Katherine Dustin, President of J.E.D. Insurance and Financial Service Agency, Inc.

0:00 The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services, or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability explicit or implies shall be extended to W four CY Radio or it's employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W four CY Radio. Churchill said, those who failed to learn from history are condemned to repeat it. Kevin Helen n believes that certainly applies to business. Welcome to Winning Business Radio here at W.

0:41 Four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com and now your host, Kevin Helen. Thanks everybody for joining in again today. This is Kevin Hallanan and welcome back to Winning Business TV and Radio on W four cy dot com. We're streaming live on talkfour tv dot com in addition to live on Facebook. That's at Winning Business Radio, and of course we're available in podcasts after the live show on tons of platforms pretty much wherever you listen to your podcast content, We're there, YouTube, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple, et cetera, et cetera. The mission of Winning Business radio and TV, as regular viewers and listeners know, is to offer insights and advice to help people avoid the mistakes of others, to learn best practices, the how tos, the what toos, the what not tos, to be challenged and hopefully to be inspired by the successes of others. Who are those others consultants, coaches, advisors, authors, founders, owners, entrepreneurs, business leaders, people with expertise. But you know, virtually every successful person I've ever had a chance to talk to has had some form of failure in their lives and careers.

1:53 So while we all have to get our knees skinned once in a while, I'm driven to keep those scrapes from needing major surgery. Let's endeavor to learn from history so we don't repeat it. I've spent the better part of my career equipping businesses to grow from solopreneurs to small and medium sized companies all the way up to the Fortune fifty, And as I say every week, I've seen some of those companies win, and to some degree, I've seen some of them fail and I've had the opportunity to rub elbows with some of the highest performing people around and with some who probably should have found other professions. In my own businesses, I've had lots of success too, but some failures. I like to think I've learned a lot from those experiences. So you're going to hear from me my opinions and insights, but more importantly, you're going to hear from experts, those consultants, coaches, authors, advisors, founders, owners, entrepreneurs, leaders, and today no different. My guest is Catherine Katie Dustin, president of JED Insurance and Financial Service Agency.

2:45 Here's your bio. Katie Dustin says she's proud to represent JD Insurance, where they specialize in assisting business businesses excuse me to stay solvent and profitable through their risk management programs. Kadie grew up in Foxborough, mass better home as the home than the New England Patriots. She's the middle child of four with an older sister, older brother, and a younger sister. Family has always been her foundation as they continue to inspire and support her in every step of her journey. After high school, Katie attended Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island, where she earned a Bachelor's of Business Administration with a focus in management. One pivotal moment in her college experience, I got a kick out of this Katie was taking a sales course which she says she only signed up for to fulfill requirements, which started as a checkbox unexpectedly turned into a passion. That experience set the stage for her career path. Katie began her professional career at JAD Insurance, which is her family's insurance agency. Katie says that working alongside her dad John every day has been a privilege and joy that has helped shape her perspective and deepen her knowledge, passion, and pride in the business. Early in her career, she attended the Hartford School of Insurance in Texas, where she gained invaluable insights into the company's product offerings.

3:57 Katie has also earned certifications as a commercial lines Coverage Specialist and a Construction Risk Insurance Specialist, further enhancing her expertise. The sharpener skills, Katie attended the Sales Program, Sales Advantage Program Excuse Me by Dale Carnegie, and Sandler's Sales Mastery Program. With yours truly you guess that. Currently, Katie is. Wrapping up her MBA at Bryant University with just one class left to go. Balancing work and education has been a fulfilling experiences, experience, and challenge that is fuel to growth. In her free time, Katie loves traveling, staying active through spin classes and jogging. She's always eager to learn, whether it's about the insurance industry, new places, or personal growth. Katie, Welcome to Winning Business Radio and TV.

4:41 Thank you HERB for having me today. As always, it's an absolute honor and privileged at the opportunity to speak with you, Kevin. I appreciate that. So nice, so professional, and we do know each other audience, so we're going to be I'm going to be a little bit of a wise guy. Maybe maybe, but listen, so thank you. I know you're running an. Agency, you're busy, and I really know you know your times that are premium, So thanks seriously. Now, I know how important uh in family is to you. Tell us about your family, and I know you're a middle child like me, and we need people to like it. Yeah, I definitely always joke about being a middle child. I joke that I had to grow up for the love through cleaning and hard work around the house. In all seriousness, I do think that being a middle child has really helped because I always want to keep pace with my older siblings and to be as good as they were. Might be a little competitive. I think they're very well aware of how competitive I am with all of them. And then, of course, you know, I work for my dad. I'll be talking about him probably a lot throughout the show. So he's also in the entrance agency how I got into it. And then my mom was a teacher's aide, and I think that you know, she has feels, yeah that a lot of people you can't just learn. You know, she's a most patient, kind person.

