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[00:00] SPEAKER_00: This podcast is sponsored by eBay Canada.
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[00:37] SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Canada's podcast, the number one podcast for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs.
[00:44] SPEAKER_02: I'm your host Mario Tonoguzzi and joining me today on Calgary's podcast
[00:49] SPEAKER_02: is a son, Russ Sewell, who is president and founder of Knowledge and Achievement Inc.
[00:55] SPEAKER_02: Thanks for joining us today, S.I.
[00:58] SPEAKER_03: Thanks for having me, Mario.
[01:00] SPEAKER_03: It's a pleasure.
[01:01] SPEAKER_02: Let me just start by asking you just what knowledge and achievement is all about and what you do.
[01:06] SPEAKER_03: Well, I started this company in 2016.
[01:10] SPEAKER_03: The reason was mainly because I saw a lot of new graduates, new brokers coming into the market
[01:16] SPEAKER_03: without any proper training.
[01:19] SPEAKER_03: You can just get your license exam and then you can just start working as a broker.
[01:24] SPEAKER_02: You're talking about insurance brokers, right?
[01:27] SPEAKER_03: That's right. That's right. The general insurance brokers.
[01:30] SPEAKER_03: So I trained and mentored myself a few brokers in the past before prior to 2016.
[01:36] SPEAKER_03: And then I find out that we need, I need to start a company that actually takes care of the mentoring, coaching and training part of them
[01:43] SPEAKER_03: for the brokers and it's mainly for the, for the new brokers who are coming into the industry
[01:50] SPEAKER_03: and I helped them get trained.
[01:52] SPEAKER_03: So that's how I started this company initially.
[01:56] SPEAKER_03: And then over the years, I trained a few brokers, novice brokers, some, some experienced ones with client services, sales, personal development, leadership, and those areas.
[02:11] SPEAKER_03: And also we train brokers with the person lines insurance, the technical side of it.
[02:18] SPEAKER_03: We also trained that part as well.
[02:21] SPEAKER_02: Now, maybe a son if you could give me a little bit of your background in the industry can you tell me a little bit about that?
[02:28] SPEAKER_03: Well, I've been in the industry for the last 15 years as an insurance as a general insurance broker.
[02:33] SPEAKER_03: But in the last couple of years, I also trained mentor and coach, new brokers as I said earlier.
[02:40] SPEAKER_03: I also wrote a book recently for the brokers explaining about the industry and how it works.
[02:50] SPEAKER_03: The inner workings of the being a being a general insurance broker.
[02:56] SPEAKER_03: So, basically my experience is in the general insurance industry and the personal and some on the commercial side as well.
[03:02] SPEAKER_02: Okay. What's your sense of how the industry is coping these days with a lot of challenges and obviously out there in the market?
[03:12] SPEAKER_02: How is the industry coping and dealing with that right now?
[03:15] SPEAKER_03: Well, these are the tough times now.
[03:19] SPEAKER_03: It's not easy, especially in the last few years in Alberta, due to the seasonal changes, weather related changes like a hail, wildfires, flooding, we are all calgarians and we experience all that every couple of years.
[03:35] SPEAKER_03: So, all these things taking toll on the insurance industry in Alberta.
[03:40] SPEAKER_03: And that insurance companies are not being profitable.
[03:45] SPEAKER_03: I give you an example, like every insurance company, if they're earning one dollar in revenue, they are paying out a dollar 25 cents in claims.
[03:57] SPEAKER_03: That's how the situation is in Alberta for the last few years.
[04:02] SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's tough.
[04:04] SPEAKER_03: And the keep increasing the rates and rates are going up and for clients it's hard to afford insurance anymore.
[04:11] SPEAKER_03: They're struggling with it and the whole industry is in quite a challenging times.
[04:16] SPEAKER_03: And what I suggest in the past in my blogs that government should step in and take some necessary measures on the legislation side.
[04:26] SPEAKER_03: And also on the side of insurance industry, like need to take some drastic measures to control this phenomenon right now.
[04:38] SPEAKER_02: So you said you had written a book, it's called Book Solid Club, right?
[04:42] SPEAKER_03: The Book Solid Club, yes.
[04:44] SPEAKER_02: Tell me just a little bit about the book.
[04:47] SPEAKER_02: Why did you write it and what it's about?
[04:49] SPEAKER_03: Well, the book was in the making for the last few years ever since I started the company.
[04:58] SPEAKER_03: And the main reason for writing that book was that I saw a lot of brokers coming in the market, like without any, even the freshly graduated from the university or college.
