Has Your Agent Ever Verbally Degraded You?

17d

It blows my mind State Farm and Allstate agents are sells mills now. I hear what they spend on leads and it blows my mind. They create ZERO relationships and their service calls go to 1800 numbers. Sorry you're dealing with it but the old guard left and the new agents just care about selling. Being an agent that grows relationships is a rarity now.

17d

Exactly, and State Farm has a nasty reputation for claims and service at corporate. Then they wonder why people cancel. They literally will not take the time to even care enough to sell the correct product. I had coworkers at a state farm agency put what should have been commercial policies on personal policies. When I confronted them, they said it didn't matter, just get the sale.

Human_Secret_4609

17d

There’s not enough time to provide the warm and fuzzies that are part of (legit) customer service. It’s a game of hot potato in Claims..you work one Claim and by the time you’re finished, four more came in. I don’t operate that way - and never will.

16d

Same here. I am doing it the right way, not speed racing to the next sale, next claim, whatever. That's a recipe for mad insureds and e&o claims.

17d

Thank you!

Yeah we do not have leads anymore and the reasoning is because “its too expensive. why pay $500 a month when it doesnt work and it jacks up our cancellation ratio” but I mean, we can all see the subsidy amount.

Like State Farm subsidized 80-90% so it boiled down to $1 per lead… and i can guarantee we did not have 500 leads a month…

And now even with no leads, our lapse/cancellation ratio is still 20%….

17d

It's because the agents I know are getting high turn over because they're not building loyalty after the sale. It's just like everything else now, you can find a sales phone number but good luck finding a customer service one. So now it's putting everything into sales but with zero direction.

SoPolitico

17d

You can find a sales number…such a good line 👍

17d

I realized this when I accidentally bought something twice from Amazon. I couldn't find a way to cancel it (this was many many years ago) and figured I'd just call them. It took around 45 minutes just to find a service phone number and another 40 or so being passed around. Google is the same, I was literally told by someone at Google (my business listing kept being changed to permanently closed) that "We don't have customer service phone numbers....only one for product sales". So you have a number convenient for me to buy something, but not if I am having issues with it? The answer was "Well....yes....I guess so. We only handle issues through email".

I pretty much have witnessed the fall of customer service from that day forward. Even insurance companies I work with, no one answers the phones in Underwriting. Now it's chatting with AI to see if you can get them to let you slip through to talk to a person. Then you go on the whole pass around from extension to extension. "Ohhhh you need new business endorsements! Hold on." *music plays.

I just think regardless if you're 25 or 65 that shit gets old real quick because companies are just building a wall up so they don't have to talk to consumers anymore. Eventually the result will be poor quality products and services because they aren't accountable. Insurance agents better be really careful being a sales mill and not a "go-to" for their clients. They keep passing them to 1-800 service centers it's going to get old quick.

HartPlays

16d

I don’t think brand loyalty has anything to do with it. Rates with SF have continued to increase YoY and loyal or not, a 30% increase on home insurance is going to make you look around for a better rate. People aren’t interested in a relationship with their agent anymore. Go to other subreddits and you’ll see this every time an insurance conversation comes up. Someone will ask what they can do about expensive insurance and the answer is to search for new rates every 6 months. Loyalty is dead in the insurance industry and insane YoY rate increases are the cause.

16d

Its not to the sub-40 generation but I find once people start having a family, buying a home, having retirement accounts and nicer cars they tend to change how they want to do things. Agents are stupid to chase the sub 40 single person in an apartment, they don't have any interest in dealing with someone one on one.

And BTW a hefty portion of those people on Reddit asking those question need agents because it's usually how the direct writer or the company app messed it up OR they messed up coverage trying to cut a corner. At the end of the day we make what $120-$150 per $1000 in premium. People aren't REALLY saving that much at the end of the day to deal with a direct writer and most of the time they are overpaying being told they're saving cutting us out.