5:47 And honestly, you know, I could be the half the person she is. I would be very very fortunate. So nice. Nice. So I want people to hear your background. You grew up in Foxborough, mass Again, home of the new Land, our Rwland Patriots. We had a great run, didn't we. Now it's now it's not so good. But we'll see if Mike Rabel has anything to do about it. But tell us what it was like to grow up in Foxborough, small town. Yeah, definitely a small town. Grew up Playing sports in Foxbor definitely was a big part of growing up. Played soccer, basketball, and run track and you know, I had a lot of cousins in town and everything, so it was always fun as well.

6:28 So that was one of my questions too, what sports? What were your early interests other than sports? I would say predominantly focused on sports growing up, which is interesting because I feel like I've since had to learn other passions to enjoy what working out has obviously been like the biggest passion I've had. Cool. We'll get to that later, and we'll also get to you were a student athlete in school too, in college too, We'll get to that. What made you choose to attend Bryant and to major in business administration? Yeah, so full transparency. When I was choosing a college, I will admit I was definitely not thinking long term initially when I was looking at it. I liked the landscape, super green grass, nice fell in. Yeah, but it felt like a place that I call home, you know, similar to the Foxborough small town. Bryant University was a small school, so definitely what I was looking for. And then I also have my parents guiding me to help influence me to make a good educated decision. I'm going to be gone to college, and you know, it's known for their business program. Fortunately, I had somebody that was a couple of years older than me in Foxborough and she was already attending Bryan, so she invited me up some classes with her and just really, you know, see what it was like to be a college student for a day.

7:44 I only applied to one school, which was dumb, but I did. That's all I did. How many schools did you apply to? I applied to like four or five schools. Yeah, Ryant was your first choice. Yeah, it was like between Brian and Roger Williams schools and more like beautiful campuses than Rhode Island. But I think I just was known for their business So that's kind of what ended up driving me to go there. Nice. So this is one of the harder questions you already no, it's not just kidding. What was one of your best lessons that you learned while at Bryant. I don't mean educationally, I mean in terms of maybe discipline or life skills or anything like that. Yeah, I would say that time management was probably the most important lesson I learned definitely. When I went into college, I didn't really spend much time preparing for tests, quiz exams, you know, I just kind of go about the school day and then go play sports whatever. When you're in college, you really have to manage your time better, make sure you're prepared for all of your exams and everything. And then on top of that, I did do track there, so just that as well.

8:44 So you did well in high school. Then yeah, we can say that the radio for the. Radio, Yeah, let the record show. So now I when I ask about being a college athlete, you ran track, What was that like and what are the lessons you learned from college athletics? Different level? Yes, So admittedly I joined for the social aspect. I mean, lifelong friends are track and everything. But I definitely loved it. I think it teaches you discipline, It teaches you motivation. I think consistency in anything you do is single handedly the most important thing. So you know, having to go out every day and training for a certain amount of period of time, it really transfers well into white skills and then just being part of a team regardless of the size or you know, the levels that people are at it's just really critical kind of teaches you like leadership skills and everything like that.

9:34 I think time management is huge to me because you were very busy and you still to get everything else done right. And in fact, I don't remember the stat but there's a stat that, jeez, I should know this, right. We'll just say that across the board, college athletes tend to perform better because they're forced to be better time managers. I'm not saying everybody, right, but the ones that figured it out, they tend to be better managers of their time, better letters of priority, and tend to have better grades. Yeah. I think definitely not what the priorities too. Yeah, but good college asson is like prioritizing. What you have to do really good. So when did you know? Did you go to Bryant expecting to be in the family business. Was that something that happened later? Talk about that, Yeah, I mean I.

10:19 Don't think most people necessarily dream when they're growing up too. You were four years old, sad. Yeah, when I was four I decided, but no, but I kind of always knew I was going to get injured at some point. I was always around the business, so I would do like little tasks like boxing or you know, sending out letters and everything. And then over time, obviously my role evolved, and you know, I did have several internships in college and everything. But I think at the end of the day, I knew that this is where it was going to be long term, so it made sense to start after I graduated. And your sisters and brother didn't have the same interest. Nope, I'm the only sibling in it. Not to say that won't change. But my older sister is a nurse, shout out to all the nurses out there playing hard workers.

