John Hassell

Transcript:

Narrator
Welcome to The Best of LKN, a podcast featuring the best small businesses and the most influential professionals around Lake Norman, North Carolina. Each week, we spotlight those businesses and individuals that are making a positive impact here in the Lake Norman area. Thanks for joining us, enjoy the show.

Jeff
Welcome back to The Best of LKN. This is Lake Norman’s number one small business podcast, where we work each and every day to elevate the Lake Norman small business community and introduce you to the best and brightest small business owners, entrepreneurs, freelancers, and leaders of local nonprofit organizations. I want to first give a shout out to our sponsors who make the work we do here at The Best of LKN possible. We appreciate the support of our sponsors and brand partners more than I can possibly say. I encourage you to get to know these exceptional local small businesses by going to our homepage at thebestoflkn.com. There you’ll find a list of all of our platform sponsors with links to follow to learn more about their businesses. While you’re on our homepage, please go ahead and sign up for our weekly email newsletter. It’s packed with links to all of our latest podcast episodes, blog articles, and our newest YouTube videos. We’re also including local upcoming events that we think might interest you. So, hop on over to thebestoflkn.com after you listen to this episode, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter. It’s free, easy to sign up, and a great way to show some support for The Best of LKN platform. In this episode, I sit down with the newest sponsor for The Best of LKN, John Hassell with Farm Bureau Insurance of North Mecklenburg, located in Huntersville. John and I began discussing sponsorship opportunities a few months ago. And during that time, I found John to be a highly knowledgeable insurance professional with an exceptional work ethic. Great qualities for an insurance agent for sure. But what really caught my attention is John’s deep commitment to providing personalized service for his clients. That’s something that only a small business can do. And John runs his office like a small business that serves the local community. John is not only THE insurance guy, he is Lake Norman’s hometown insurance guy. Helping you is what we do best. That’s more than the Farm Bureau slogan, as you’ll learn from my conversation with John. So, stay with me and get to know the newest sponsor here at The Best of LKN, John Hassell with Farm Bureau Insurance of North Mecklenburg.

Jeff
John, welcome to the podcast.

John
Thank you so much, Jeff. I’m excited to be with you.

Jeff
I’m excited that you’re with us. And I want to start off by saying how much I appreciate you joining us as one of our 2022 charter sponsors. We really appreciate your support.

John
Yeah, absolutely. I look forward to a great year with The Best of LKN. I think it’s a great platform to connect with local businesses and, you know, just be more and more in tune with the community here. So, I’m very excited about it.

Jeff
Yeah, we definitely appreciate it. And we’re excited about this partnership as well. The insurance category is something we’ve been, we’ve had our eye on for a while and you and I have gotten to know each other over the last month or so. And I think this is gonna be a great fit, so I’m really excited. John, I want to introduce you to our listeners and our audience. And before we talk about the services and the products that you provide your clients with Farm Bureau Insurance, just share a little bit of your bio, hometown, education, career, that sort of thing. A little bit about yourself.

John
Sure, sure. So, I am born and raised in Charlotte. I guess we call ourselves unicorns nowadays since so many people have moved to Charlotte, so, I am a Charlottean. I went to NC State for college, graduated in 2007, and then came directly back home to Charlotte and started with Farm Bureau Insurance in 2007 here in Cornelius as an agent. And so, I have been with Farm Bureau now for just shy of 15 years total. I started as an agent and worked as an agent in Cornelius for six years before they offered me an opportunity to go and manage an office in the Indian Trail location, which is just south of Matthews in Union County. So, sort of back home to where I originally grew up. I was born and raised in the south side of Charlotte, which just happens to now be Ballantyne. When I was growing up, it was farmland, so it has changed quite a bit over the years. But after eight years in Indian Trail, the manager who originally hired me here decided to move on to a different opportunity within Farm Bureau and that opened up the opportunity for me to come back here to the Huntersville or Lake Norman branch and take over as the manager here, so I’m excited to be back. I started back here January one. And, you know, coming up on 15 years in this career has been, it’s been a tremendous opportunity. It’s a great career for anybody who’s looking to connect with the community. And really, I kind of joke at times, you know, my job is to make friends. At the end of the day, we get the opportunity to, you know, to make friends and make, you know, just acquaintances and that kind of thing, and also help people at the same time. So, it’s been tremendous for me.

Jeff
Well, first of all, go Wolfpack.

John
Yes, sir.

Jeff
My youngest stepson is a junior at NC State. And, yeah, the older two went to Chapel Hill. So, if they were sports fans, we’d be a house divided, but they’re not, so everything’s good.

John
I’m good with that, there you go. We don’t discriminate. I love everybody, except for when we’re playing a football game. That’s about it.

Jeff
Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. Yeah, no, I’m really excited that you’ve come back to manage the Lake Norman operation. And, yeah, you brought up a good point about, you know, making friends. I was in sort of a higher-end, commission-sales industry career for about 12 years. And I remember early on in my, in that career, a sales manager, you know, I was always focused on the process, the road to the sale, right? And guiding my customers through that process, and I was always, it stressed me out. And I remember a sales manager telling me, Jeff, just make a friend. Just, you know, just make a friend and I’ve carried that with me over the years. And I think it’s a really good mindset, really good philosophy. I like that, I can relate.

