E81: Mike & Erin Richardson On Laser Focus In Your Community

In this episode, James talks with Mike Richardson and Erin Richardson, Co-Owners of Richardson Insurance.

To learn more about Richardson Insurance, visit https://www.insurewithrichardson.com/.

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Episode Highlights:

• Mike shares that he is the fourth generation in their family agency and after reviving the agency, they consider themselves a 90-year-old startup. (3:30)
• Erin shares that she just celebrated her 20th year in the insurance industry, and that before joining Mike at the agency, she worked on the carrier side in claims and underwriting. (4:07)
• Mike shares his difficulties in moving from the stone age of genuine file cabinets to the current day. (8:57)
• Erin and Mike explain the vibe and culture of their agency, where everything is lead-driven, they work in teams and don't have outside producers. (11:04)
• Mike shares that they are heavily involved with real estate agents and mortgage brokers, like many personal lines agencies, and in the customer experience for their partners and customers in terms of finding prospects. (12:07)
• Mike mentions that it took them a long time to figure out how engaged they want to be in all transactions. (18:03)
• Mike shares that they just switched away from Active Campaign to Automate 365 since it is directly linked to NowCerts. (20:49)
• Mike and Erin discuss how they differentiate themselves in a competitive market and how they ensure their staff is confident in the product they're providing. (25:48)
• Erin shares that she has been President of the Hanover Chamber of Commerce for a few years and has come to know many of the companies and individuals in town through that role. (27:45)
• Mike explains that their overall goal is to humanize insurance and make the insurance side of things more efficient so that they can focus on relationships. (30:12)
• Mike and Erin discuss what type of advice they would offer themselves if they were just starting out. (45:12)

Key Quotes:

• “We believe in team and doing things together. We don't have individual agents that are handling things, and we don't actually have any outside producers. Everything's done by inbound leads.” - Mike Richardson
• “We have gotten our team’s buy-in too and we're very open and candid with them about what our mission is, and who our ideal clients are. And, we’ve funneled down in our office, the types of insurance and the types of clients that we're going to write. And so it makes their jobs a lot easier.” - Erin Richardson
• “We just tried to do things to stand out and be different. So, if everyone's doing a happy hour, we're going the other way. We're trying to find something different to do that, that these people want to get out and do.” - Mike Richardson