HammerofHeretics

16d

It's very difficult to build up loyalty when policies are seeing 20%+ increases twice a year

16d

Listen I've been in this 30 years and I'm getting the same policy increases as everyone else as an Independent. You have to create a relationship so they think twice about going. This is why I preach hard when agents say they're not going to take payments in office anymore because it "gets in the way of sales". Sales are not all there is to an agency.

17d

Also does State Farm really reimburse for leads? That company bleeds money. I don't get it. It seems the bottom has to fall out at some point.

17d

Agreed. And yeah I guess certain agents are just more so worried about filling their own pockets and spending as little as possible to run the office.

But yeah per lead we could see lead cost as well as subsidy amount directly on the lead itself. It would typically be $11 cost and $10 subsidy depending on the provider

jake-n-elwood

17d

That sounds almost too good to be true, if they are legit leads from a place like Everquote, Smart Financial, etc. $1 per leads? That's nuts. I am a Farmers agent and if I could get 1k leads for $1k I would be all over that.

You can't sell if you don't have leads. Also it sounds like the agent in question here is a real dick. Makes me wonder if he could actually produce himself.

17d

Yes, we’ve been with Smartfinancial, Everquote & Quotewiz. After subsidy it always ends up being $1-$2 per lead. Fun fact they all basically get their info from the same place.

And yup you got it, he doesn’t know how to use our system let alone take a payment. See him maybe about 3 hours a week max.

jake-n-elwood

17d

He's probably scared. When you rely on others to do what you cannot it can be very stressful. I believe agents need to be the beat salesperson in the office and an even better coach. Chances are under the anger he is very scared.

17d

I could definitely see that. However he’s tried to make it a point that anyone could do what we do. And that he could do it with his eyes closed.

jake-n-elwood

16d

That's a huge oversimplification. If you can produce 30 households per month and sell 5 life policies on top of it that's solid. Very solid. While the mechanics of the job are simple and anyone can do it, not many do. People fear rejection and that's the #1 reason producers fail. Chances are he doesn't like rejection either and it's easy to say the job could be done by anyone. Maybe on a given day that could be true. But to do it day-after-day and week-after-week takes a unique person. And that type of person usually starts their own agency because they figure they may as well just do it for themselves.

State Farm has a great brand and they lean on it heavily to convince people that they're the best. The only people I talk to who routinely tell me State Farm is great are over 60 years old. I've yet to talk with someone in their 20's or 30's or even 40's that love State Farm the way older people do. I wouldn't drink too much of their kool-aid. That's just my opinion though.

Rdu2016

16d

They can lose money on underwriting forever ,at least to 110 combined ratio on pc. Their investment income more than makes up for it

15d

I don't know.... Apr 1, 2024 — Friday, AM Best downgraded the financial strength rating of State Farm General to “B” (fair) from “A” (excellent).

You gotta have a good market to hold the line when you're losing $14 Billion and the market hasn't been that good to hold them up. They can pretend it'll flatten back out but until they get strict on some of their agents doing shady underwriting, it's not going to get better.

Rdu2016

15d

sf general is a california specific company.

15d

Correct but they have net losses for 2022 and 2023. State Farms market share in California makes up a large portion of it's book size. So you're going to tell me net losses in 2022 and 2023 and the non-renewal of their largest market isn't going to be an issue? Ok...

Sweet-Parfait5427

17d

It is actually like 5-8 a lead out of povkey

16d

80-90% subsidies don't exist. not every agent runs their business this way.

EvolutionaryZenith1

17d

Unless of course you work for an independent outfit. Surprising people still sign contracts with captive carriers.

17d

I can see both sides

Sf has been great to me. Less than 10k to get In Going into year 8 and my gross last year was 650k in a rural low premium area.

Pros and cons for both

HartPlays

16d

That’s the thing. People on this subreddit exclusively shit on SF but it’s one of the lowest barriers to entry and allows agents to make lots of money while providing their team with decent money. It’s unfortunate that bad agents exist but the success rate of SF agents is something like 82%+. There’s no doubt they’re doing good. Hell, my office is in the middle of the rankings compared to our region. Like almost right in the middle. Financially we seem to be doing good. The agents above us are killing it and making tons of money.