John
I agree. Yeah, I think it makes a big difference too when it comes to the clientele. I think the client gets a better value out of an insurance agent when the person looks at him as like a friend. In a way, obviously, we have a professional job to do as well, make sure that you’re taken care of and protecting all your assets and that kind of thing. But at the same token, you know, I will tell you a lot of my clients over the years they’ve all had my cell phone number, they call me, and it’s just like having a conversation with a, you know, a buddy, which is a great thing. So, to your point, I think it makes a huge difference. And it definitely takes the stress out of the sales side of the business. That’s for sure.

Jeff
Tell me a little bit about Farm Bureau Insurance. What makes Farm Bureau such a special insurance company?

John
Sure. So, Farm Bureau is, we are really an oddity in North Carolina. We are the, one of the only single state insurers here in the state of North Carolina. So, what does that mean to the people listening? Well, pretty simple. We can only insure property and cars in the state of North Carolina, we don’t have a license outside of the state. So, if you have property in South Carolina, I have to refer you to a different insurance agent down in South Carolina, that kind of thing. We are the largest single-state operation in North Carolina. We originated in 1953, the home offices in Raleigh, North Carolina, we service I think at last I checked, we are the third largest property insurer in the state of North Carolina, and I believe, hanging on there at the third largest auto insurer in North Carolina. Don’t quote me on that because it’s been a while since I’ve checked the stats. So, if you’re listening and you think I’m wrong, you probably are right, I haven’t checked them in a while. But that’s a big deal to us because again to be a single state operation, and to have those kinds of numbers, we have well over a billion dollars in surplus, meaning that that’s money to pay claims in the event something happens, obviously major. And just you know, we’re an A rated company as well by AM Best. So, all of that to say, we’re your hometown folks, right, and we really, we really embrace that. So, our company motto or slogan is helping you is what we do best. And one of the things that I’ll say about Farm Bureau and why I’ve never strayed away from Farm Bureau, can’t say that I haven’t been approached by tons of other insurance companies to try to poach me from Farm Bureau, the reason why I’ve stuck around all these years is because we do business different. We do business personally, it’s not, we don’t have, 800 numbers are not our game, right, so if you have a claim on the weekend, my cell phone number is the number you call. The only 800 number that we have nowadays is the glass claims. So, if you have a, obviously, if you have a windshield crack then you do have to call an 800 number, but the rest of it is really, is really dealing with me, my staff in my office, and a lot of my folks I’ve met in person, and I pride myself in that. I think sitting down at somebody’s table or having you come into my office and discuss your coverages with me is a huge part of the insurance business. And I think that I’m getting ahead of our kind of, our discussion here, but I think it’s such a valuable piece to the insurance portfolio is to have someone that’s actively looking after your business, not just a name, right? So, that’s kind of been what has kept me here at Farm Bureau. But we’re, again, we’re your hometown folks. And we pride ourselves in that, and that’s really what differs us from all the other insurance carriers out there.

Jeff
You are a really highly successful insurance professional. And the fact that you have been with Farm Bureau, since the beginning, I think speaks a lot, speaks volumes to the quality of that organization, because I’m sure that you have had invitations and opportunities to go elsewhere. And just the fact that you’ve stuck with Farm Bureau, I think really speaks a lot about that company.

John
Yeah, I definitely believe that, in the mission and the motto of Farm Bureau, and the setup too. The setup, again, being that friend, right, as opposed to the guy on the other end of the phone or the other end of an email. And I really have stuck around because of the quality of the backend of the business. The claims folks, all of our claims adjusters are in-office employees, right. So, they are employees of the company, they’re not hired out. They’re not independent adjusters, and nothing against that profession. But that’s just not the way that Farm Bureau does business. That to me, and the fact that, you know, if a claim is sort of iffy, meaning it could go one way or another. A denial, or we could pay it, I know that Farm Bureau will pay the claim. That’s just the way that we operate. Right? And have we paid some claims that we shouldn’t have over the years? Yeah, we probably have. But at the end of the day, that’s actually a good thing. Because there’s a lot of obviously, folks who have probably had experiences, maybe with other companies, and honestly, maybe with Farm Bureau, I hope not, but if, you know, where they’ve had a claim denied, and weren’t happy. But for the most part, you know, over 15 years, I’ve had very, very few complaints about the claim service, and that’s what we’re selling, we’re selling a piece of paper, and then we’re selling the folks that come out and look at your claim and pay you and make sure that you get put back whole. So, that’s really, really why I stuck around so long. We’ve got a great organization, I’m very proud of it and proud to be a part of it.

Jeff
That part about, you know, we’re your hometown folks and that in-person service, I noticed that right away, as we began our conversations about partnering with The Best of LKN platform. When, you know, one of our first meetings was in-person, at your office, and that’s surprisingly, that’s a rare thing these days. You know, there’s not a lot of, I mean, COVID aside, and, you know, even before social distancing, you know, the in-person meetings are not as common as they used to be. And that’s something that I really enjoy. And something that makes me really comfortable when I work with a financial advisor, or an insurance company, or insurance agent, really kind of so many of those just, you know, high trust type environments. It’s just helpful, I think, to be able to have that option to meet in person have a talk.