11:00 And yeah, my brother is a strength coach up at Endicot College. And my younger sister is a tax specialist. Oh cool, CPA payroll, Oh payroll O. All right, and so are they working at larger well, Endicott does a University of the nursing that she working at a larger company, or yeah, she's in the hospital and okay, big environment, yep, yep. And what about your your younger sister that's the special Is that a larger company? Yeah? So I connect today. So so, what do you think she's experiencing that you're not? What do you think you're experiencing that she's not. Given the size differences of the companies, I would say.

11:44 That maybe like a different social environment from culture. But we you know, obviously we talk every day and we share a lot of similarities. You know, at the end of the day, business is business, so you're there to get work done. So I think that, you know, sometimes it's helpful though that she works at a larger company, just like bouncing ideas off her to see what they're doing and yeah, you know potentially what we could implement to kind of to marror that. And you're almost done with your MBA. What drove the decision to get the NBA. It's a lot of work working full time. Yeah, so I think that's the biggest thing for me was that I wanted to kind of learn more of the operational side of the business. I'm back at Bryan from my MBA as well, so I kind of knew some of the professors there, and I thought that it'd be a good program to kind of fit my needs and help you learn that I wanted to learn.

12:30 Yeah, I did put that in the script here, but I did know that. I'm glad you shouted that out. So and Bryan seemed like a good fit Again, is it mostly online on campus or both. Yeah, it's one hundred percent online, which definitely that's interesting for me. I went undergrad obviously in person, so it's definitely significantly different. You definitely have to manage your time. Everything's on your own schedule, but it's helpful. You know, the teachers do post their weekly like sures and everything, so. So that was one of my questions. It's not live lectures, then it's it's on demand. Yeah, whenever you want to watch it, you can, you know, like we on a weekly basis. Sometimes they're playing catch up, but for the most parts, on a weekly basis.

13:15 It's radio. Now you're on it every time. I mean, you never missed it miss an assignment, that's right. What was the hardest part. So far from the NBA program, I would say the hardest part it has just been managing like work with school. Yeah, you know, after like working all day generally like to you know, get a quick workout in after work and then trying to go home and like do school work. You know, obviously at the end it will be extremely rewarding. It's it's hard to see that in the moment when you're like sitting down doing additional work. One class left. That's got to feel pretty good. It'll feel better when you're done. But are you in it now or do you have one more?

13:55 No? It starts in March. I should be done by May. The summer off. It'll be great. I'm not going to say congratulations until I see you afterwards. Yeah, and well being accountable, all right. Last question before the break is what was your What was a key takeaway or maybe a most important lesson you'd want to share about the NBA program. I think just making sure that you are investing as much time as possible and getting to know your podmates. Every class has certain groups, and I think working together is obviously valuable. Everyone comes from different industries, different backgrounds, so kind of collaborating with them is super helpful. I've been in some that I have been stronger than others.

14:39 But when you're in a strong group, you know, it definitely helps contribute to overall success to the group and the class and all of that. So different personality types as well, different levels of maybe I don't know if commitments a right word. Time, you know you're dealing with all kinds of different people too, right, Oh yeah, I. Mean people all different needs from all different places where else since online, in different industries, different experience levels and all of that. All right, I lied one more question before the break. Were you about the same age as most of those students are some older, some younger? No, A lot of them actually were older, A lot of them had a lot more experience. So I don't know if it was like requirement that they just chose to go back to different reasons. I guess, Well, some people get the NBA right away, but a lot of people, I think, I think, actually, in my opinion, you are smart to work a while and figure it out, you know, and then and then get done to it, even though it.

15:28 Was harder in terms of time. But just an opinion, all right, So we will be back Katie in one minute. Everybody who's watching and listening will be back in about sixty seconds with Katie Dustin of JED Insurance and Financial Service Agency. You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene on W four CY Radio. That's W four C. Why dot Com don't go away? More helpful information is coming right up right here on Winning Business Radio. Off Have you ever dreamt of being on the radio? Well, now it's your chance be a radio show guest on the number one ranked internet radio station and promote you and your business for free. Yes you heard it, free business advertising right here on W four cy dot com.

16:18 Call five six one five zero six four zero three to one now to get booked on one of our shows. That's five six one five zero six four zero three one. Get your free advertising now. And now back to winning business radio with Kevin Helene, presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again is Kevin Helena. We're back with Katie Dustin. She is the president of JD Insurance, JD Sares and Financial Service Agency. I forget that long winded part, but I want to say because I'll ask about what the financial services part means later, But I did want to ask.

