Walk Softly and Carry a Big Selfie Stick with Gabe Oh, Episode #5

In this episode of The Power Producers Podcast, David Carothers and co-host Kyle Houck interview Gabriel Oh, Principal at Western Pacific Insurance Group. Gabe talks about how he got into the business of insurance, his passion to support small local businesses, and shares his advice on how business owners can start doing something for their communities.

Episode Highlights:

• How did Gabe Oh get into the insurance industry? (6:00) 
• What was Gabe’s deciding factor in doing insurance? (7:47)
• Gabe never did this for the money, it wasn’t a money play. (10:44)
• For Gabe Oh, it’s always about what you can do best for the client (11:07) 
• Gabe just changed his time, from seven to seven (14:15)
• Gabe loves what he does for the community and industry. (14:47)
• How did Gabe Oh get the idea of doing the walk video with local people? (15:09) 
• Gabe shares how he tries to support local businesses. (22:31)
• How easy has it been for Gabe Oh to adapt to everything that’s going on right now? (25:47)
• This is an awful time for a lot of people but there’s going to be good that comes out of this (29:05)  
• How did Gabe Oh prepare himself for the new normal? (29:51) 
• Gabe Oh gave his advice to business starters. (46:19)

3 Key Points: 

1. It is technology-friendly in Gabe’s office, so it wasn’t too much of a hardship for them to go remotely and still continue weekly meetings or zoom meetings
2. Gabe believes in the philosophy that people want to do business with people that they know, enjoy, and relate to. This is an opportunity for their clients to get to know them on a more personal level not just on a professional level.
3. Gabe always had and will continue to have the philosophy to reach out to people in good and bad times, being humble, and hiring people who have good values and morals which helps them move forward and continue to shape who they are as an agency.

Tweetable Quotes: 

• “Be genuinely kind to people. Don’t be an arrogant punk, you don’t know what they’re going through.”- Gabe Oh
• “We operate here based on what the right thing to do is for this community because this community has given so much back to our agency” – Gabe Oh
• “I started this from scratch. I didn’t get a loan from my dad. I grinded to get this thing up and running and I think that kind of holds me down a little bit and keeps me humble” – Gabe Oh
• “When I go to hire people, we hire people that have good values and morals and that’s kind of helped us move forward” – Gabe Oh 

Resources Mentioned: 

• David Carothers Linkedin
• Kyle Houck Linkedin
• Florida Risk Partners
• Gabriel Oh Linkedin
• Western Pacific Insurance Group