What a beautiful day I had for my Northern Kentucky agency visits. The weather was perfect and the company was extraordinary. My chauffer was Tara and Arlene was the navigator. I sat in the back seat and enjoyed the scenery.
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| Karen Brown, Globe Insurance with Me |
Our first stop was with Karen Brown of
Globe Insurance. They sit right off interstate 75 so they were easy to find. Karen has been in the biz for more than 40 years. She was telling us that they have a another agency in Ohio that is a member of the Ohio Association. Karen just set up her profile on
www.trustedchoice.com. She was very excited for the leads she was going to receive. Karen also gave us an awesome idea for a marketing piece to supply to our members. Stay tuned the IIAK staff may be working on it for you.
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| Wen Gartman, Gartman Insurance with Me |
We moseyed on down to
Gartman Insurance in Erlanger. They have a new location and it is really nice. We met with Wen Gartman. He is fairly new to the independent world... but not to insurance. He was a captive agent for many years before making the switch. Wen's agency is taking advantage of our
E&O Program. We talked to him about some other products (
Big "I" Markets,
Project CAP, etc.) and services that we offer to assist in his already flourishing agency.
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| Me, Bill and Ryan McCarty at Tri-City Insurance |
Next stop... FLORENCE Y'ALL! We buzzed over to
Tri-City Insurance Service, Inc. and met with Bill McCarty. He is a former member of IIAK's Board of Directors'. We met his son Ryan and his wife Donna and all the gals in the office. We chatted about Bill's time in leadership and Ryan talked about serving on the
Young Agents Committee. My favorite part was meeting another four-legged friend, Maxie. She is a boxer that works very hard at insurance. She greets all the guests as they enter. She is very much a girly-girl and her toenails matched her collar. I think she was flirting with me... She kept blowing me kisses, or was it bubbles? I can't remember.
After a yummy lunch at the Cobblestone Café, Tara, Arlene and I trotted over to
Gross Insurance.
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| Nick Rolf, Gross Insurance and Me |
There we hung out with Nick Rolf. He is heavily involved in IIAK's
Project CAP Task Force. He was selected to set up his social networking profile that coincides with the portal. Check out his
Facebook page here. Nick also is taking advantage of our advertising co-op. Did you know that just by using the Trusted Choice logo, you can receive up to $500 of your advertising dollars back! Y'all that's FREE money! Nick also told us he was getting married on September 1! He is inviting 500 of his closest friends and family. Funny thing... my invite must have gotten lost in the mail. Maybe they weren't inviting horses, weird! On our way out we met Nick's uncle, David Gross. He is a former IIAK Board Member and David's daddy is IIAK Past President Frank Gross (1982). Thanks
Gross Insurance for being a loyal supporter of IIAK. On our way to the next stop, I looked out the window at the cute, quaint town of Fort Thomas. There was lots of action in town and looked like school was about to start soon.
What a warm welcome at
Desmond Insurance. There were hugs abound! We sat down with Shannon Desmond Walz and chatted about many of our new products. Shannon is signed up for our
Super Management Class on September 12-13. We just got approved for 8 HOURS of CE. How about a High Hoof on that one. We also talked about
ABEN the Live Webcasts that stream professional instructors right into your office, along with related course material and the ability to ask questions and chat with other students. Best part: No test at the end! What? This can't be real?! We bumped into Denny Desmond who is an IIAK celebrity. He was President in 1997, he was the State National Director and the E. Starling Holloway recipient at the 2012
Annual Convention. IIAK is now taking submissions for a 2013 recipient. We met Jan (Denny's wife, Shannon's mom) and she had heard about me. I was so happy to meet her and she had been following my adventures:)
On our way out of the river side city of Bellevue we drove through Covington. So we hopped over to
Chas. H. Bilz Insurance Agency. This agency is heavily involved in IIAK. They are long-time members. They even had a hand in the local board, Northern Kentucky Independent Agents. We met up with Karen Toll. She is a rock star and was the IIAK's 2005 CSR of the Year Award Winner. If you know of a CSR that has been extraordinary, submit their name to IIAK for the 2013 award.
Other items that we talked about were the
CRM that is coming up on April 2-5, 2014 and
Project CAP. We gave her a handy-dandy sheet that walked her through the steps to set it up for her agency. When we got back to the office, Arlene found a picture of Karen accepting her CSR of the Year Award from our President & CEO, Peggy Porter.
Shew... What a whirlwind trip! IIAK has a lot of members (and non-members) in Northern Kentucky. We will have to come back soon and visit more member agencies. Thanks for the Northern Hospitality Y'all! I need a nap.
Straight from the horse's mouth,
On our way out of the river side city of Bellevue we drove through Covington. So we hopped over to