Rdu2016

16d

They are starting new agents out with 1.5 to 2 million dollar PC books and no longer scratch agencies too.

17d

Agreed. I think captives will eventually go away. I mean they don't service policies anymore

EvolutionaryZenith1

17d

They also screw agents and once they've built a book there, they bully them into continuing selling their shitty low commission product even though they don't prioritize renewal retention in terms of premium. They will learn not prioritizing accounts that perform, is a loser, especially large ones.

16d

that's a pretty broad brush..

16d

It is, but it's literally all the AS and SF agents I know around me. They all hire cold callers and give them base and commissions to call numbers all day. Allstate agents where I am anyway, you call their office it goes straight to the customer service operators at Allstate not the agency.

16d

Not my office.. 3 dedicated service tm's. referral based marketing. Again, not all agents are the same, so let's avoid broad brushes as many like me actually focus on relationships and looking out for people.

16d

Who are you with?

16d

doesn't matter. I could pull up 100 brokers and point to the % who are shit, then bash the entire group, too. there's good, there's bad, but to say Sf & As is shit as a whole because if xyz is small minded. Any profession has its share of indifferent, solely profit motivated people, and passionate, caring. and dedicated people.

Advie to OP is to interview your next agent as much as they interview you.

16d

Oh it matters.... when I typed "agents I know around me" and "Where I am anyway" at what point did that pull your string to pipe up and tell me anything as if you know who I know?

Furthermore for someone running their mouth lecturing about "Broad strokes" maybe you should learn to read something before thinking you know jack about someone's personal experiences in their community.

I was careful to state things were in my personal experience, you were the one who came in trying to prove something that didn't need to be proven.

Pweidman1

16d

This and almost every comment I read under this is wrong. No wonder redditors are viewed as a bunch of maladjusted manchildren. The average SF office spends too much time on service and not enough sales, if anything.

16d

Lol @ your comment Karma does anyone like what you say...ever?

Pweidman1

16d

I stuck up for a local bar&grill that ppl were hating on bc they have no taste and only like corporate chain slop

17d

I don’t understand why State Farm and Allstate went to the churn and burn route. The beauty of them was always their tenured relationships with customers. If that’s their strategy going forward why not just be independent and have the ability to sell way more?

17d

It's like "The Insurance Dudes" trying to sell you their leads and agency blueprint because they have $12 million dollar agencies and are never there. So no one's accountable? Just sale sale sale! Then they brag at how much they do in a year. I bet their turnover is ridiculous. I really don't know why you'd want to have an agency like that? Doesn't seem fun at all measuring your success by numbers and reports.

No thanks. I'm happy with a low stress independent agency of $4 million and a staff of 3. Lol

17d

I can only speak for Allstate, but SF has always been a similar model in many capacities. Allstate has been bleeding market share since the early 2000's. I started with Allstate in about 2007, and up until 2019, there had been almost no change in compensation during that time. Since 2019, almost every year has been shifts in how we're compensated.

At that time is when they implemented "Transformative Growth", the idea that they have slipped too much and need to grow market share in a big way. They wanted to cut costs and pass those savings onto keeping rates as low as possible. That was all well and good, they definitely have been far too fat at the top for a long time. and their technology systems have been the same since the 80's. However, their new direction has them prioritizing bringing in more customers, and far more mediocre customers, while watching the good reliable tenured customers leave out the back door because their rate increases, and forced agency attention to new business growth.

I'm kind of an in the middle agency type. I prioritize hitting our goals, but still do our own customer service. I handle about 70% of the customer service myself, with staff being more hybrid. It's not easy, and I don't get to do policy reviews nearly as much as I used to. Now I kind of just send out emails and only do them with people that reply. I used to be on the phones actively reaching out to customers at renewal time, but I simply don't have the time to do that anymore. It's tough, but it's still a good gig if you do it right. No where near as nice as it was. Every month literally being a race to the 30th with numbers only to reset again. If you're not hitting your numbers, you're not lasting though.