John
But what has really kept me around all these years is the fact that I get to go out and meet folks in person and have a discussion with them about their protection and covering them. And I just can’t tell you how many households I’ve sat in over the years at their kitchen table. And the fun thing for me is, you know, I’ve seen people’s kids grow up, you know, in 15 years that I wrote folks the first year who their kids are now, you know, 18 years old, and they know me walking, you know, walking down the street just like their parents do. And that’s just something that’s, it’s pretty special to me, you know, I feel I like that’s just one of the things that keeps me with the, with the organization again, because there’s just not any, there’s none other like us, right? I mean, again, you don’t have your, my competitors do not go out to the kitchen table and sit down with their folks to review insurance coverage, right. And if you’re not comfortable with me coming to your house, that’s totally fine. Like Jeff mentioned, you can come to the office and I’m happy to have a discussion with you and, you know, and I do, the appointments I run, I run them any time, so that’s what I like about it too. See, I have a very flexible work schedule, so if I only have an opportunity to see you when it’s convenient for you, might be six, seven o’clock at night, right? Well, if I come to your house and we review your insurance coverage at seven o’clock at night, I might not be there first thing in the morning next morning, right, I can flex a little bit. Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t get me on the phone or anything if you need me. And obviously my office is always open 8:30 to 5:00 Monday to Friday so you can call there. But that’s just been so fun for me. And again, making those relationships, I got a call from a gentleman the other day, and I sort of moved from Indian Trail to Mecklenburg County here. And when that happens, you have to leave some folks behind, unfortunately, it’s just the way that our business works. And he called and he’s like, man, I just, he’s like, I gotta have you. He’s like, you know, you have made an impact on our lives. And you have been special to us as far as just not even in an insurance standpoint, right. He had a son that was into racing, and we were doing some sponsorships for his race team and all these things. So, there were so many more connections than just the insurance, and that just made me feel really good. You know, and that’s what keeps me driven and keeps me going with the business, is because I really am getting the opportunity to make a lot of and build a lot of lasting relationships. These relationships aren’t just, hey, I sold you a piece of insurance, and I’ll see you later kind of thing. So, it’s been really fun.

Jeff
I had a talk with a business owner recently that partnered with a large media platform that serves the Charlotte area, digital media platform. Spent tens of thousands of dollars to partner and promote his company and his takeaway from it was, I’ll leave out the details of his disappointment with their marketing strategy, but what he took away was that at the end of the day, that platform didn’t seem to really care about small business. And it really resonated with me because we have always wanted thebestoflkn.com, our vision is to be that platform that really does care about small business, about local business, so that that mindset really resonates here. Debra Young is a local, a really prolific, and successful local family photographer, portrait photographer, she has been featured on the podcast, and she, you know, you mentioned growing up, kind of you’re building your career and watching these families grow and, you know, being along for that journey. She shared a story about how, you know, 25 years ago, she was taking baby portraits and now she’s taking photos of those kids at their weddings, you know, like those babies, like, you know, here we are a generation later, you know, she’s still working with these families.

John
It’s such a cool, it’s a very cool feeling for sure. It definitely is.

Jeff
Let’s talk about areas of expertise, or types of coverages that, I don’t know a lot about the insurance industry. I’ve been a customer for a long time but share a little bit of the different lines that you carry and as far as coverages, and areas of expertise.