17:09 You said several internships during school. The one I know about is the Peter Jacobson Sports. Tell us a little about that. More more from the work. You can talk say anything you want about the company or the organizations, but you know what did you do and what did you take away from that or those experiences? Yeah, so I was working at a it was a golf tournament charity event, and so all summer I was kind of doing the marketing back end work. Very very fun internship, you know, right around on golf cards all day. Definitely had no complaints. Isn't Barrington, Rhode Island? Beautiful scenery? Again nice but just like and you know, I, like I said, I mentioned it, but I love sports. I actually had a sports management minor in college, so kind of able to utilize that a little bit. But like long term, it just wasn't going to be what I wanted to do. But as far as is like what I learned, Like I said, we delved a lot into like marketing, so just like mailing letters, letters, postcards, doing some social media content.

18:08 So just all of that cool, now do I I may may be misremembering this. Did you coach at all? No? I did not. I didn't coach. I thought you might have coached the girls softball team or something like that. Anyway, Yeah, internships anytime, if there were younger viewers or listeners, grab any internship you can when you get the chance. What are the are there were there other part time jobs you had outside of the agency, and if so, you know, what did they help you learn? Yeah, I started working when I was pretty young. We started working at the Fox Brice Ring. I just think young as I can honestly remember, but we would, you know there do like timekeeping. And then as I got older, I worked at Kohl's for a little bit doing a retail.

18:53 That was when I was in college. Definitely when you knew you didn't want to be in retail. I learned at that. Moment on things giving night and I had like the line starts here. But yeah, I mean that was obviously a really busy job and just I mean it was actually really good because one I had to like learn to really step outside my comfort zone, you know, constantly talking to people. A lot of people come up, they want their thirty percent off. Sometimes you can give it to them, sometimes you can't. So just really like talking to the people. And at the end of the day it was really really actually helpful. Like you said, I knew what I didn't want to do, but I learned a lot while I was there. Yeah, as long as they get their Coll's box right, they're good to go.

19:34 That was, you know, when I when you started giving their getting people sign up for credit cards, things went smoothly. To don'te and done so before I know, you started working full time when you graduated from Bryant. What kind of jobs I don't mean little kid jobs, you know, so Manu facts, but what kind of part time jobs? If you did part time jobs at the agency? Were they? Yeah? I was. It's just more I guess, like administrative type work. When I first started here, a lot of like lettering, yeah. But other than that, yeah, I definitely did not have any significant impact until I had to work here full time. I did work here like some of the summers too, but it was just again like lettering, kind of like reviewing policies for like accuracy and everything. Well.

20:18 See, that's why I asked, because I want to know how long it took you really to learn the business. I'm sure you're learning all the time, but that how long it took you to learn the business to where you weren't You probably weren't thrown in the deep end in twenty fifteen. You probably had some framework, some understanding of insurance. What did that look like? Yeah, I definitely am constantly learning. I mean, we work with all different types of industries and everything, but I would say that it took probably two or three years to get like a good foundation, and then obviously like the sales aspect was like a never you know, forever, had to learn that as well. But as far as like the technical side, definitely continuing to learn it, but it had a good foundation. Was in like two or three years of working here.

20:59 So what was onboarding and training like? Was it? Uh? In the fire? Was it? You had to learn a lot And are there licenses that you need? Does the so talk about those as well your training and education to get to where you are today, and what I know, you have some certifications what you'll ask you about in a little while you can feel free to mention, but talk about licensure as well. Yeah, so you have to sell in terms, you have to have your property and casualty license. So I did that with in the first year of being here, and then I went on and I got some different certifications. One was like a construction risk insurance Specialist and then the other one was the commercial lines coverage Specialist. Both of those were just you know, to increase my knowledge on the commercial line side. And then for contractors it's obviously more involved some of the coverages and everything. So I kind of want to deal further into that.

21:51 So every I'm sure every industry is different and has its uniqueness, is of course therefore, so what's different about construction. Well, there's all obviously different sides, like contractors. I think that I wanted to focus on that. I love working with contractors. I feel like we can really make a difference for them. You know, oftentimes it's not just like a one and done situation. They were required to present certificates of insurance. You know, their audience might be a little bit more intense because they need to show the certificates for subcontractors working under them. So I feel like I'm able to help them get organized, really help them value to their business that they can kind of focus on what they do best, which is construction.

22:35 Yeah. How long was it did it take you to get the license? What was that studying? Did you have to go to a class or was that online? Would that look like? Yeah, so I did attend a two day class. It took me, I want to say, like six months love studying. If you haven't gotten that, just kidding, but yeah, I probably took about six months. I and I actually I think I had mentioned this in my bio. I went to the Harvard School of Insurance for two weeks, which I was able to absorb a ton of knowledge and that was super helpful, and I mean, to the day, I'm really grateful that I attended it. That's cool. So that people understand, I know that's probably a fair amount to do, but define personal lines and define commercial lines for the audience.