17d

As a SF agent I think that’s unfortunately too typical.
I’m a little different than most. I still work at least one day a week as a full producer calling leads and stuff. It’s important to me to lead by example, and to let my team coach me.
Attending meetings I rarely fit in. I dress like a bum, and think a lot of co agents are entitled assholes.

I’ve hit every metric but Presidents. There are a few of is normal people out there however.

If you know the systems and are successful you have a lot more leverage than you realize. Our systems complexity makes bringing a new hire on take forever.
You don’t owe your agent anything. Find one who values you if you really like it as a career path.

17d

This is the ideal set up. All of the aspirant meetings I’ve attended have glorified agents that actually put in the time and help their team produce. I’ve heard another agent tell me “If I’m winning then my team is winning with me. You’ll never see me rolling in the nice new car while they’re struggling” which is literally whats happening with our agency.

I applaud you and believe if I was apart of an agency like yours, I’d be set up pretty well to become an agent

17d

What state ya in?

17d

Gonna withhold that info for now as I’m aware how easy it is for this thread to get back to my agent somehow.

17d

Yikes. I pay that in BFE flyover country.

17d

LOL. Shucks I’ve only got a Resident license in my state but if that changes I might give you a ring hah!

17d

Yes, it is a common thing in State Farm agencies. I have worked in NC and VA for two different agents. Both agents were the top producers in bigger areas, both acted just like that. I was also a hybrid role, and if you know anything about NC and its heavy with State regulations that make underwriting and issuing policies a long process.

The principal agents (because I refuse to say team members when we are all licensed agents) don't understand that corporate has dropped the ball on every level with the service work. Claims are a nightmare. I had a homeowner have a claim that lasted over a year. Underwriting is riddled with assistance and not actual underwriters, so have the information they give is wrong. Then, the billing and service can take weeks for simple replies and changes.

I left State Farm. All their agency owners are out of touch. Everyone knows when the economy gets bad, sales slow. When winter months come, sales slow. I don't know if they are under pressure or not, but they need to wake up and realize the more we sell, the more service work needs to be done. They don't want to pay staff to just be service agents. That's why Geico is gaining on them.

If I were to own an agency, I would go independent or Geico.

17d

This has to be my favorite response so far just based off of relatability. Its definitely not easy trying to stay sales focused meanwhile my customers policies are taking over a month to issue, or even make a change. And calling Claims, UW, Life etc you only talk to people with Vxxxxx alias’.

17d

Thanks lol. And exactly! It's freaking exhausting. The status tracker in ABS is a joke, the dates are constantly pushed out for even the smallest changes.

Ashkob

17d

I am a SF agent and I treat my employees completely different. If you come to work and do what I ask we have no problem. I have unlimited PTO, give money to pay for health care and don't micromanage. But I also love what I do and produce, I believe in leading by example, I speak with all my clients and my service in exceptional. Everybody runs their business differently....

17d

Okay wth! All these agents telling me that they produce… I really picked the wrong one when I applied lol.

My agent doesn’t even know how to use ecrm and he isn’t even an old-timer…

Ashkob

17d

Yes, there's two main ways to run the business. You hire a team to produce and sit back and manage or you're in it until you hit "your number" and then you sit back and manage. There's no wrong way, just what the business owner prefers. What state are you in?

17d

Had this talk with the other TM in our office. We’ve identified that there is definitely a difference between running the business and owning the business.

I wouldn’t even say we’re being managed. The agent is online for maybe a few minutes a day in the morning. Then just responds when needed via teams on his phone. He’s even took on other business/activity ventures that interfere with the agency’s operating hours.

