HERO STORY

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WHEN PEOPLE SAY, “YOU DON’T REALLY KNOW HOW SACRED LIFE IS…UNTIL YOU ALMOST LOSE YOUR OWN,” THAT COULDN’T BE MORE TRUE.

 

HOW THE INSURANCE BROKER LOOKED AT THE PHRASE, “BEING INSURED”, ON A WHOLE ‘NOTHER LEVEL AFTER HER LIFE FLASHES BEFORE HER EYES….LITERALLY FIGHTING A NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE.

 

IT’S FUNNY HOW YOU THINK ABOUT HOW YOU’LL NEGATIVELY AFFECT OTHER PEOPLE’S LIVES IF SOMETHING WERE TO EVER HAPPEN TO YOU.  YOU’RE THE ONE ABOUT TO PASS, YET YOU IMMEDIATELY THINK ABOUT THE AFFECT IT WILL HAVE ON OTHERS IN THEIR LIVES.

 

Start

I had the privilege of growing up with a Dad who had immense COMPASSION for people and helped anyone in need.

 

As I was growing up, I soaked up all kinds of life lessons without realizing it while watching and listening to him run his successful Insurance Agency.

 

He started in Insurance back when Insurance was purchased at the mall.

 

I remember listening to him assist clients with anything from answering questions about claims to life advice.

 

Whether someone was getting divorced or having trouble at work, he was always a reliable sounding board.

 

He made any problem seem simple, and he was able to provide a solution with such ease.

 

“DO WHAT IS RIGHT FOR PEOPLE AND EVERYTHING WILL WORK OUT.”  These are his words that I live by.

 

I learned the best way to take care of people from my Dad.

 

Taking care of people comes in many forms.

 

It can be mission work, pastoral care, counselor, speech therapist etc.

 

For me, it is Insurance.

 

Always protect what matters most in your life – your family.  Once I had kids, I understood what it meant to need many types of Insurance.

 

PROTECT THE PEOPLE AND THE THINGS YOU LOVE.  YOU’VE WORKED HARD FOR THEM.

 

I naturally gravitated toward the Insurance industry without any pressure from my Dad.

 

After high school I went to Texas A&M University and graduated with a degree in Human Resource management.

 

Again, I naturally gravitated toward a degree that involved taking care of people.

 

Upon graduation jobs were scarce.  My Dad told me about a Claim Adjuster job opening at Allstate.

 

I thought to myself, I could do this until I find the job of my dreams.

 

I began my Insurance career at Allstate in claims.

 

I became overworked and was dealing with a ton of stress.

 

My Dad noticed I was getting burned out, so he offered me to go work with him in his office.

 

I remember being so excited about it.

 

Only to be taken aback when his two older employees were not ready for a young tech, savvy kid coming in trying to make the office more efficient.

 

I decided to go to work for several other agents over the next few years to learn the difference in offices, such as the difference between a Captive agency and an Independent agency.

 

I learned some good lessons during those years.

 

Some agents genuinely want to help and offer the right coverage for the client’s needs.

 

Some agents simply just don’t care.  They remove coverage from the policy without explaining what is missing to the client.  This reduces the premium and then the client has no idea until claim time.

 

I will forever be thankful for the loving home I was raised in but I definitely grew up sheltered because I thought everyone was nice and wanted the best for people.

 

I was taught different ways to show and give love to others….

 

But I had to learn quickly that not everyone was like me.

 

The real world set in.  I was wrong.  Not everyone cares about the next person.

 

Thankfully, to CARE ABOUT OTHERS is already embedded in me.

 

While I was working for those different agencies, I realized the right and wrong way to run an office.

 

I learned the correct way to offer coverage advice and the right way to take care of employees.

 

During this time, I even met the love of my life.  My best friend, my rock….my husband.

 

We met through a dating service called, Great Expectations.  (This was back before the Internet.)

 

I remember going to their office and going through the notebooks.

 

I only picked out two men for them to contact for me.