John
Absolutely. So, we can pretty much do any personal lines insurance. So, when I say personal lines, for the layperson listening, that’s homeowners insurance, auto insurance, jewelry coverage, four wheelers, boats, rental properties. We do do a little bit of commercial business, so we are very small business friendly on the commercial side. We, no offense to the big guys, but, you know, we can’t insure an Amazon, right, that’s way out of our league. We can insure, you know, a huge warehouse operation. You know, we’re looking for the local electricians, the plumbers, the landscapers, these types of professions, those are our commercial niches and we’re very competitive in that market on the commercial side, but our main lines of business are really the personal lines. So, any clientele really that has a home or auto insurance policy, that’s our ideal client. We’re looking to obviously grow here in the Lake Norman area. We’ve been around here for a long time that the office has, but my goal is to continue growing and hopefully become more of a household name, Farm Bureau Insurance, at least in the Lake Norman and North Charlotte area. We also do sell life insurance through Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance, and we sell health insurance through Blue Cross Blue Shield. A little elaboration on that, we are a fixed insurance company, meaning we sell fixed products only, term and whole life, and we do the health insurance through both the marketplace and off marketplace. So, if you’re aware of the health insurance laws nowadays, there is an opportunity for folks to qualify for subsidized rates, depending on income. And so, if you are out there and you need health insurance advice or help, it does not cost you anything to call me, I can guide you through the process, you’ll have the same price for your health insurance, whether you use me or not, I can just be a form of guidance for you to help you choose the best plan and that sort of thing. On the life insurance side, I have quite a number of insurance designations, chartered life underwriter, chartered leadership fellow, life underwriting training council fellow, financial services certified professional, financial services specialist. And so, I do a lot of customized life insurance plans for all clientele really, I have business owners that I’ve worked with to do buy-sell agreements, Key Man, and the business life insurance side of things, and then I, but I really do a lot more of the personal lines, life insurance. So, you got couple of kids and a home, and you need to protect your mortgage and make sure if something happens to you, you know, your wife or your husband is not stuck financially, we’ve got the term life products to take care of that. And then if you want something that, you know, is going to be with you for your lifetime, then we’ve got the whole life options, too. So, that’s a huge part of my business. And just to elaborate on kind of what we talked about earlier, sitting in front of a client, you know, what I go out and talk to a client about their home and auto, you know, the follow-up questions once we’re done and I’ve explained the coverages and they understand how they’re covered and have asked all the questions they need on that side of the business, the next couple of questions are going to be specifically about their health and life insurance plan. You know, one of the things that I pride myself in is making sure that you’re covered on all lines of business and not just the home and auto insurance. It could be so easy for me to pass that up and just say, you know, that it’s an uncomfortable conversation, nobody really wants to have it, I don’t, they don’t, so I’m just gonna leave it alone, well, I just don’t operate like that. I feel like the life insurance and the health insurance side of the business are so incredibly important, just as it is to protect your, you know, your cars and your house, right? If something happens to you, obviously, I want to make sure that your surviving spouse and children or whoever it is, your beneficiaries, are taking care of on a financial standpoint. So, I take a lot of pride in saying that when I go out to review someone, I ask about everything, if there is a need, I always ask for the opportunity to fulfill that need. And if there’s not a need, then I’m going to tell you there’s not a need. And, you know, that’s where we’re at. So, those are the lines of business that we sell and that we specialize in. All of the agents, I have six agents that work underneath me, so when I’m representing myself here on the podcast, and through the sponsorship with The Best of LKN, I do want to mention that I have six agents that are also working in my office, and they’re not working for John Hassell, they’re working for you, okay? They don’t represent John Hassell, they represent their individual selves. So, they have a small business just like I do in a sense, right? So, if you buy from any of those agents in my Farm Bureau office, thank you. Those agents will take care of you just like I will. Obviously again, I’m here to represent myself and not my agents, but I did just want to mention that. So, it’s not just me, my name is not on the side of the building, it’s Farm Bureau Insurance. I manage the office, meaning, I have to make sure that the folks are keeping their sales numbers up, as you mentioned earlier, Jeff, right? So, sales numbers and making sure that they’re kind of staying in between the ditches legally and ethically and all the other things that we got to keep up with but yeah, we have a great team there. And that’s one of the things I think I want to share for a second too is our team is solid. We have some of the best talent, I think, in the insurance industry. As far as just customer service reps, we’ve got some great folks up front there. I have an assistant, her name is Kathy Swenson, I want to give her a quick shout because she is the, she’s my backbone. She’s my 8:30 to 5:00, in the office, that’s who works with me and for me, with me more than for me, I can assure you that, because she does a lot for my clientele. And if anyone gives me the opportunity to discuss their insurance lines with it, you’ll have an opportunity to talk to Kathy, her and I are a team. We’re a partnership. I’m the face, so to speak, of the sales organization, but she is the backbone of it, and so I want to just give her a shout because I could not do it without her. And the two of us work together really well. And then again, I do have those six agents, so if you, for some reason don’t want to let a Wolfpacker quote your insurance, but you’re interested in some pricing, I do have a Carolina grad working for me. I’ve got a couple of UNCC grads, and so yeah, UNC Charlotte grads, and so we’ve got a little mix of everything. So, if you’re not interested in talking to the Wolfpacker, that’s okay, I’ve got some folks that can help you, and do hopefully just as good as I would for you as well.

Jeff
I love that. I love that you gave Kathy a shout out, there’s nothing more valuable than the team. I mean, it’s, if there’s anything I’ve learned over the 10 or so years of self-employment, running a small business, is the value of when you have a team member, when you connect with someone, you really depend on them. You know, I mean, it’s just, there’s so much value. And I know that other small business owners and entrepreneurs are nodding their heads as they listen to this. They’re like, yeah, I mean, it’s just, you just can’t put a value on people who, you know, elevate us, and bring us up and, and help us get the job done.

John
You really can’t, and again to her, this is just, hopefully if she listens to this, which I hope she will, she’ll take a, you know, understand how much I really appreciate her. She worked with me, I hired her in Indian Trail, she lives in Monroe. So, she makes the trek to Huntersville every single day. And that’s a long drive. And so, I just want to tell her how much I appreciate her again, because she and I both knew when I got the opportunity in Huntersville that we couldn’t split up, you know, that was, we’re too good of a team to split up. So, we worked out a deal to make sure that she was properly taken care of to make that drive up to Huntersville. And I’m very, very excited that she did, and I know there’s days that are stressful for her as there are for everybody, no matter what business you’re in, but that drive, you know, I did it for eight years. So, to ask her to do it is a big deal. And for her to say yes, it’s an even bigger deal. So, I just wanted to mention that as well, because that’s just how much of a commitment that my folks and my team have there at Farm Bureau. You know, she didn’t have to leave the Indian Trail office, she could have stayed there, and she would have had a job with a new manager there. But she decided to come with me. And that just, to me, speaks volumes about again, what hopefully I’ve built and will continue to build and then trying to build and create, obviously in the Huntersville office is just that real team atmosphere. And hopefully we can continue that. And she’s a huge part of it.