23:24 Yeah, So the personal line is for individuals, so it might be a homeowners and not personal automobile insurance, personal umbrellas, which very important. People might have boats, motorcycles, so anything that's you know, under an individual name would fall into the personal lines. Whereas business, you know, whether it's contractors, truckers, the mom and pop shops that they were parted to carry insurance, whether it be like workers conversation, general liability, marciall umbrellas, commercial automobile. Policies, directors off You do nonprofit coverage as well? Yes, we do actually admitt nonprofits. So yeah, I've been on nonprofit boards. The one I'm in Rotary, and there's a policy that covers us if if anything happens at an event or whatever. We're not personally liable, but you have to have in change for that.

24:11 Yeah, it's definitely important to have directors and officers if you're on board. So you talked about umbrella. What's an umbrella policy or what does umbrella coverage look like and why is it important? Yeah, So the. Umbrella policies provide excess limits or the like underlying policies. So if you have a homeowner is in an automobile policy, it provides excess coverage over those. So let's say you have a claim an automobile accident, you exhaust your underlying limits, you have an umbrella that then cakes and so you're not paying excess of amounts of money out of pocket. It's not that we see the umbrella kick in every single day by any means, but it has come up several times. And you know, obviously, when you think of your career, it's very rewarding when somebody has the correct policies in place and you're able to say, hey, you don't have to pay X amount of.

24:58 Dollars out of pocket, or you're not risk of being at risk of being sued, or it's coming after your house or the value in your house. Yeah, exactly, And it's normally on the personal line side. You know, it's not generally super expensive to add it. On the commercial side. Depending on the industry and everything, it can be a little bit more costly, but definitely on the personal line side, it's really not too expensive. When did you know that you were going to take over some of the leadership of the firm. Was that a plan early on? Did that happen along the way? What was that like? Yeah, I mean I think I've always like hoped that that'd be the goal, and I think that people talking about working for family business and everything. I think that you know, I came in and I tried to invest as much time and energy as I put into the business. Yeah, I didn't really take it for granted that you know, my dad was boss. No, nepotism is a big concept nowaday you know, Madepo baby, But I actually, I generally genuinely feel like, you know, I've spent every day trying to grow the businesses well. And he wasn't just handing the business over to anyone. He's not just handing it over.

26:04 But you know, we've had conversations about someday, like, you know, hopefully that will happen and hopefully I can take over someday and continue to learn and grow and you know, do as much as I can do for the business. We'll get to more of that after the break. What do you think has most prepared you for the president role? I think, honestly working alongside my dad has been extremely beneficial. I mean, he is extremely knowledgeable, he's extremely educated. He has been very motivating and encouraging and supportive to all of my ideas as well. You know, a lot of times people might bring an idea to their boss and they don't want to implement it. He has always he's always welcomed to my ideas just as well. So I think that like learning from him has just been extremely helpful and just. He is extremely like honest and ethical and you know, does everything the right way. Watching that you know, your entire life, I think prepares you to do the right thing in the right moments.

27:05 So regular listeners might remember John from I didn't look up when he was a guest. I think he's been a guest at least once, if not twice. I think I had him on after he got his here he is here it is, and here's his shout out. Okay, you gave him you said, highly educated, he's actually a PhD. Okay, we call him doctor John right at least for wise guys do. But he's worked his tail off to learn and to prepare so that and I know that his motivation in yours too is to give the best possible coverage service, you know, be the best possible provider for clients. And I know you guys don't take that lately. I know it's probably over. You know, probably everybody says it, but I know, knowing you guys and the nature of your character and your business, you don't take that lately.

27:52 What's been the hardest part of your role as president thus far? I would say the most challenging part is I think that I'm trying to think of it maybe just like continuing to scale and kind of balance everything. I would say it's probably the most challenging. You know, obviously they want to grow the business, but to me, like retention is, yeah, single handedly the most important aspect of the business. Where retention based business and just you know, you kind of touched on a little bit, but like I truly want to give people that same service that they're used to. Like, I love dealing with the clients that my dad were when he first took started the business. So for me, it's like just balancing it all, you know, like you want to grow the business, but you also want to continue to support the current clients and then also like amongst the agency, you want everyone to not feel like overwhelmed or anything you want, you know, so just kind of balancing everything.

28:49 Yeah, all right, let's go to break right here. It's just about the bottom of the hour. We will be back in thirty or excuse me, sixty more seconds with Katie Dustin of JD Insurance and Financial Service Agency. You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene on W four CY Radio. That's W fourcy dot com. Don't go away. More helpful information is coming right up right here on Winning Business Radio. The yp dot com website is your local search engine. If you're looking for a good restaurant, it can help you find the right one nearby with ratings and reviews. Or if your car breaks down, you can use the yp app to find the closest repair shop, or maybe you're just looking for something to do on a Friday night.