 

I liked his profile because he was of course super cute but also because he had pictures of his family.

 

Family is important.

 

He was about to get out of the program when he saw my newly entered profile.

 

He called me and made sure to keep me on the phone as long as possible so that I didn’t have time to talk to anyone else.

 

IT WORKED!

 

I never thought I would know on the second date that he was the one.

 

He knew on the first date and told me he was going to marry me.

 

20 years later we have two kids, three dogs, a frog family under our porch and a bunny family under our porch furniture.

 

Yes, I make sure to feed the bunnies and make sure the dogs don’t eat the frogs.

 

Taking care of people and animals makes me happy.

 

At this point, my Dad is getting older and it was time for someone to take over his agency.

 

My husband is a CPA and I knew that he would be a good fit for the job.

 

My Dad’s office was big and they offer personal lines, commercial insurance and many life products.

 

I knew I didn’t want to take that on myself while I was starting a family.

 

My husband had the idea of me started my own agency from scratch and growing it slowly while we started our own family.

 

He was a GENIUS.

 

My husband went to work for my Dad for 8 years to learn the business from him.

 

At the same time, I was starting my agency in a room I rented from a CPA behind their office.

 

It was hard, but I enjoyed it because I was doing what I love….taking care of people.

 

As my kids grew, my business grew.

 

My clients were based off referral even then.

 

I didn’t invest in mass mailings or internet leads.

 

I INVESTED IN MYSELF.

 

I just did what was right for people and they referred me to their family and friends.

 

I started growing 20% every year.

 

I was able to put my daughter and son in private school which was the main reason I decided to start the agency.

 

I was blessed with my gorgeous redheaded daughter, Katelyn, in 2004.

 

She went to work with me while she was still young.

 

My team loved keeping her quiet while I was on the phone.

 

Then her brother arrived in 2008.

 

The first three days were great and then the doctor came in just before we were discharged.

 

He told us our son had a heart defect and would need immediate surgery.

 

An ambulance was already on the way to pick him up.

 

Now imagine that news combined with a bunch of post labor hormones and no sleep.

 

Not a good combo.

 

My husband was my rock during this time.

 

Our church family and real family all came around us to help and provide everything we needed to be able to focus on the decision to be made.

 

I know I am blessed to have a large family of strong Christians as well as some very well-connected people that truly hear God when they are asking for complete healing.

 

Miraculous healing is possible because it happened to our son in an instant.

 

God heard those powerful prayers and allowed his heart to heal so that surgery was not needed.

 

A week in the NICU was very eye opening to see how many babies are born that need help and to also see the doctors and nurses that take such great care of them.

 

Fast forward to August 4, 2010.

 

That was the day my life changed forever.

 

I parked up hill on my curved driveway at an angle to drop off my 2-year-old son for the babysitter so I could go to work.

 

I got out of the vehicle to go around to get him out of the car.

 

I quickly realized that the gear (that had a habit of sticking) didn’t get into park.

 

My car was slowly going backwards.

 

I went to get back in the car but I tripped on my skirt and fell down.

 

The tire caught my leg, and I was pinned.

 

The tire went all the way down my leg, back and head as it continued down the street with my son In it.

 

I remember telling God that I may be coming to see him but to please save my son.

 

And to please give me enough time to say goodbye to my kids.

 

The sitter was able to get my son back to safety.

 

The emotional scars for my kids seeing me that way will be lifelong, I am sure.

 

I know my guardian angels were with me that day and God gave his mercy on me.

 

All the prayers of those that love me were heard that day.

 

Every doctor that saw me said I shouldn’t be alive.

 

IT WASN’T MY TIME TO GO.

 

Needless to say – I don’t wear skirts anymore J.

 

My injuries were extensive but more internal than external.

 

The hospital I was taken to didn’t run the correct scans needed to figure out the extent of my injuries.

 

Only interns treated me while they had doctors on the phone to ask questions if they needed to.