Jeff
That’s the meaningful stuff that I love to talk about. Thank you for sharing that. I really appreciate that. You brought up Amazon, I don’t know who could insure Amazon, they’re a $1 trillion company or more now, I don’t know, that was months ago, that valuation was months ago. They just continue to climb, like, whoever does cover them probably can’t afford it. But we love small business, local business. Your commercial services, you have commercial capability for local small businesses. Expand on that a little bit. What are some areas that small business owners might consider? Might have needs for? Any suggestions there and ways you can cover small businesses?

John
Absolutely. So, any office, any like, I’ll give you our office for example, Farm Bureau office, right? We have that insured. I have vets offices insured here locally. I’ve got really anything that doesn’t have huge risk to it. You can understand from our standpoint, being a single state operation, we can’t take the big risks, right? So, we want to help anybody we can, but we want to make sure that it’s a risk that we can take and not put our other clients in jeopardy if we had a huge claim. So, one of the products that we use a lot, well, I’ll name off a few of them for the small business owners. First off is the business owner product. The business owner product can be used for anybody who operates out of an office. If you have a sales office, if you have a consulting business of some sort, you have a vet, you know, you’re a veterinarian, really kind of you name it, if it’s an office situation, normally we can help you and that business owner product is wonderful because it’s very competitively priced. And it’s an all-in-one product, so it has your liability coverage that you obviously need as a small business owner, and then it also can cover your belongings, so your business personal property. If you own the building, we can cover the building, if you don’t but you’ve done upfit to it, we could also cover the upfit. So, all of these types of things, and you would be very, very surprised at how little premium these businesses owners’ policies cost. So, if you qualify for that, whether it’s with your current insurer, or you want to talk to me about it, if you don’t have one of those and I, you know, kind of sparked your ear on this, take a look into that because the business owner product is meant to be extremely affordable and competitive for those small business owners. And then on the contractor side of the business, so the folks who are more hands-on out in the field, maybe you’re a plumber, maybe you’re an electrician, maybe you’re a landscaper, maybe you build homes for a living, maybe you do carpentry, whatever it may be, we have a general liability product that will cover those individuals and it’s very competitively priced as well. And then we do also have a workman’s comp product. And the key here with a workman’s comp, for those of you listening, if you have to purchase workman’s comp, you know this, it’s based on payroll, if you don’t have any payroll, but you have a need for workman’s comp or a requirement from someone that you’re doing business with to purchase workman’s comp. So, a lot of times, you are required to carry workman’s comp insurance by someone who you have a contract with. And in that case, you have to purchase a product that really doesn’t pay anything out, because it’s not covering anybody. It’s called a ghost policy. In our case, our ghost policy, from what I’ve found in the market, is the cheapest out there. And cheapest doesn’t always mean best, but when you’re purchasing a policy that actually doesn’t cover anyone, cheapest is best, right? And I’m gonna elaborate on cheapest being not the best later on on some of the other topics we have to talk about. But in this case, I think we can all agree if I’ve got contractors listening to me there that cheapest is best when it comes to workman’s comp, especially when it’s a ghost policy, meaning it’s really not covering anyone anyway. So, I’m not going to quote the rate on the podcast, obviously. But what I will say is we are typically about $500 to $600 a year cheaper than your next best carrier when it comes to a ghost policy on workman’s comp. So, if you have one of those, if you’ve got a small business, and you’re interested in us taking a look and potentially saving you a little bit of money, we’d love that opportunity. But again, we are there and ready to handle any small business that fits sort of our niche. So, if you call me and you’re a dynamite guy, like, we can assure you, I’m sorry, you’re blowing things up, right? But if it’s just your normal contractor and you’re, you know, you’re a GC, you’re a plumber, you’re an electrician, you’re a landscaper, maybe you just have a business that you do consulting in. I’ll give you an example. My mother, she does spiritual development consulting. So, she has a small office that she rents, right? Well, the business owner product is perfect for her and the business owner, it’s not even $200 a year, right. So, it gives her liability coverage up to a million dollars. And then it gives her a little bit of coverage for her belongings there in the office. So, if they get damaged by fire, theft, wind, hail, vandalism, etc. Water Damage, then she’s got coverage for those too, subject to the deductible, obviously.

Jeff
So, spiritual guidance is that kind of like a life coaching space?