[05:08] SPEAKER_03: They don't know about the day to day, the workings of the insurance industry, how to become a broker, how to become an agent insurance agent and they can provide great service to their clients.
[05:18] SPEAKER_03: So I thought I should start writing a book about it and then explain whatever things are methodologies and the inner workings of the insurance industry in that book.
[05:30] SPEAKER_03: And what it takes for a broker to become an excellent broker in this field and be successful.
[05:36] SPEAKER_02: So that is funny because that's a question I had next for you was, you know, you can like, I guess like it almost any occupation and any profession, you can learn and know all the mechanics about the in-genouts of your industry.
[05:53] SPEAKER_02: But there's sort of the intangible things out there that make or break people in terms of their success.
[06:00] SPEAKER_02: What are the key things for a person who undertakes or invokes on a career and insurance? What kind of qualities do they have to be successful?
[06:11] SPEAKER_03: Well, first of all, they should have a passion, a drive to become a great broker. Like they need to have a mindset to be successful in this industry.
[06:23] SPEAKER_03: Well, most of the people that join the industry because they get laid off from a different job is a career change or they've come out fresh from the college and they say, OK, well, I can become an insurance broker.
[06:36] SPEAKER_03: That's not the case. If they want to be successful in this industry because this is a tough industry to survive, especially current times.
[06:45] SPEAKER_03: So you have to have that kind of resilience, a passion, a drive, and you have to be really motivated to be successful as a broker.
[07:00] SPEAKER_03: And these are the core values that you have to have in any profession like you join, like you are in journalism and there are many people in different industries.
[07:09] SPEAKER_03: You have to be passionate about it. Secondly, you need to have a proper training on it. Like you should be trained properly. You should be interested in learning the industry knowledge, the product knowledge, and the business acumen.
[07:23] SPEAKER_03: You need to understand that how to manage how to survive in this industry for a long period of time.
[07:31] SPEAKER_03: So you have to learn there's a lot of learning involved in this process.
[07:35] SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and then thirdly, you should have a great people skills. You understand people, you talk to people, you know what they want.
[07:45] SPEAKER_03: And to retain those people as your clients, as your loyal clients for a longer period of time.
[07:52] SPEAKER_03: Because right now, the biggest challenge that brokers face is the retention. The clients don't stick with them for a longer period of time.
[07:59] SPEAKER_03: They define cheaper insurance somewhere else. They just switch companies and it goes somewhere else. Right. So the loyalty is not there.
[08:06] SPEAKER_03: So you have to learn how to retain those clients or for them excellent service and keep them with you for an extended period of time.
[08:17] SPEAKER_00: This podcast is sponsored by eBay Canada. eBay Canada is powering Canadian small businesses go to eBay dot CA forward slash up and running.
[08:26] SPEAKER_00: Chauvin your new global e-commerce business.
[08:30] SPEAKER_02: So you're based in Calgary. It's on, you know, it's been tough here in this city for a number of years.
[08:37] SPEAKER_02: Obviously, you know, since late 2014 when oil prices collapsed, you know, the economy has been for this past six years really struggling.
[08:47] SPEAKER_02: And then of course you got the current COVID on top of that.
[08:50] SPEAKER_02: Just how has it been for you as a business owner yourself and an entrepreneur? How has it been for you to dealing in these tough and challenging times?
[09:02] SPEAKER_03: Well, it's been very tough like everyone else.
[09:06] SPEAKER_03: People working from home clients are not able to come to your office.
[09:11] SPEAKER_03: You are servicing over the phone. Secondly, on top of the COVID-19, the challenge is is the industry itself.
[09:21] SPEAKER_03: The underwriting guidelines from the Jones companies are getting tougher and tougher because they cannot afford to pay out large sums of sums and claims.
[09:31] SPEAKER_03: So the underwriting guidelines getting tougher and the prices are going higher.
[09:37] SPEAKER_03: And also the servicing side has been impacted drastically in the last year or so because that connection you have with your client is no longer there.
[09:48] SPEAKER_03: So it's on the phone or the internet with the technology technology does matter.
[09:55] SPEAKER_03: But your personal connection and your empathy and your face to face interaction means a lot in many cases.
[10:05] SPEAKER_03: And that helps you to keep that relationship with your clients.
[10:10] SPEAKER_02: Now, obviously, you know, your industry is a very people related industry, right?
[10:16] SPEAKER_02: You know, it's a contact and connection with people all the time.
