybe a hundred people that do the same job that you do.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_02: Why did I pick a VA from your company?
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_02: One is because Kara did a great sales problem.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_02: Did I pronounce that right?
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_02: It wasn't because of Dom.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_02: I know Dom.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_02: Dom, it would out of there.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_02: But no, you know, I seen Doc.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_02: No, I seen Dom and Kara at it uh at an industry event.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and I said, hey, you know, good people.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_02: I was happy with my VA company.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_02: I still uh working with another VA company, but there's a little bump in the road, and I said, I'm gonna give this company an opportunity.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_02: They sold themselves.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_02: They sold themselves onto me, and so far it's been a great, great relationship.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_02: Doing good.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_01: We're doing good.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody watching.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, you see, we got our approval.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: We got Kevin's approval.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: We got a nine to Kevin.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_02: No, you'll y'all provided me a great uh I had to choose between two very, very great candidates.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and and had I gone back again and flipped a coin, I could have easily went the other way as well.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_02: But y'all provided a great candidate.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_02: Jorge is doing a great job for us.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_02: And uh you should have taken both, but hey, you never know.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_02: You never know.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_02: Y'all know how busy I am.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_02: I may need a personal assistant.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_02: Do I get a discount?
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_02: Discount.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we'll we'll talk offline, but we appreciate the kind words.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_01: And and I you know, I think for us and just having conversations with obviously business owners, insurance agency owners like yourself, you know, it's what we enjoy is solving the problem or helping you solve the problem.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, you do.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_01: And and just even in conversations just like this on a podcast.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_02: But but back to what you originally asked me, what does it look like in the next five to ten years?
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna see um you're gonna see a lot bigger agencies because the consolidation's still gonna continue.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_02: I just don't know where the small guy, how they they're not gonna be able to compete if they do not do the AI, you know, they you gotta use the resources.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I go back, there's a story, and I know we don't have time for it, but where the Lord uh saved this guy, um, and and the guy says, wait a minute, Lord, you know, you I've you said you would always take care of me.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_02: And the good Lord said, Man, I sent you a boat, I sent you a rope, I sent all these people, and you didn't listen to me, you know, and all that same.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_02: It's kind of the same way.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_02: If you're not engaging the things that are provided to you to better your industry, to better your clientele, to do better for your clients, you're gonna miss it.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_02: And there's so many people missing the boat out there right now.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_02: Like, like me, if I would have kept saying, I'm not gonna use a virtual assistant, not gonna use a virtual assistant, I would be scrambling for for help today and not being able to take, you know, services like Elevate that y'all do, I am better able to take care of my clients today because, you know, sometimes you just can't can't find quality folks.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_02: I don't let just anybody talk to my clients or deal with my clientele.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_01: You're you I I believe that.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_01: I I wonder, I wonder though, and and I agree with you from the perspective of yes, there's gonna be a lot more bigger agencies, but I wonder if there's gonna be new types of agencies or new clients, right?
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_01: Or Cause because it's gonna get busy.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like right now, I'm getting, you know, cold emails from every everybody in the world, and it's all AI.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_01: And like now I'm like, I want to do business with somebody who's gonna send me a regular email and not oh I had the most bizarre, I had the most bizarre conversation of the day.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_02: I'd called a company and talked to the guy, and he had a real deep voice.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_02: I said, Are you AI?
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_02: He goes, No, Kevin, I'm not.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_02: But I get that question five times a day.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_02: The guy sounded just like now, I I normally say that question, and I'm okay communicating with AI to a point till I get frustrated.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_02: But I'll ask him as right, yeah, Kevin, I'm AI, but if you'll give me a chance, we'll try to solve your problem and we can do it much faster, quicker, better, you know.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_02: And they'll the AI, good AI will tell you that they're AI.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm okay.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_02: But that was so funny why I said, Hey, are you AI?
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_02: No, Kevin, I'm not.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_02: But I get asked that five times a day.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_01: It kind of scared me, it startled me right there for a minute.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_01: It was funny.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_01: Let's get into my favorite part.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_01: Let's get into rapid fire.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna ask you some uh some personal questions.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna take a drink of water.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, have a drink of water if you want a scotch.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_01: What what what what whatever whatever you need.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_02: It's 12 o'clock.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's five o'clock.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_02: Vodka.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_02: Vodka and water would be good.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_02: That's still an easy.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: You wait until five for the for the whiskey.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_01: I've never been a whiskey type of guy.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_01: Never been a whiskey guy.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's shameful.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_01: I know.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_01: Well, well, let's get into rapid fire.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, personal questions, whatever comes to mind, and let's start off with an easy one.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_01: Softball.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_01: What is your drink of choice?
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_01: What is that drink that you're ordering at?
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, if I'm drinking, it's uh uh today and the last five years have been vodka, vodka and soda.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_02: A little twist with a good twist of line.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: Firefighter, EMT, or insurance agent, which is the hardest.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_02: Uh the last six months it's been insurance agency owner.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_02: Sure has been, because people don't have the integrity that they used to.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_02: Mamas and daddies did not raise their kids in this last generation to be super good humans.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_01: One thing your younger self wouldn't understand about your life today.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_01: Say that's ask me that question one more time.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_01: Your younger self wouldn't understand about your life today.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_02: How how life gets in the way uh and will take you in a different avenue, and you just have to have faith that that all things will work out for the best.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_04: I like that.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_02: Uh even when you're at your lowest point, your lowest point, have faith.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_02: Be faithful.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna come out of this, okay?
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I've been to some low points in my life, very low points in my life.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, just gotta have that faith, and and you'll you'll come out of it, and you'll be a better person for it.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_02: You always should look at your negatives and say, you know what, it didn't make me a better person, then it wasn't a mistake.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's you know, made you a better person.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: What is one trade-off you've had to accept to grow your business?
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_02: You can't be all things to all people all the time.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_02: There's only one of you.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_02: Even though one of you works like ten people, you know, you can't be all things to all people all the time.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_01: Uh easy one to to to close off rapid fire.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_01: Your favorite meal ever.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_01: Place or food.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_01: Give us both.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, let's hear it.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_00: Give us everything.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_02: As long as my cardiologist is not listening.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_02: I love I love good old pork barbecue ribs.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_02: Texas, gileen.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna be in Texas next week.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_02: I can't wait.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_02: I love brisket, love ribs.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's just so amazing.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_01: Now we know what now we know what we're gonna send you as a gift.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_02: But I love steak too.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_02: I love steak.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I'm a steak guy, but I have to throw in a lot of chicken now with it to be good.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_02: You gotta be good.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you heard it all here.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Kevin, where can people find you if they wanna re you know, they're starting an insurance agency and they want to pick your brain from a pro or they want to buy some insurance protection for their home in the Georgia Mountains?
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_01: Where can people find you?
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_02: I'm very easy to find.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_02: You just Google Kevin Painter, and that's P-A-N-T-R.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_02: No I.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_02: It's really Kevin Painter, but we pronounce it painter.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_02: But you can find me pretty easy on the web.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_02: But Kevin Painter Insurance in Blue Ridge, Georgia.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_02: We're right here in the mountains, right where the Appalachian Trail starts.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_02: We Dom and I we might have to take a trip out there.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna have to do it.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_01: You would you would love it.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, you would love it.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you heard it all here.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_01: We appreciate you coming on to elevate the hustle.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_01: We're not gonna talk about all the technical difficulties we had to get you out of.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, everybody.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: Guys, thanks for the opportunity.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_01: Y'all take care.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you, Carol.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_04: We appreciate you, brother.