John
Yeah. So yeah, she is a retired Presbyterian minister. So, she got her theology degree when I was about 18. So, kudos to her because she studied while she was raising three boys at home. So, I’m the oldest of three boys and we were not very low energy guys, we had a lot of energy. So, she had her hands full, but she studied it and did that. And, you know, super proud of her for getting that when I was 18. And then was a Presbyterian minister for a number of years and getting kind of to retirement age here, so she’s just doing consulting, more or less on the side, although it’s turned into a pretty amazing business for her. What she does is she helps folks who are going through Theological Seminary, helps guide them to their calling, and also can help really with any sort of counseling that somebody needs, whether it be just life counseling, guidance kind of things, you know, but she focuses a lot more on the spiritual side of things, obviously, coming from the ministry. So yeah, that’s sort of her story. But yeah, very cool.

Jeff
I love that. Yeah, that’s really interesting. Very cool. John, at this point in the conversations, I’d love to ask my guests if there are some local small businesses that you’d love to recognize and give a shout out to. Did you have a couple for me?

John
Yeah, sure do. So, Vet Hospital of Davidson, you’ve had Dr. Uehlein, Carrie Uehlein on the podcast in the past. Her and Dr. Nicole Sheehan as well. They’re the owners of the Vet Hospital in Davidson. They’ve done nothing but take great care of our dogs. My wife Sarah and I have been with them since the start. And actually, we’ve been great friends for a long time too. So, I just want to give them a shout because they do tremendous work, we lost our pup of 14 years, late last year. And while it was probably the most difficult thing that we’ve had to go through in a long time for my wife and I, you know, they really made it a lot more tolerable. It’s not a, you know, that’s the best word to use, because it’s a terrible situation when you lose anything or anyone. But a pet that I’ve had for you know, 13 and a half years and it’s been my, you know, right hand for that long, it was really tough, but they really made it very, very, very tolerable. And they’re just, they just have the sweetest staff there. I’ve gotten nothing but great things to say about them. And then I’d also like to give a shout out to a good friend of mine, John Sheehan. He owns and runs Providence Restoration. So, real quick on him, restoration companies are our basically our lifeblood when it comes to getting you repaired if you have a claim at your house, or any sort of structure claim. So, if you’ve got a fire, you have water damage, you have anything going on like that, the first guy I’m going to call is John. He’s been a great friend of mine for a long time, and he left Farm Bureau after about four years working with us and decided to venture out on his own into the restoration world. Worked for a few different companies before starting his own called Providence Restoration. And he’s done a tremendous job. He’s always a direct referral source, he’s my top referral source for any sort of home insurance potential claim. So, if we ever do business, and you have a claim, you’ll probably end up talking to him because what we ask them to do is go out and assess the situation. If there’s a water issue, if there is a roof issue, maybe you think you have wind or hail damage, before we file a claim, and this is kind of goes under the advice for a consumer here, if you think you have a claim, the best thing to do in most cases is not necessarily file with the insurance company right out of the gate. What we want to do is have somebody independently inspect it first, and here’s why. We only pay the check for the damage; we don’t actually fix it. So, what we want to do is have an estimate that we can then hand over to the agent like myself for review. And I say, oh yes, this is absolutely covered, it’s going to be a claim, we need to file it and it’s worth it. You have $1,000 deductible. It’s going to be $10,000. Perfect, we’ll file it. And then we can send that information to the adjuster, which makes your claim go so much smoother. So, these restoration companies are literally on speed dial for me. If you have something that I think is a claim, before we ever file a claim, I’m going to have them look at it. And in most cases, I’ll say most cases, because obviously, you know, I don’t want to put him on the spot if he listens to this. But in most cases, his team is out there within a two-hour window of me giving him a call. So, if you call me and I mean eight o’clock at night, folks, this is how responsive they are. If you’ve got water in your house, and it’s eight o’clock at night, they will be there within the hour. That’s how good they are. So, again, I use them a lot, all the time, actually. And so, I just wanted to give him a quick shout. And I hope to connect him to The Best of LKN as well. He’s a local guy here. And I think he’d be a great addition to the to the team.

Jeff
Yeah, I would love to talk to John. I have personal experience with restoration and water damage with our own home. So, I know how comforting it can be when you have really fast response from both the contractor and the insurance company. So, that’s cool. And Carrie Uehlein, Dr. Uehlein was a guest on the podcast, gosh, early on, I want to say 80 or 90 episodes ago. I’ll have a link in the show notes to her episode, but they do have the sweetest staff. The Veterinary Hospital of Davidson, I think they’ve rebranded, now they’re Whole Pets.

John
Whole Pet Vets. Correct, you got it.

Jeff
Whole Pet Vets, yeah, and just an awesome team. Follow them on social media, even if you’re not in their market or if you don’t have a pet, they’re just a lot of fun to follow on Instagram and Facebook. They’re, you know, they just share their daily lives, you know, there at the vet hospital.

John
I love their posts. Their posts are so good. And I mean if you’re an animal lover than @wholepetvets is the Instagram page. If you like animals, follow them, you get to see some of the coolest things. And actually, you know, what I really like about their social media stuff too is they actually post some of the background. So, some of the things that happen behind the scenes in a vet office that we don’t get to, that we normally would never see because we’re out sitting in the waiting room. And while some of it’s like, some of it can be slightly intense, it’s very incredible to see, because the result is always fixing or helping the animal, which I just find fascinating to be totally honest with you. I couldn’t do it because I kind of get a little squeamish around that much, you know, organs and blood and that kind of thing. But I’m glad that they’re able to do it because they do it at a very, very, very professional, and high level. So, I definitely would recommend follow them as well.

