Never a dull moment!!

In 1992 I started my business career at State Farm Insurance. I was so happy to get hired! I had been working 80 hours a week between a sandwich shop during the day, overnight checking at HEB(grocery store) and doing room setups at my church. I was doing all of that with a college degree!!

I thought to myself, "What am I doing? I've got a college degree but I have no time to find a real job!" So I decided to quit my day job and start looking for a real job.

Sometimes it's really scary to give up the for sure thing for a chance at something more. I wanted something more. I needed something more. I had a new born son (Sam) and I wanted desperately to provide a good life for my family. Fortunately for me, I stumbled into insurance. I friend of mine at church told me State Farm was hiring at their corporate office in Austin. I decided to apply.

Thank you Dale Avery for taking a chance on this very green, immature 23 year old! I was so happy when I got that acceptance letter!!

When I got to State Farm, I started out in underwriting. I quickly found that I needed variety in my professional life. I needed something to be working towards, to be accomplishing. So when I would reach my goals in 1 position, I would look for the next "rung" up and find out what it took for me to climb up 1 more step.

I was very blessed to be able to climb to every position I wanted at State Farm during my time there.

Fast forward to 2018...many years later and few different jobs later...I decided with my son Joe to open an independent agency. We called it Redwood Agency Group. Man, opening and starting a business from scratch....what a stressful but rewarding thing to do!!

What I've found as a business owner and somewhat of an entrepreneur is owning a business is so much more rewarding and challenging than working for another company. The sense of ownership you feel in building something that's yours, is very rewarding. And unlike my State Farm days where I quickly became bored with what I was doing, I have never felt that way owning an agency. There is ALWAYS something to do, something to learn, something to improve on.

I'll be the first to admit, I've learned so much in the last 6 1/2 years. I still have much more to learn and more I want to accomplish.

But I love challenge of it all!

Every day is a new adventure. Some days I can't wait for them to be over and others I can't believe the sun is already setting. But that's life as an agency owner. Can't wait to see what the future holds!