 

I was truly appalled and frightened as I realized I was not getting the care I needed.

 

As I unknowingly bled out internally, I was released from the hospital because they didn’t have room.

 

I remember the painful drive to my parent’s house.

 

As my condition worsened, I was taken back to a different hospital.

 

Again, I was not diagnosed correctly.

 

Thankfully, a real surgeon we knew got me in the next day and ran a scan that showed my carotid artery was 95% torn.

 

Finally, I was treated correctly and began my yearlong recovery.

 

I came away with a few burn marks on my legs and feet from being on the hot concrete, a broken cheekbone, and a crushed eye bone and some internal artery issues that aren’t seen.

 

Happy to have a reminder of how precious life is.

 

With every major life event, we learn and move forward.

 

I am a person of ACTION.

 

I don’t sit still long.

 

I am driven to succeed and help everyone I can because I had a first-hand experience where everything I had and loved was almost taken away from me.

 

After a long recovery and a new perspective on life, this is the moment I realized my purpose.

To help others….and how imperative it was to offer Life Insurance to as many people that were willing to even just consider it.

 

It became EVEN MORE important to me.

 

I understood how much income my husband would lose just with daycare and college expenses alone, in case of my death.

 

Life Insurance finally MADE SENSE.

 

More times than I can count, people don’t want to think about Life Insurance.

 

Or maybe they have an emotional experience that keeps them from being able to think about death.

 

Through this painful and long recovery, I learned about resilience, determination, (medical terms I really didn’t want to know about) and how to delegate job responsibilities to my team.

 

I learned how to write detailed procedures on how to do things to help my team while I was away.

 

I learned how to train remotely, how to give up the need to do it all myself.

 

For me, giving up control is tough.

 

Thankfully, I already had an amazing team in place.

 

They rose to the occasion and took over additional tasks and all of them grew professionally.

 

I realized that I enjoyed the training aspect of owning an agency.

 

Over the years employees come and go as life seasons change for them but they leave better than before they came.

 

How does this help me now?

 

Being able to let go and delegate allowed me to hire additional staff.

 

With additional staff I can help more people than I can help alone.

 

What else did I learn from almost being Roadkill?

 

Empathy.  Empathy for those in pain or in a health challenge.

 

OUR GREATEAT WEALTH IS OUR HEALTH!

 

This experience taught me so much, but an important lesson was that success and a big house, and a bunch of money doesn’t mean much.

 

They’re nice to have but they don’t make you happy.

 

A house and money can’t guarantee my health or give me less pain.

 

I learned to be grateful for the small things in life.  WHAT A GREAT GIFT.

 

I took that gift and continued to be an even better professional insurance agent that listens to your needs, provides the service you need, and requires that same level of professionalism from my team.

 

We offer peace of mind so you can enjoy your loved ones and sleep well at night.

 

All the pain I experienced will never be forgotten.

 

The broken bones and scars are friendly reminders of how fast life can be taken away.

 

I teach my team to listen to others and to have a genuine care toward other people.

 

We really get to know our clients.

 

We find out what keeps you up at night and offer solutions (just like my Dad).

 

We find out what you want to protect and offer coverage for that.

 

We help you PROTECT WHAT MATTERS MOST.

 

With the trust we build with our clients it is much EASIER to have a conversation about rate increases, what the market is doing each year, and which company to be insured with because they TRUST us.

 

We all love to educate at my office.

 

Someone that wants to go over their coverage and listen to why they need that coverage is music to our ears.

 

We can help you if you are willing to have those review conversations.

 

As life changes, we change WITH YOU.

 

“We can’t help anyone unless they want to help themselves.”

 

It’s true, we can’t help everyone, but WE CAN HELP those that are ready.

 

With my health struggles since the accident and facing certain struggles with my kid’s health as well, I have learned to research extensively about healthy living, natural treatments, chiropractic care, naturopathic care, vitamins, and whole foods in order to help myself heal.

 

I am on a healing journey and I love to share what I have learned with others.