Jeff
I appreciate those shout outs. I do look forward to connecting with John at Providence Restoration. And, again, we’ll have links in the show notes. John, I want to thank you again, for joining us in our mission to elevate the Lake Norman small business community, give these small businesses a platform and a voice and a place to share their stories. And we put a lot of love and a lot of work into this platform. And we’re very selective about the brands that we partner with and invite to join us as sponsors. And we’re really proud to have you as one of our charter sponsors for 2022. So, I want to thank you very much.

John
Yeah, I’m very excited to be a part of the network and a part of the team so to speak, and I look forward to a great year. I’m really excited about it. And you’ve been great to work with thus far. And I know that we got a lot of opportunities coming forward as far as connecting with other business owners and just the community in Lake Norman. I mean, it’s such a, I’ve been here 14 years. I think I told you this when we sat down in my office, it’s really a small, it’s a small community, right? Like, there’s a lot of people per se, but I see and run into a lot of the same faces, whether I know them or not. I definitely recognize them, you know, when I’m out and about and I hope that that can be me for you. If you’re listening to this, I’d love the opportunity to obviously talk to you about your insurance plan. But I also would just like to, you know, get involved in any other community activities, you know, community development and these kinds of things. You know, Lake Norman is my home and I want to make it the best place to be, the best place to live, and make sure everybody is you know, taken care of in the area. So, if there’s opportunities out there, I hope that you’ll reach out to me, whether it’s for insurance, or if it’s for just building a better community here in Cornelius and Huntersville and Davidson. So, yeah, I appreciate it. For sure.

Jeff
That’s really well said, I appreciate that. John, how can listeners, how can our audience and friends connect with you? What’s the best way?

John
Sure, absolutely. So, I’ll give the office number to start which is 704-892-2640. Obviously call and ask for myself or Kathy Swenson, she’s my assistant that I gave the shout to earlier, so if I’m not there, she can definitely help you. You can reach me at john.hassell, which is J-O-H-N dot H-A-S-S-E-L-L @ncfbins.com. So that’s North Carolina Farm Bureau Insurance dot com. Sorry, kind of a difficult email address there. You can always use my cell phone 704-771-6650. And then lastly, I’m on Facebook @johnhassellinsurance. So, J-O-H-N-H-A-S-S-E-L-L-I-N-S-U-R-A-N-C-E, John Hassell Insurance. I don’t have a business Instagram yet, but I’m sure I’ll have one soon. And when I do, it’ll be the same at, I’ll try to make it identical so that we can just make it simple for folks. But yeah, please give us a shout anytime we’d love to see you. Our office is right there on Brookway Drive. So, for those of you that don’t know where that’s at, Northcross Drive going south, past the La Unica, by the way, great Mexican restaurant, pass La Unica and we will be up there on the left. You’ll see the Farm Bureau sign out front. It’s 15815 Brookway Drive, Huntersville. We’re directly across from the back entrance to the Birkdale neighborhood. So, we’re here, we’re local, we want to serve you, we want the opportunity to talk to you, whether that be about your insurance, obviously, that’s our business. So, we would love for you to call us about the insurance stuff. But again, connecting on just any sort of business relationships and/or community development relationships. We’re looking to get involved. We are also sponsoring some events with the Huntersville Parks and Rec Department. I haven’t had the opportunity to connect with Cornelius Parks and Rec yet but that’s on our list. They just don’t, Huntersville has a lot of events, and so we decided to partner with them for a number of those this year. So, if you’re down in Huntersville, or if you are a few have been out to maybe the first car show of the year, you know, a lot of these different things that we’ve sponsored, hopefully we’ll get to meet you all at some point. Come on into the office and say hello, stop by, we’ll serve you some coffee. And then you can get to know us, and we’d love to get to know you, again, we are the hometown folks, we want to be, we want that. We don’t want to be, the no offense to Geico, you know, no offence to the Progressives of the world, they’re giants. We don’t want that. We want to be the biggest single state operation in North Carolina, which we are. But we want the feeling to be like we are a small business because we are. At the end of the day, when you buy insurance from me, you buy from me, John Hassell, right? Your insurance documents will say Farm Bureau, but I can promise you that the folks that have dealt with me over the last 15 years they dealt with me because of me, not because of necessarily Farm Bureau. Now, Farm Bureau backs the promise. But the promise is ultimately made by me up front and I pride myself in that. So, if you’re listening and you’re thinking about shopping your insurance, give us an opportunity, we’d love the chance to quote it. I’ll tell you one thing, piece of advice, and then I guess we can wrap it up. But price isn’t always the best thing in insurance. I think that that’s a great kind of final finishing line, maybe to this whole podcast is we are super competitive on price. But the biggest thing, and the most important thing when it comes to insurance is, will they pay when you have a claim? Do you have to go through a headache to get your claim paid? Our claims adjusters, again, I can’t say enough about them, we have been rated for the past five years by independent body shop owners, number one in the nation, not North Carolina, in the nation, by independent body shop owners, in ability and quickness to pay auto insurance claims. Forbes Magazine has rated us both in the top five for homeowners insurance and in the top 10 in the nation for paying claims. That’s Forbes Magazine, you can check that out obviously on their website, that is tremendous. That’s what speaks volumes about the insurance company that you’re purchasing from. If you’re paying premiums that are super cheap, that might be fine and dandy, until you have the claim and then you got to fight to get your money, right. Cheap is not always the best. We are highly competitive. So, I don’t want it to sound like you call us and our prices are going to be outrageous. They’re not. We are very, very competitive in the market, especially here locally. And we can back up what we promise, right? That’s the big thing is we backup what we promise. And at the end of the day, you get me. And that sounds kind of funny when I listen to myself say that, but that’s what I’m representing, right? My cell phone, you call me, nine o’clock at night, you got water damage, you call John Hassell, if I don’t pick up, you leave a message, I promise you, I’m gonna listen to the message and call you right back. Okay, you know, everybody gets a lot of spam calls nowadays, but I will call you right back and we’ll get on it immediately. And that’s sort of the promise that I’ve made from day one with Farm Bureau and Farm Bureau has backed my promise to my insured. So, again, I appreciate the opportunity, Jeff, to come on the podcast and to be a sponsor. I’m very excited to be back home in Lake Norman and at the Huntersville office again driving. My Union County folks if you listen to this, I love you all, I promise you. It’s nothing against you. But driving five minutes to the office is pretty tremendous every day, so I’m excited to be back. And, you know, you may not have gotten an opportunity to hear much about Farm Bureau, about John Hassell, because I didn’t market here for the past eight years. I made a commitment to the manager when I left here that I wasn’t going to market in this area. And so, I’m back, I hope you will hear my name a lot going forward because that’s the goal. And I hope you’ll hear Farm Bureau a lot. And when you think of Farm Bureau, hopefully you’ll think of me. And when you think of insurance, hopefully you’ll think of both myself and Farm Bureau and give us an opportunity, we really, really appreciate it.