Not going to say what state I’m in for now as I’m aware how easy it is for this thread to get back to my agent somehow.

leafpickleson

17d

I left state farm because my agent was unethical AF. Tried to make me badger $1200 out of a woman with (documented) dementia to reinstate her policy. The woman couldn't remember that we called 2 hours after talking with us. She had no clue how old she was. I legally and ethically could not do it. He also tweaked those rebuild calcs to land sales and WELL under-insured his clients. I almost immediately looked for new employment. My current agent has her moments, but she's ethical and I don't feel bad for our clients.

Start interviewing with independents and brokerages. Your agent is cracking under a hard market because SF is finally starting to catch up to the rest of us on the UW guidelines and rates. You don't want to work for someone who can't weather the storm.

Screenavoider

17d

I used to be a recruiter and have had that language used against me by my boss.

He’d say I don’t pay you to twinkle your thumbs! Get to work!

I moved on since that role but he honestly instilled in me a lot of the sales grind and hustle that I have today.

Maybe look for an exit route but don’t let it get to you mentally. Many times these positions are set up for failure and you can only do your best with the resources you have.

You got this!!!

17d

I typically would use this as fuel for me to just bang out sales. However, its gotten to a point where the agent is harping on sales meanwhile we’re just sweeping other problems under the rug.

Don’t know how much longer I can put up with trying to work like a horse whilst being treated poorly and paid peanuts.

Sometimes the vibe does the opposite of fuel me and just feel like I’m being disrespected and spoken like less than a person let alone a valued part of the team.

0_0here

17d

It must have been easy to be a State Farm agent when they could undercut the majority of their competitors. Now that they can’t the principles are probably feeling the pinch in their wallets and don’t know how to actually sell.

Sweet-Parfait5427

17d

Why are you still an aspirant? That is way too long. I think the aspirant program is a joke. I got that from my boss and was told it would be a year. Meanwhile I went to their recruiter and was offered an interview if I get my business plan done within two months for an office. The spiral program gives your agent money from State Farm. Once you are done, he stops getting that money so he has no reason to help you get an office.

17d

I’ve become familiar with the sales leader of my district and I was told they want to see 5 years experience. However I do know a couple people who gave up on the aspirant route and actually became agents via the recruiting route a lot sooner.

I’ve been realizing that in my 3rd year, I’m still not getting much push or support to grow as an individual and even help position myself for agency. Which is very disappointing as I feel like I’m wasting my time with it

Sweet-Parfait5427

17d

Five years?! Holy crap. No no no that isn’t right at all

Admirable-Box5200

17d

Unfortunately good sales people frequently do not make good sales leaders or managers. When I was a captive I hired a producer from a SF agent and their reason for wanting to leave was a toxic work place. They were a high volume producer so I thought it would be great. Well, they brought it with them, hollering at corporate customer service, berating other staff if they didn’t do things their way. It turned out the toxic work place was them and the agency owner constantly competing to be the top producer. Fortunately, the carrier recruited them behind my back to open their own agency.

17d

This is a struggle for me as well as I’m sure another agent would have a hard time wanting to pick me up if I leave with the toxicity reason. All I ask is for some moral support and true intentions in having me here on the team.

My current agent would probably make it impossible for me to switch agencies.

WeakAbbreviations943

17d

Yeah I work for a State Farm agent and it sucks so much ass. I’m actively applying to other jobs and another coworker just put in their 2 weeks. For reference other than the agent there’s only 3 employees 🤡

17d

Lol I should jump on the 2 weeks train! For us, its me, one other guy and then the agents wife who works a few hrs a day doing service. The agent doesn’t produce.

I’ve tried to touch on how we need to at least have someone full-time service. What I’ve gotten back was that “our book size doesn’t justify a full-time servicer”. While just 2 years ago we were 1 ft service, 3 sales…

jazztrumpet439

17d

I work for a top 10 agent and my agent has high standards for us, but tends to be more encouraging. (We are a bit rare though… we have 3 offices and just shy of 30 team members including remote sales.)