29:36 While it has great local coupons for all sorts of things in your area, no matter what, when or where if you're looking for something, YP Local Search can help you find it. So go to yp dot com or download the app to search local, find local, and save local. And now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again is Kevin Helenett. We're back with Katie Dustin. Katie, I've worked for two family businesses. I worked for my dad for a number of years and I worked for my father in law for a bunch of years as well. Actually longer than I worked for my dad. Worked with my dad when I was young, you know, out of college but young.

30:31 What's been the biggest challenge And I'll just put out that I was gonna editorialize what's been the biggest challenge working within four family? I would say to the biggest challenge is trying to overcome that people often just think that like, oh, you're the boss's daughter or whatever. But I would say that, you know, like I mentioned earlier, I definitely just try to put my mess foot forward every day and invest as much time and energy as I can. I think that you know, most like I said, generally speaking, my dad has been really welcoming to my ideas, so that that's been helpful. He allows me to kind of, do you know, add my own touch to the business. I feel like that would have been a really big challenge if we couldn't kind of you know, bring things car in or whatever.

31:19 So he's still very active in the business. Those that know him and you know that, how though has his role changed. He doesn't like a lot of operational I service a lot of his accounts and everything. He still goes out meets with all clients and everything. So I would say, you know, he's still very much in front of the clients and everything, but you know, he doesn't like a lot of the back end work, and he's been able to kind of hand off some of the work to me a. Little bit nice and we'll change gears in just second last question with regard to the role, you're a relatively young leader. What are the or have there been any particular challenges given that you are. A young leader. I don't think so. I don't try to step on anyone's toes or anything they think that. You know, just like any business, sometimes feel might be a little bit more hesitant to come to me. But I think that because you know, some of the people here have a lot of experience, like knowledge in the insurance, so we can balance things off of each other. It's not just like on one sided, like them feeling that they're always coming to me or me going to them or whatever.

32:20 So I think that's been helpful. And do you consider yourself entrepreneurial? Yeah? I like to think so definitely, like like learning about business and everything, so and implementing different ideas well. If there's just avoid the question if you can't talk about it, but do you envision changes to the business or maybe directions you'd like to see the company go? Yeah, I would say definitely want to can see it continue to scale the business and everything, so continue to grow it and see what we can do. Cool. What is the size of your team? What does it look like right now? We have tax people in the office, so hopefully continue to. Grow of that and what roles are those people covering?

33:04 So we have three commercial lines including myself, Actually we have seven people, so we have John myself and then we have two commercial lines representatives and we have three personal lines. Do the other commercial reps? Commercial lines folks. Are they out in the field as well? Are they meeting with clients? So? Are they support people inside? Are they selling? So right now, the only two people that are selling are John and I. Of course if your license you can bring accounts in, it's not their primary focus. So yeah, a lot a lot of office support and everything servicing the accounts. All right, So let's talk about the actual work that you do for your clients. Your bio says that JD specializes in assisting businesses, businesses I can talk to stay solvent and profitable through their risk management programs. Break that down, what does that really mean in plain English?

34:01 Yeah, so we definitely sit down with like our clients before we take them over and kind of do like a ground up analysis to see what they need. It's not just like some of your current policy. You know, I know a lot of people do that, and you know, people's businesses shift a lot throughout the years. People might like acquire new spaces, and they don't even think to update their policies. It's just not Insurance just generally isn't top of people's mind until they need it. So we'll kind of look at what they're you know, what like what are you actually doing for work, what spaces do you have, what contents do you have? All of that, and then we put together a plan. We represent ten different you know, standard markets, and then we have access to brokers for higher risk businesses. So we have a lot of different options and we'll quote it through the system and then provide them the most competitive option, like relative to pricing terms and conditions.

34:52 So higher risk businesses. Some of the obvious ones would be a tree company. Uh, what are maybe some more subtle examples of higher risk businesses? Yeah, like roofing companies. Obviously that's that's not really subtle. I do a lot. I do a lot of student transportation businesses, so they need like liability, they need to use some all stations. So that goes to the higher higher risk. Yeah, and then obviously just companies that have had like a lot of losses. You know, you could even be like a company that generally might fit a standard market, so like a plumber, but you might have had a lot of losses and you need to go to your like Lloyds of London type of companies. Well, I just had a question. I lost it.