Jeff
That’s really well said, and again, that really resonates, that personal service, that small town, that hometown personal service is exactly what we do here at The Best of LKN. And I know that we’ve partnered with the right insurance agent, so I really appreciate that, John. I’m gonna have all of the links in the show notes, all of the information you just shared on how to get in touch with John Hassell at Farm Bureau Insurance. And, again, I just want to thank you again so much for sharing your journey, your story here on the podcast, and coming along with us and partnering with us to support the work that we’re doing here at thebestoflkn.com. John Hassell, Farm Bureau Insurance of North Mecklenburg in Huntersville, and a 2022 charter sponsor here at The Best of LKN. John, thank you again so much.

John
Oh, Jeff, thanks a lot, man. It’s been a pleasure and like I said, I’m just really excited to have a great year with The Best of LKN, and we’re going to do a lot of good things here in North Meck and at Lake Norman, so very excited and thanks again.

Jeff
Huge thanks to John Hassell for joining the podcast and for joining our amazing team of sponsors. Friends, you can learn more about John Hassell and Farm Bureau Insurance at www.ncfbins.com/john.hassell or email john at john.hassell@ncfbins.com. Of course, I’ll have all the links in the show notes as well as the links to the local small businesses John and I recognized during our conversation. As always, you can find the complete show notes for all of our episodes at the home for Lake Norman’s number one small business podcast, www.thebestoflkn.com. While you’re there, be sure to sign up for our free weekly email newsletter. It’s free, easy to sign up, and a great way to stay up to date on the new content we’re releasing each week. It’s also just a great way to support The Best of LKN podcast. I want to add one more local small business to the list, and that’s Grace Hill Photography. When I needed a photographer for our big second anniversary party for The Best of LKN recently, John recommended Grace Hill Photography. Owner Kelly Hill is a very experienced event and branding photographer, and she did an amazing job at our private event held at Eleven Lakes Brewing Company. I highly recommend Kelly for your next event photography needs. Although I have to admit we have a list of about six local photographers that we love, and all have been great partners with us over the last two years. Still, I’m happy to add Grace Hill Photography to that list. Huge thanks as always to our sponsors for their support of our efforts here at The Best of LKN. We simply couldn’t keep this going without them. And we are so proud to feature their businesses on our platform. You can learn more about our sponsors on our homepage at thebestoflkn.com, and also in the show notes for this episode. Okay, my friends, that’s going to do it for this episode. Thanks so much for listening in and following along on our journey as we connect with the best and brightest small business owners, entrepreneurs, freelancers, and nonprofits in the Lake Norman area. We’ll be back next week with another episode. Same time, same place. So, until then, cheers Lake Norman. Bye for now.

Narrator
We hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of The Best of LKN. For more information about this podcast, show notes, video episodes, and links to our featured businesses, please visit www.thebestoflkn.com. We publish episodes weekly, so be sure to subscribe and stay up to date. Until next time, cheers Lake Norman.