From Agency Job to Insurance Franchise Owner | How to Become a Franchisee Easily

Thank you for being with us today. Of course. So why don't you tell our audience who you are and where your office is located. My name is Corey and my office is located in Chatsworth, California. So tell me a little bit about your background. Are you, have you always worked in the insurance industry? Did you do something else? Yes, I've been working in the insurance industry for, I want to say, about six years now. So I've been doing it for a while now, yes. And who did you work for before? I worked at a state farm office under someone else. So that's where I gained a lot of my experience, you know, trial and error. You live, you learn. So I got a lot of my knowledge and experience from there, which ultimately led me to branching out and opening my own location. And what first, I mean, like what sparked your interest to open up a store? I mean, that's such a big jump from working for someone. It is, it is. And it honestly, it just comes from, I always knew in the back of my mind that I wanted to be independent and on my own, of course, with everything that I learned. And I know I'm still going to keep learning as I go because there's just so much to absorb every single day. So I felt that I was ready and it was time. So made the jump and couldn't be more happier, to be honest with you. How long have you been an owner? It's coming up on a year now. So towards the end of this year, 2025, I'll hit my first year, which is pretty exciting. What about things that you didn't expect? I mean, things that you've never done. So you've obviously been an insurance agent before, but you never built a store. You never had to work with a landlord. You never had to get a lease. What was that like? Just every single day you got one thing popping up, then you got another and another. So it's a learning curve. And I sort of had an idea of what to expect. But once you're actually, you know, just in the water, your feet are deep in there, you begin to learn and you understand more and more of you got to do everything the right way. So do you feel like you got good support from the freeway team? Hundred percent. Yeah, I really do believe that because A to Z, any questions I had, they answered it. They would follow up and see if everything's been taken care of in regards to me having any questions. But just the support factor, they want to make sure that you're confident and you know what's going on. So they're behind you the whole step of the way. Has owning a business, a freeway insurance franchise changed your life in ways that you just didn't expect? Yeah, of course. I mean, this is just the start, so I can't wait to see all the following years of how much more my life is going to change. But since owning, it's been tremendous. I couldn't be more than happy than I am now, to be honest with you. So what is the most unusual question a customer has ever asked you? That's funny you asked me that because close to me, I want to say maybe a mile or two away, there's a horse trail. This customer, I helped them out. But at the end of it, they asked me, hey, by any chance, can you insure my horse? I thought they were joking, to be honest, but I mean, you're not just going to sit and laugh. So I was like, a horse? Like an animal? So I told them I can't, but it was really funny. That's probably the most unusual question I've gotten. I'm sure I'll get many more, but it's a funny memory. So if you could give one piece of advice to someone who's thinking about starting their own business, what would that be? That they should do it. And I have two aspects to this. If you don't have experience, that's fine because you learn as you go like everybody else. We all started from day one. So you learn as you go. And aside from that, you're going to have help and support from the Freeway family. So you don't really have anything to worry about if you're motivated in yourself and you know your skill set and what you can do, then I think it's a jump that you should take. And now my second aspect would be if you do have insurance experience or background, then I think it's a no brainer. Why wait? There's never a perfect time for anything. So if you know you want to be independent and grow your own business and yourself, do it. Do it. It's the best thing you could do. Invest in yourself, right? That's what we need to do. Yeah. Take me back to I know you just you talked a little bit about the support that you see from Freeway and that you felt like, if anything, you could always count on that. Talk to me about that. Is that from day one? Is that today? Can you call them a year later? Still today. I mean, we could just rewind a couple of days, go back to the end of the week. From the very first day I walked into my doors, I had questions always in a timely manner. They're there making sure that, hey, we got this coming up. Corey has questions. How can we help him out? Take care of this question, this problem, this issue, whatever it may be. I know that they're going to be there to support me. So it's just more than you could ask for, to be honest. Okay. Did you feel like the Freeway Insurance brand was good? I 100 percent do think that it's amazing. And the reason to that is the name. The name, let alone with the substantial growth that we're seeing and we're going to continue to see, I think it's a game changer in the insurance industry, to be honest with you, because we're not captive agents. You know, we have multiple leg room to go here. And if that doesn't work, we could go here. So Freeway is amazing to work with and be a part of. And I'm honestly excited for the years to come to see what's going to happen. And your walk in traffic, everything. I mean, do you feel like there's ever a slow day? No. I mean, every day it's something new. I don't know if someone's going to call me. I don't know if someone's going to walk in, like you mentioned, or I might even get an email that I'm not expecting an email from this person and they just reach out out of the blue. So every single day, it's something new. You know, going back in on Monday, I know what I got to do and hope to see new faces come in. So we'll see. Corey, thank you so much for being with us here today. Anytime. It's been a pleasure. It has been. Hope to see you soon. You too. Thank you. Much success. Thank you so much.