17d

Agency ownership can be super stressful, and the way a lot of carriers are structuring now, the Agent loses a lot of money if they are not hitting their numbers. It can make or break you by just hitting your numbers. Sounds like this agent might be struggling to hit the numbers they need to stay afloat. Sure your team needs to be hitting their numbers, those numbers also have to be reasonable. I can't speak for your market, but I'm assuming it's doable. No one should be verbally abusive to their staff however. I've been through a lot of staff, and a lot of ups and downs, but could not imagine speaking to staff that way. It's fully reasonable for the Agent to be on your ass about your numbers when you're not hitting them, and everyone handles that side of it differently, but no excuse for being aggressive, and threatening. Sounds like a dick.

17d

I think for a while if we needed to crank it up, he’d be supportive and just ask the basics “what do you need?” “How can i help?” which is great.

But in recent times its been very very different lol. Just from the no leads, and only 2 hrs a day dedicated for sales time, we’re scrambling for numbers through x, y and z campaigns but still expected to meet the same numbers as before when we had leads plus all day for sales.

17d

My guess is he's struggling and lashing out on the staff because of it. Maybe he was too liberal with marketing and the amount of staff he had, and is having financial trouble affording it all. I've been there. I listened to my idiot leadership about hiring when I first purchased the agency I worked in. I had about 5 staff onboard, and before I knew it, I was about $50,000 deep in credit card and home equity line debt. I kept pushing in the red thinking it would turn around. Turned out, I was over staffed, with staff that just didn't write enough business. They weren't good sales people and we didn't have the rate to win off price alone. I also lost my best sales producer that year, because his production went down, from me having to spread more leads out to people that were not writing business. It was rough. Never would I have ever dreamed of yelling at my staff or being aggressive with them. I let some go, and shifted roles for others, and built things back together. Took me 3 years to get out of that hole I got myself into.

These are the parts of agency ownership a lot of people don't think about. Make a few stupid decisions and it can bankrupt you, lose your agency, or put immense financial stress on the agent and his family. Still no reason for lashing out at people that are working for you. There are far better ways to handle it.

16d

I have a feeling that maybe the hole has started and its hitting harder after just 1 month of low numbers.

I could see getting upset about performance if we did bad all the way up to this point. But that is untrue. We just got honored for a couple things this year already. Even beat other agencies in some challenges. This is the only month that i know of this year that we have been slow.

I wonder if the agent buying 2 rolex’s, 3 brand new cars and starting up a kids basketball team within the span of 5 months have anything to do with it.

16d

LOL yea he's probably just a dick. Maybe getting used to the money flowing, and now he's shitting a brick because the money's not coming in like it was starting to. Never spend all your money on personal belongings when you own a business. It's got to be a good balance, with heavier investment in the business, or building up reserves. I'm having a really shitty month this month, every month prior to this, we've been smoking the year prior. This month though, nothing is falling our way. Sales are way down, and I know revenue is going to be shit next month if we don't get out of this slump. I started bonus structure for the rest of this month, that aligns to our goals. Auto's, homes, and bundles. Extra money to things that are cross sold off existing customers. We'll see if it gets us over the hump or not, but what I'm sure of is I won't be threatening my staff...

Human_Secret_4609

17d

I’m not in an AO, but I am with SF and I can tell you the pressure tactic and passive aggressive commentary from my “leadership” (a term I use very loosely) is ridiculous. They literally want to ring every ounce of life out of a human being to see how much more $ they can make.

16d

Sent screenshots of some of the messages we get to my other half. She also told me “wow its like hes speaking to you as if you’re not a human being” LOL.

Human_Secret_4609

16d

Don’t feel bad…I’m not a human being either. 🥴 My TM is so condescending all I can do is laugh because she has no clue what she’s talking about. I know she’s just repeating things her “superiors” way (another term I use loosely).

There’s one thing I learned immediately when I joined the Farm..:the only consistency with SF is inconsistency. It’s all by design. You’d think the largest auto insurer in the US would have figured out what DOES work.

