Suzilla: Family Business Podcast

There are people that treat insurance and other services as a transactional model. Pull a lever and coverage comes out. Suzie and I have always treated it as a wild river process. Where clients move from pool to pool, lingering where they need more and moving quickly to the next process when needed. Today, we are looking at flow and how quickly things can jam up if we were just focused on a single...

After seeing that Fyre 2 is being worked on, Bridgerton Ball, the Wonka experience. It is time to talk about events. We love events from working on theatre to hosting festivals. We are getting into constructing an event to what to look for to avoid being scammed. Events are not a cash cow banking experience and we need to stop treating them as such.

Do you have a long term mindset or short term mindset. We work with Insurance which involves long term planning. There are little steps that you can do that a little bit of planning smooths out problems before they occur. This week we get into little steps that we have done over the year that have allowed us to do better this year despite financial disaster. 

How do you stay in business for years in the insurance industry that is ripe with change? We are going to talk about the myth of the old reliable. As businesses, we hear managers use the phrase find out what works and do that. Well what happens when it get’s old? I read another story of a church that has been around for years closing it’s doors same issue. The reliance on the old reliable does not...

We have done insurance for years and to ignore the politics of it then we would be doing a disservice to our clients. Yes, they can lose their insurance at a politicians whim so we better speak up. We fight day in and day out to put food on our table and if we are good our coworkers and employees. We talk about enrichment of our customer’s experience and yes that means we do our best to promote go...

After all these years of working insurance in Washington State . I can say without a doubt, I will pick flexibility over strength. It has lead to creativity, connecting with our community, growth, and duration. There are moments in the year that are natural flexibility points personally and for our business. We are going to talk about the small business superpower of flexibility. 

Yes, we run a little Insurance Office in Wenatchee where our Washington State find us from all over because of Social Media. We don’t live in the hills and come down for an annual gathering to get updates on the neighbors and supplies. Since the 80’s there has been methods to go online and exchange information and connect to people. We are going to talk about some of our successes and failures alo...

Most people struggle with staying current and forget about the past. However if you want to be unstoppable in business then you need to understand what is current and what will come. Because there are steps that you can do in business that will fall into good timing in the future. We are talking about being prepared.

Courage is the most important of the virtues, because without it, no other virtue can be practiced consistently, said Maya Angelou. Sometimes it is tough putting that foot forward to a new life. To tell someone the truth. To just say no. How do you spot the lack of courage?

Very few of us are blessed with the ability to do everything perfectly the first time out. New experiences are a challenge. We fail, adjust and try again. It’s awkward learning and perhaps it gets more difficult as we age because we are afraid of looking foolish. Failure is how we gain skills and friendships. We are going to embrace failure today. Hug it and keep going.

Have you checked your foundation recently? Stepped back and took a look to see if you are on sound principles. Back in the day, we called it keeping it real. It doesn’t mean that you have to be a jerk. It means that do not be surprised if someone uses you to set the tone. If you do not understand your foundation then it will hurt if someone turns you into an example. Let’s look for some red flags...

If it wasn’t for another person asking a question and me caring about them, Suzie and I wouldn’t have an insurance business . With all of the shouting and division going on there is a push to forget that If you want to connect with people that you have to do more than outrage. You have to value other people’s opinions. We are going to tackle other people opinion and even advise on today’s Suzilla.

We have been running a small insurance office for over a decade. One of the biggest concerns with summer is what about the kids? Childcare is expensive and this is opportunity to do family bonding and larger gatherings. There is camping and spending time in the outdoors. Fruit is harvested and put up for the winter. We even get into cook-outs as there are rules. There is definitely a seasonal chan...

For the last twelve years, we have been raising our kid while working our small insurance business . Tomorrow is graduation. We are going to talk about some of the ups and downs in what we have done. Education is important and we are ready to hand them off to the next phase of their lives. If you want to prepare yourself either for raising a kid or a long project then this is the episode for you....

We have been advocating human rights, LBBTQIA+rights, etc some time. ( It was when I was looking at annuities and rights surrounding gay marriage. )Last year our office received a couple of threats and we keep going because it is important. As a younger office, who are our kids and peers? Where does the law support? Where do dollars support? Is putting rainbow t-shirts up important? Let’s get into...

Suzie & Matt have been running a small insurance business for over a decade through financial tough times and good times. We just had a rival insurance agency issue that they were closing in seven days. The market isn’t easier this year. How is a small business used to build safety nets for our communities? Why, we have no problem promoting other rivals in good standing and up and new business...

We run a small insurance agency in Central Washington . There are two different cultures when it comes to sales. One is the use of scripts. You go through a script and then at the end respond to any objections and you close. The other requires a little more work. We are going to talk about the importance of buy ins.  This is something that you want to pay attention to.

It's how Matt got Suzie to start working with insurance at Wenatchee Insurance . It’s not in a book, it’s not in a school, it’s not some old grey haired wisdom. It requires answering a couple of questions to find your genuine path to your yellow brick road. Sometimes they are together and sometimes they branch off. We are going to get into finding success in the modern world on today’s Suzilla. #s...

When you go out do you find the beigest of restaurants, order a factory-assembled burger with no salt on the fries? We prefer to find a mom-and-pop stand where a person named Jo assembles something that would make a nutritionist cringe. Last week one of our partners was dropping off supplies for an event notice that Suzie and I sell from who we are and that is what they liked about us. Insurance c...

We have held another record month with writing insurance policies from our office in Wenatchee. We use a very natural method of understanding what makes it attractive to do business. It is not a sale for sales numbers. In fact some of the best policies that we write, we receive zero commision.  If you are in sales, then you better know. If you value relationships, then you have to figure it out. W...

Straight out of Wenatchee Insurance , we had to talk about inflation this week. As parents with a Senior getting ready to graduate and small business owners, we feel the pinch.  With Car insurance prices hitting 22% and articles talking about groceries as a splurge item, it’s time to talk about saving money. As small business owners, this is not our first time around for finding places to save mon...

We have people who come to our Insurance office for the first time filled with dread. Grey-skinned, grim looks focused on the task of diving into insurance through their beliefs. (Seriously, we are going to do an insurance myth episode because someone is telling fibs). When they leave are radiant, expressive and confident. Smiles are something that you cannot measure but you can see the results. T...

We have done business for over a decade currently we are working with Wenatchee Insurance .  One of the biggest principles in presenting an offer is that it has to have value to the other person. Walking around there are some clear examples of this basic principle not being followed. There is a group of people that present an offer in terms that only value their position. This selfish behavior doe...

The day that we did this episode was a day that I had a person using Tiktok contact me for insurance help. Since the days of the farm line, there has been some form of social communication over distances using technology. We are going to get into the bill even though we have a very small footprint on there as we recognize its value to the First Amendment and the marketplace. The Grapevine is impor...

There is a battle today about Education. How much should we spend? How much improvement are we getting out of it? How much should we spend on bonds? As insurance Agents we have continuing education regularly and not everyone pushes for improvement. Let’s talk about Education versus improvement on today’s Suzilla.