35:33 Uh, we'll come back to it, all right, so who are This isn't really fair, but I ask it every time anyway, who are your typical clients? Like what does a typical client look like? So we're definitely generalists and not specialists, So I feel like none of our clients estill are alike. But you know, I think that the key thing is that we generally look for nice people. You know, when I first started that all that love that yeah you could always they like find nice clients. And took me a little time to understand what he meant, but now I get it, and. Not every client's a good client and sort of sound mean. But that's true, No, it is, and it's been you know, I kind of try to follow that. Now you can kind of tell from like early on interactions how they speak of their prior like atens or whatever. So I think that that's just like the biggest thing. And you know, like I said, we're definitely not special like specializing in any one industry. We do a lot of contractors. We do like medical offices, a lot of like professional services, like it's a transportation contract or, so like all of that.

36:35 So what's interesting is you said it, you alluded to it and then said it plainly. You know, insurance is that thing that people don't get excited about, uh and it you know, they don't really need it until something happens and then it's too late. Either have the right coverage or you don't. So how often do you find that people are over or probably more often undercovered. I would say that, I mean. You know, when you're taking over some policies. Yeah, I think that there's definitely times that it doesn't come off every day that they're under insured. But generally speaking of people are mad, the time that they're getting mad is during a claim that something went wrong, and that's when they're switching over. Yeah, And I think, like, like I mentioned, like there's been times that people have switched over to us and they just want to send their policies just because it's easier for them. But then I'm like, do you have this location? Oh no, we moved, so it's like, you know, may we tried to do.

37:27 That's like why we try to do annual meetings of clients to make sure that everything's accurate. Yeah, can change by zip code for example. Right exactly, so that like, yeah, just making sure like if they're a contact, for example, they might have a lot of different equipment, but it's constantly being changed out to like make sure that's all hard enough to date. So how do you deal with somebody with all those moving parts that they have to record every sale of a or acquisition of equipment or they just make sure they're covered enough for all of it. Yes, we try to sit down with everyone on an annual basis. I think since COVID, you know, it shifted a little, people want to do like online or just email more, but ideally get in front of them and just kind of go through what they have in place, what should be different, you know, try to educate them on the importance of Hey, if you get a new piece of equipment, its two hundred thousand dollars, notifiance. Just send us the bill of sales so we can like update your policy accordingly.

38:20 Yeah for right, Uh what replacement cost coverage or whatever? Right, and to make sure it's accurate all right. So used to be the beer company said the best commercials. Okay, now I think it's the insurance companies have the best commercials. But having said that, what should uh, like auto owners watch out for when dealing with national companies versus dealing with an agency. I mean, I think there's a lot of different aspects to that. I think that when you're you know, you see these commercials and they're like you can get your insurance for X dollars a year, and like I got one too, and I think it was saying twenty dollars a month or something, So I want to look at it. I do get excited by insurance looking at it. You know, they have state minimums, they're putting deductibles on things that you don't need aductibles on. So I mean coverage and price is one aspect of it. I think also when you're working with an agent, you know at renewal when it goes up, because oftentimes prices increase, we have the ability to shop it. So I'm not saying shop it every year, but like, if you notice it going up by a certain percentage, we'll look at it and we'll shop it. And we have ten other markets, whereas if you go direct to one of those larger companies, that's all they have. Yeah, obviously coverage is most important, though.

39:35 So knowing that you know the insurance company pays you on the back end, you're still working for the client. You're working for the. Covered party, right, Yeah, that's try you have their best interest in mind all the time, and so you can make choices that the larger companies can yes, and the national companies. Yes, that's correct. And then also to that point, like we will handle the billing, the claims and the service. You'll call AUST directly instead of calling the one eight hundred number, and you know, we'll we'll try to kind of like play in the middle of it so that you're not waiting on these like long wait holds. Or anything like that. So let's get over to education.

40:15 Uh, I know you you know you joked about it, but you know education is important, especially in your business, and I know it's important to you and your family. How have the trainings you've gone to and the certifications you've gone to the Hartford School. How have those to help you? How have those helped you? And were the certifications necessary to sell certain products or were they for education? Yeah, it's all been for education. I didn't need them to the license thing, like I mentioned earlier, you do need. But as far as like the certifications, there's just additional education. I don't know. So as far as like the trainings I went to, So you know, I did do the Sandler training let's cap the shut out, but that was actually really important in my career, just because it was right when I had started, or a few years into starting sales and kind of really helped me focus on like the importance of both the big and small details in the business. So I think that's something I remember was we had to do like positive affirmations or something with you, and you know, that was really helpful because when you first start out, you're not necessarily super confident in selling, so it kind of helps you like, do you say something enough you will believe it. And then just also we like set a lot of trackable goals with you, and I feel like, you know, I really I definitely bought into what you were doing.

