Blog Post: Career Interview: Insurance Agent

The office is like walking onto Main Street in the 30’s. A fire pole spans from the ground to the blue skied ceiling that’s eerily similar to Caesar’s Palace in Vegas. A popcorn machine sits in front of a wall exposing a few painted bricks and an old school car with the license plate reading ‘Joyest.’ Employee placards are displayed proudly with ‘addresses’ marking the start date for their length of service. Joy Estes has one outside of her office reading, Joy’s Junction, 1982.

Joy Estes, the owner of this place, greeted us with road atlases and hugs in a State Farm jersey. Here are a couple questions we asked her about being an insurance agent.

Why go to such extremes to decorate your office this way?

This is where most of your life takes place when you’re awake. Why wouldn’t you want it to be your dream? I try to make it nice for everyone.

What’s an insurance agent do?

In a nutshell, I help individuals, families, and businesses select insurance policies that provide the best protection for their lives, health, and property. I love what I do because I get to be the hero. I get to be the solution. When someone gets in an accident, the doctor tells them they have a problem by diagnosing what’s wrong. Their lawyer outlines their problem for them. The banker is going to tell them they’ve got the problem. Well guess what? I’m the solution to their problems, because I’m the one with the checkbook. And I get to be their hero when I cut their check, instead of the goat.

Right now the insurance business is probably one of the only businesses to be doing well in these economic times. Why is that?

There’s no other business where your clients and revenue compounds and stacks upon each other. It’s all built on relationships. If I can build a good relationship with a client at the start, that will create a long lasting revenue stream. Because everyone needs insurance. So you work really hard at the start to get the clients, and be the solution to their insurance needs, and then it gets really easy for them to renew. Because no one wants to change their insurance once they’ve signed on. It’s too much work. So you just have to make sure that they’re happy, and by a result of them being happy, you’re happy because you’ve got a new check coming in every month. It’s a great business to be in.

You were the first female to be admitted to West Point. Mind telling us how that happened?

Yes, I was the first female to be admitted into West Point Military Academy. It started in high school. I got really good grades and I really excelled in athletics. One day I got a letter addressed to Jim Estes, not Joy. They must have thought I was a boy! I decided to roll with it and apply anyway. On July 4th, 1976 I became the first woman to be admitted. I started with about 200 other girls in the program. Then I got a call from my high school volleyball coach, asking me to come back to Arizona and marry him. So I did. I dropped out after eight weeks in the program and ran back to Arizona to marry this guy. But, it didn’t work out. I wish I could say I graduated from West Point, but the story didn’t happen that way.

What other qualifications do you need to be an insurance agent?

This business is about people and relationships. You have to be able to build trust with people. I’m a hugger. I hug everyone who walks in my doors. I hugged you guys, didn’t I?

You did.

I graduated from NAU with an elementary education degree. My dad hired me as a staff person. After awhile he suggested I get my own agency. So I started the process of becoming an agent with State Farm, taking an aptitude test, going through training and interviews, and they awarded me with my own agency opportunity. At 22, I got my first client, Edith Brown. I’ve been in the business for 27 years now.

Pursue the Passion brings you one career interview every week to expose you to career possibilities. For a complete list of interviews, visit www.pursuethepassion.com, and to sign up for the newsletter, click here. You can also add Brett on Facebook, Linkedin, or Twitter.