They prefer chaos and constant pressure. They’re not the brightest bunch.

Lemmelawyeryouup_97

16d

I was a State Farm agent team member for 4 years, most of it during university. It was great at first, but around 2021, something changed.

It started becoming this hyper & aggressive sales environment where even corporate started breathing during our necks. Don't even get me started on when those life sales events would come around..

Our regional manager once sat down in a Zoom call with the agency and I to give us some "sales templates" to use in phone conversations to pitch life insurance. When I told him I've used this before, he just stopped me mid sentence and said, "No.. no, you haven't." Then awkwardly laughed when I defended myself. I had no reason to lie. He also got mad once because I was giving realistic responses during a life sales roleplay call lmao

That's when I made the jump to an account manager role with an independent agency, and it's been a lot better.

Scentor11

16d

This is such a different experience from working for my agent. We're a team of 7, 2 sales, 3 service, and 2 hybrids, we reach out to customers, talk about premium changes, discuss their coverages in detail, work with underwriters. Yeah we're still sales focused but I feel like our agent is really invested in us and our growth, heck she takes us on an annual trip for hitting goals. I'm really sorry you're having that experience I think you should honestly move on from that agent because it seems there's a real difference in office culture depending on the agent.

toasterbath18

16d

I onboarded at a SF agency. They schedule my PC test for me and just pass the info, telling me to just come in after my test was completed. I get to the testing center, no one knows what’s happening or who I am, or why I’m there. They signed me up for an online proctored test it turns out. So I book it back home and do the best I could. Which, that office was stressful enough, let alone getting blamed for not passing because I didn’t pass that time. My bad, your error knocked me off my game, and the unnecessary pressure and rush to get home didn’t make me feel any better.

The OM called the CSR her best friend. I remember at beers after work one day at the patio nearby, the OM literally rips into the CSR, in from of our spouses, and the CSRs two kids, that how she spends her PTO is stupid and she needs to manager her time better. WTF? They were not happy I had my own life after work and would rather be eaten alive by fire ants before trying to be friends with them.

They would literally sit at each others desk for the last hour of the day and mean mug everyone (me + 1 other ding dong - she’s a whole other hot mess of her own) and just be total Karens about everything in life. OM was on husband #3, had a (formerly?) drug addicted daughter, a grandson from her, and a befu***n gloved son who did no wrong and deserves everything in life. Just sharing a wall with her made you so miserable you felt sick. No one ever had a single nice thing to say. And it’s funny because in my interview I said two basic rules are that we can assume good intent of one another, and each of us protect their okayness. I think that may have been the first (and likely the last) time they had ever heard those words.

I was new to the industry. They applauded, more than once, my resume and experience in my interviews. And I grew up in the mud. I come from nothing. Buying a home at 24 was a big deal to me all those years ago. So if I’m protecting people’s biggest purchases in life, yeah, I will be asking questions. All my studies included me making spreadsheets and notes digitally of not just the license training, but company too. You’d think wanting to understand the product was like asking her for her right arm. I don’t think you care about relationships if after every phone call you so graciously take from a client with the few moment in the day that you actually work, that you need to roll the eyes to the back of your head for 50 reps and have a vent session after every single one.

Fast forward to the fall, I’m preparing for my LH test. Well, my father passed. I took one week off, because there was significant travel. I came back a shell of myself. But I still showed up every day, despite how physically sick the environment made me. I’m back on Monday and I get pulled into the meeting with the “guy who’s name is on the building” (he doesn’t deserve the credit of being called an Agent/Agency Owner if he’s never there and at least twice a week clients complain about it, right?). I literally have to sign a stupid form that I will not ask more than 3 questions or face disciplinary action. Yes folks, you heard that right. I couldn’t ask more than 3 questions. 1, 2, 3. Yes, just like that.

So much more juice from that bad apple, but yeah, SF was a distasteful introduction to the industry. But now I have a nice gig, and a bright future. Plus I have one other significant interview next week for the opportunity that I’ve been manifesting.