41:32 Nice. That's right exactly. So when it comes to your insurance career, in some ways you're very experienced, in other ways you're just beginning. What are you most proud of so far? I think that the thing I'm most proud of is like client retention. I've had I talk about it a lot. I truly can't like express enough. I think that, you know, client retention is super important shows that you're doing the right thing all the time for your clients. And you know, I want to want to continue to build my book of business, but you can't do that without like retaining your existing clients. Where does most of your business come from?

42:13 I'm in a several different networking groups, so it's all like word of mouth. We don't do much social media posting or anything like that right now. So yeah, predominantly word of mouth. We get a lot from like payroll companies, accountants, lawyers, so all of those industries. And are you you doing any kind of traditional marketing, advertising, slash marketing, Not at this. Moment, maybe going forward. Right now, it's just it's very much like word mouth and just. Liking And yeah, no, I asked just out of curiosity. I think it's incredible that you can grow to the point where you guys are without doing that. That means you're doing a good job and that clients respect and value what you do and that's why they're opening their mouths and talking to. Others about you. So all right, let's shift gears a little.

42:55 What do you do when you're not working? Your bio said traveling, staying active through spin and jogging. Where do you like to travel to Where have you been? Yes, I've been to Europe a few times. I think my favorite ship was the Last Night went on. I went to Ireland in Paris with my mom. It's our first time in Europe. It was my first time in Ireland. Nicest people I've ever met. I might be biased, but that I've been to like Italy, I've been to Spain, so just a lot of beautiful places. Portugal, but obviously when you're working full time job, you can only really do that like once once a year or so. But yeah, and then I also do I love working out, try to do it every day after work, just like going to spin classes or just running.

43:39 That's cool. Last couple questions, who in the listening and viewing audiences should reach out to you and why would you would they want to do that? I think anyone that has that could use the second opinion on their insurance should reach out. I mean, we do a free risk analysis. It's no pressure to join, you know, to sign up or anything, but we'll look at what you have. We'll talk to about what you have, review it, and then provide options. Sometimes, you know, you might have a cheap policy that's not necessarily in your best you know the best for you as far as like coverage and everything. So I think it's important to have it reviewed at least be educated with what you have and then make an educated decision based off of that conversation.

44:28 And do they have to be in Massachusetts or they can be in Can they be in other states? No, we're licensed in like all of New England, Texas, Chicago, California News. So yeah, we have a lot of different states we're licensed in. So what if you got I won't it's awful. I won't use California as an example. But let's maybe somebody from Alabama called, could you get licensure to cover them in short order? Yes? That is correct? Good, Okay, So yeah, I mean we're a big we have a big listening audience and it's it's I'm not going to say world wide. I although there are those out. Of the country that are listening, but primarily all of the US. So you could benefit from that and they could benefit from reaching out to you. And so we have Katie's contact information. You saw it go crossing the crawl.

45:12 It is actually give us the website there, it is right there. Thank you. One j Ed Insurance dot Com Katie's email is going to follow. I'm guessing right there. Why did she tell us you? I know it's going to come in a second as soon as we start talking. What's your what's your email address? So it's Katie K A T I E. Dustin d U S T I n AT j E D Insurance dot com. Perfect, perfect, Well, Katie, I really appreciate there. It is right there. I knew would happen as soon as we said it. Thank you for giving us, giving us your time. I know I appreciated it. Hope you had a good time and appreciate you you being here.

45:54 Yeah, thank you for my first appearance on the radio. More to come, more to come, and thanks. Thanks, Thanks everybody for watching and listening. This is a show about business and business successes and challenges. If you've got concerns about the sales effectiveness or growth of your company, feel free to reach out to me. Whether your sales team is small, large, just you or lots of people. You can reach me at one of my many email addresses. I like to say Kevin at Winning Businessradio dot com. I will get back to you. Our company is Winning Incorporated. We are part of Worldwide Sandler training. We develop sales teams into high achievers and sales leaders into true coaches and mentors. Listen, We're not right for everybody, but maybe we should have a conversation with those thoughts are on your mind. Thank you to producer and engineer one for another job well done. I appreciate you. Be sure to join us next week that's Monday, January twentieth. We'll do it all again. Until then, this is Kevin Helenan.

46:52 You've been listening to Winning Business Radio with your host, Kevin Helena. If you missed any part of this episode, the podcast is available our Top four podcasting and iHeartRadio. For more information and questions, go to Winning Business Radio dot com or check us out on social media. Tune in again next week and every Monday at four pm Eastern Time to listen live to Winning Business Radio on W four CY Radio W four cy dot com. Until then, let's succeed where others have failed and win in business with Kevin Helenan and Winning Business Radio