 

Now that I have been in business for 20 years, I have many good and bad experiences as we all do.

 

We live and we learn.

 

The insurance industry has changed over the years.

 

It used to be much harder to become an agent.  Now agents are on every corner.

 

There are professional agents like myself and my team that were trained and understand policies and the legal contract behind each one….

 

versus the agents that don’t know or care about coverage and taking care of the client.

 

For them it a business that is all about numbers and profit.  These agencies are very large, and they gobble up smaller agencies to become even bigger.

 

They hire people with little to no experience and put them at a desk.

 

They tell them to sell, or they will be fired.  Unfortunately, this is what most agencies are like now.

 

It’s common to run into a salesperson that isn’t overly knowledgeable about coverage.  They will do whatever is necessary to make the sale including changing coverage or taking off coverage.

 

That’s not PROTECTING the client.

 

Since COVID, in regard to all the mailers that people receive as well as cold calls from people in call centers calling every possible number to see you would like a comparison quote, I realized that I needed to make some changes so I could enjoy what I do again.

 

As a broker with access to the top carrier in Texas and with all my experience I realized that my team and I needed to find the people that actually want advice and will listen to it.

 

We now have two segments.  One for clients that are focused on price and one for those that will spend more time with us to go over coverage while also trusting that we know the best carriers along with the best market pricing each year.

 

We crave people that actually want to discuss coverage and explain what their needs are.

 

People that look to us for advice and trust that we have experienced agents that truly want to help them, they understand that annual rate increases are normal, and they don’t get upset over a $200 increase every year.

 

Rates always go up…. just like inflation.

 

Having a large agency with employees that only care about their paycheck isn’t why I started my agency.

 

That isn’t what makes me HAPPY.

 

Brandes Insurance Agency is DIFFERENT.

 

Personally, I have been with the same company for my insurance for 17 years.

 

Yes, my rate has gone up $600, $700 in a year but most of the time it goes up the normal amount of $200 – $300 / year.

 

If I could find the same service and coverage with another company for less, then yes, I would switch.

 

To date I haven’t found that.

 

I give this analogy to my clients of a Toyota and a Lexus.  The Toyota is a good car, but the Lexus has more options and better service.

 

We can offer both options, but our perfect client wants Lexus coverage.

 

Clients can trust our advice because our current client database is HAPPY and has more FREE TIME to do the things they love.

 

WE’VE GOT THEIR BACK.

 

Looking back over my life story it is clear how important insurance is over a lifetime.

 

Life Insurance to take care of my family when I am gone?  It makes so much sense to me since my “roadkill” moment.

 

It’s obvious why offering Life Insurance to people became even more important to me.

 

Life Insurance finally MADE SENSE.

 

It’s about paying out money now for PROTECTION and INCOME for those that we love for the future.

 

Life insurance has been much easier to talk about and offer to my clients now that I understand the need for it.

 

And the need for Insurance in general; Annuities to guard my wealth and provide a legacy for my kids when I am gone, Health Insurance for when we have crazy accidents, Commercial Insurance for businesses, Personal lines of insurance for protecting the things we buy.

 

INSURANCE IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF LIFE.

 

I’m blessed that I have lived through a near death experience.

 

I appreciate that I now know the true fragility of life and how precious life really is.

 

It allows myself and my team to help our clients more thoroughly.

 

My view on life and Insurance has become more MEANINGFUL in the process.

 

 

We’re that Insurance Agency that is going to HELP GUIDE YOU through life’s seasons.

 

THAT’S WHY WE’RE HERE.  😊

 

To start the quoting process, choose the GET A QUOTE button on our WEBSITE to provide your information.

 

We will then quote the top-rated carriers in Texas and contact you back within 24 – 48 hours.

 

It really is that <u>simple</u>.

 

We want to know everything you need; we are thankful even just for the opportunity to help YOU.

 

Stay safe out there and get covered.  You never know what life has in store for you.

 

 

End