These kinds of milestones should be a chance to reflect on who helped you get here now, where we were then and where we’re going next.
I’d love to, but I’m actually a little busy this afternoon. And if I start thanking the people who got me here, I’d never stop.
My wife does get a shout-out though. Not only has Martie had to put up with me at home after bad days, late nights, slow months (and a slow year or two at the start) she comes in to the office and puts up with me here (She actually just left today).
Love ya babe! Couldn’t have gotten here without you.
Other than that, I’m afraid your insurance may not be able to help a whole lot.
Call your agent if you have problems making a payment. They may be able to help — or at least make sure you know your options.
One of the things I’ve always impressed on small business owners is the importance of a provision that helps pay the bills if they have to rebuild after a covered loss.
I was frustrated when I found it out, too, but it actually makes sense.
An outbreak like this has such a small chance of happening and widespread, disastrous consequences that there’s no way to properly take it into consideration when companies figure premiums.
Either the premiums are so small the company wouldn’t bring in enough money to actually pay out as claims if they’re needed, or they’re so high that no one can afford them.
A tornado, earthquake or hurricane can devastate a region and an insurance company can absorb the loss and move on.
COVID-19 is knocking the entire nation to its knees.
There’s only one group that can help the economy keep moving in the short-term and recover in the long-term — the American taxpayer. And we’re still waiting to see how, exactly, the state and federal government plan to do that.
There are some clients we only talk to every once in a while.
Then there are those that we see every month or so — to pay a bill, answer a question, whatever.
Noah didn’t wait until it started raining to build an ark. Insurance is no different — you can’t wait until you need it to get it.
J and her husband were ones we’ve seen a lot over past year or so. They came in to pay their bill in cash most months — a lot of times with their kids, including a newborn, in tow.
They also owned a business. She handled paperwork and he handled the manual labor.
She came in earlier this week and apologized for not coming by to pay the bill last week when it was due — there had been a family emergency.
“Family emergency” can cover a lot of ground so I hoped for the best.
It was the other kind of family emergency.
Her 27-year-old husband had been drinking, then grabbed his stomach and fell over.
He’d been in the hospital, unresponsive, all weekend.
They still didn’t even know what was wrong with him.
I can’t blame her for the question she asked as she held back tears.
Was there any way we could get the life insurance on him that she and I had been talking about since she first became our client?
Like I said, this one was painful.
You can’t get insurance — home insurance, auto insurance, business insurance — after you need it. You have to get it in place beforehand.
Life insurance is no different.
That’s a conversation I never want to have again. So please, if you don’t have life insurance right now, call someone.
My insurance agency sits on one of the paths Route 66 took through Springfield., Mo.
It’s not the first time America’s Main Street and I have bumped into each other, so it made sense to have a few mementos of our meetings as I decided on the office decor.
“Downtown” shows downtown Springfield, Mo., as it appeared in 1964, when the square was open. You can see the Heer’s Building as well as the Fox Theater. Artwork by Jerry Rice
Most of my decorations are the kitschy stuff you can get anywhere, but I do have a couple of pieces I’m proud of.
I got to add a piece to the collection I’m proud of this week.
Jerry Rice paints Route 66 scenes from the Mother Road’s heyday in Southwest Missouri.
This one, that he calls “Downtown” shows the square in Springfield back before they added the park.
“Tourist Enchantment,” commemorates Route 66’s Diamond Jubilee in Tucumcari, N.M. Art by Bill Curry
My first run in with Route 66 was in 2000, when I became the editor of a semi-weekly newspaper in Tucumcari, N.M., one of the little towns that thrived during Route 66’s peak.
The Mother Road had its Diamond Jubilee the next year and the celebration committee asked artist Bill Curry to commemorate the event with a painting.
This print has been traveling around with me since 2001.
As part of that 75th anniversary celebration, my paper put out a brochure that talked about the history of the Route. One of the articles in the brochure was written by Route 66 historian Michael Wallis, who was the voice of the sheriff in the movie.
The map doesn’t even show Chicago (where Route 66 started) or Santa Monica, Calif., (where it ended, but this map shows most of the Mother Road. Map framing by Beth Gragg
The one I’m probably the most attached to, though, isn’t traditionally considered a work of art and isn’t even centered on Route 66.
It’s an 50-year-old map that my grandparents had. It shows the Southwest United States, including most of the places Route 66 went.
My granddad had a gas station in Urich, Mo., so I’m not sure if this map is from the time when gas stations handed out road maps or if it was a map my grandparents actually used to visit California.
As a side benefit, the map shows most of the places my life has taken me.
The map doesn’t quite go far enough north to get to Kirksville (where I went to Truman State University) or small enough to get Montrose (the tiny town where I grew up), but the rest are there: Not only Tucumcari and Springfield, but Dodge City, Kan., and McAllen, Texas.
I also have a number of prints from the early days of Farmers Insurance. No direct tie to Route 66, there, either, although Farmers started in 1928, two years after the Mother Road’s start in 1926.
Five years. That’s the wooden anniversary, so it’s a doubly bad pun. (I really am sorry about that.)
It’s my name on the door, but I had a lot of help keeping that door open.
It would take me a long time to name everyone to whom I owe a debt of gratitude, from family and friends to business associates and the telemarketers who have worked for me.
And that’s not even including my clients, without whom none of the rest would matter.
But while space on this blog is limitless (or very close to it), attention spans are not. Nor is the amount of time that I have to write this post.
So I must leave it as a blanket, generic “Thank you” to all of the above.
At the start of December, I thought I was bopping my way through things pretty well.
My agency has continued to grow — big enough that I had to ask my wife, Martie, to come in and help me in the mornings.
She’s been great at it, but we knew she was going to have to quit when our third son was born.
My son, a couple of days after he was born.
I hired Misty to be a telemarketer while Martie was still in the office. Misty was going to work on getting her licenses and move to a full-time role in the office once Martie transitioned back to a full-time mom.
Since our son wasn’t scheduled to arrive until Feb. 5, we thought we had some time to get everything in place.
He had other plans, arriving almost two months early.
So I had several things happening through the month of December:
The woman I relied on to help me in the office suddenly had other things to do — namely spend time with our son in the NICU as well as our other kids.
I suddenly had other things to do — see above.
My telemarketer hadn’t gotten any training or licenses yet, so she wasn’t ready to be the help I needed.
Christmas shopping — because what kind of a maniac has Christmas shopping for their kids done by Dec. 6?
We had a lot of help during that month, but we finally got Gabe out of the hospital less than two weeks ago and now we’re slowly settling back into a routine.
It was a good surprise — an amazing gift — but it has definitely changed our lives.
My job as an insurance agent is to help people prepare for the life-changing events that don’t always have a happy ending.
Home insurance, auto insurance, life insurance, business insurance, they’re all just ways to help insulate you from car accidents, tornadoes, the death of a loved one.
So that you can bounce back when life sneaks up on you and hits you with something that changes everything.
The world as I see it 