[10:21] SPEAKER_02: I just curious of how difficult it is to conduct business under a lot of the guidelines we have now, obviously with COVID and stuff like that, especially for such a people centered industry.
[10:37] SPEAKER_03: As I said, it's all online now. So with the phone and internet and technology with AI, job boards, all are there to help us.
[10:48] SPEAKER_03: It is just a shift in your approach towards your clients. It's a mindset change.
[10:57] SPEAKER_03: Brokers who are used to dealing with clients face to face in person. Now they have to rely on technology to work in from home.
[11:05] SPEAKER_03: So there's been challenging for some brokerages who are traditionally on and operated by family owned businesses that didn't have access to a lot of technology.
[11:17] SPEAKER_03: They're relying on the phone or some other systems like over the over internet.
[11:23] SPEAKER_03: But it's been a challenging times and there's a lot of adjustment to me.
[11:28] SPEAKER_03: And I think in the coming year, we'll see a continuous trend to change over from in person contact to technology based contact service based on AI and job boards and all the fun stuff.
[11:47] SPEAKER_02: On a personal level, what do you enjoy and like about being an entrepreneur yourself?
[11:54] SPEAKER_03: Well, enjoy dealing with people. I love dealing with people helping them out the brokers, especially the small and mid-sized brokers who don't have enough resources or means to get their staff trained, especially the front-end staff, the client services and sales people.
[12:16] SPEAKER_03: So I enjoy helping them out and as much as I could and then I can help the new brokers who are coming you to the industry. That's my passion to train them and help them out to be successful.
[12:30] SPEAKER_03: Why is that such a passion for you?
[12:33] SPEAKER_03: Because I went through a lot myself and I started in the industry. I have a biological sciences background and I was in from the clinical sales.
[12:41] SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I was in sales and then I moved to Canada in 1988, 1999 and then passing through a whole bunch of careers with my own struggles as a new immigrant.
[12:56] SPEAKER_03: But then I joined insurance and insurance industry there was not much help wrong. You got your license and then you joined a company and they tell you a little bit about the technology and the systems and there you go.
[13:10] SPEAKER_03: So but luckily I got a great mentor which I mentioned in my book and I also dedicated my book to him. He trained me a lot, really, really good about the inside out of the industry and how it works and what you have to be careful about.
[13:29] SPEAKER_03: So that's the main motive behind my passion that I want to pass it on to the next generation and help them as much as I can and the knowledge I have I can pass it on to them.
[13:42] SPEAKER_03: So that's my main passion.
[13:45] SPEAKER_02: Okay, what do you think people get into you know from the people that you've been dealing with and training and why do they get into it this industry like what are their motivations?
[13:56] SPEAKER_03: Well, they're different motivation. They're different factors like for example, some people are get laid off on the oil patch right in the recent years and they decided to become an insurer's broker and some of them were the fresh graduates from college and they just want to start their new career.
[14:15] SPEAKER_03: So that's they're quite motivated as well. Some of them they just want to make a couple of million dollars in few years and then you know, I'm really excited about it.
[14:26] SPEAKER_03: So they're different levels of motivation and what inspire each person in this industry right so everybody has their own reasons.
[14:36] SPEAKER_02: Okay, super that anything else you'd like to add a son before you leave us today?
[14:42] SPEAKER_03: Well, I'd like to say that my company is here to help you if you're if you're insurance broker if you're a new student if you just graduate from university for college, I'm here to help.
[14:54] SPEAKER_03: We have a great fantastic program for for new brokers. It's called the broker mastery program.
[15:00] SPEAKER_03: We can teach you client services sales and all the a to Z like how to become a great and successful broker and if you're already own a brokerage and you have some employees I can we can come over and train them with the client services and sales side of it.
[15:16] SPEAKER_03: I'll be happy to help you out.
[15:18] SPEAKER_02: Thanks for joining us today, a son.
[15:20] SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much, Mario. Thanks for having me.
[15:22] SPEAKER_02: Okay, this has been a son, a soul who is president and founder of knowledge and achievement ink.
[15:30] SPEAKER_02: This has been Kaguys podcast. I'm your host Mario, Tana Guzi and thanks for joining us today and you can follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.
[15:42] SPEAKER_00: This podcast is sponsored by eBay Canada. eBay Canada is here to help. They've been supporting Canadian small business retailers for 25 years and their up and running program is getting Canadian businesses online today.
[15:56] SPEAKER_00: Visit ebay.ca forward slash up and running. Stay local and sell global with eBay.
