Floating and Fishing for Specialty Business with Aurora Mullett, Episode #39

In this episode of The Power Producers Podcast, David Carothers and co-host Kyle Houck interview Aurora Mullet, Owner of Intrinsic Insurance Services. Aurora talks about how she found her way in the insurance industry and how she built an independent insurance agency. 

Episode Highlights:

• David introduces Aurora Mullet. (1:35)
• David mentions that he was intrigued by the agents in California who are dealing with issues that are similar to a hurricane. (1:52)
• Aurora shares her background. (2:12)
• What pushed Aurora in the sales direction? (2:56)
• Aurora thought that a salesperson was similar to a car salesman. (3:13)
• Did Aurora willingly go into being a cross seller? (6:50)
• How did Aurora become an Independent Agency Owner? (7:52)
• David shares that he wants everybody who helped him build his agency to have an opportunity to gain equity in the agency. (8:55)
• Aurora shares that they’re the only agency in California that every single producer has the opportunity to be a salary or 1099 and own their book. (10:00)
• David mentions that Aurora has a niche in specialty cars. (10:57)
• Aurora explains wildfire insurance. (11:55)
• Aurora mentions that in early California, you can’t get standard homeowners insurance if you didn’t qualify for earthquake policy. (12:07)
• Aurora shares that risk sharing is a private company that has been set up and all property insurers have to pay into a portion, and back portion of it if they want to do business in California. (12:52)
• Aurora shares why she stopped writing business in Florida. (14:34)
• David mentions that if it’s not something that he’s comfortable with, he’s risk-averse enough that he would rather give it to an expert. (16:09)
• Aurora shares that most people were pleased that they found an option that will allow them to keep their homes. (17:51)
• David thinks that what Aurora said was a universal principle, regardless of what you write. (18:08)
• Kyle shares that when you’re on the service side, you’ll be able to apply it to your producer role, where you’ll know a bit more about how the policy works and what it should be. (18:17)
• David mentions that when you’re creative and you’re thinking in a way that other people don’t, you’ll find revenue streams that people will never find. (19:17)
• Aurora shares the concept of, what you’re not writing, you don’t touch and you don’t solicit. (19:33)
• What does the open network that Aurora built look like, and what made her do it? (20:32)
• Aurora mentions that there are currently 12 agencies, from Northern California that joined. (23:12)
• What would Aurora say the amount of premium looks like that changes hands back and forth, from the referral network? (23:24)
• David thinks that one of the biggest flaws in their industry is the amount of greed that can manifest itself. (25:29)
• David explains the two classes of people, a problem solver, and a product salesman. (26:09)
• Aurora shares why she was known as “The Hagerty Girl”. (27:25)
• Aurora mentions that Nick Ayers taught her how to figure out her target markets, how to locate them, and hyper locate them when she’s at shows. (28:52)
• Aurora shares that it gave them the ability to drive the business and everything that came from it, grew outside of their niche. (29:02)
• What does Hagerty Insurance do? (30:00)
• Aurora mentions that Hagerty started with wooden boats and since then, they have been by far the best company, and they do classic autos, classic motorcycles, and they do race day. (30:28)
• How much performance driving experience does Aurora have? (33:23)
• Does Aurora have a collection of classic cars? (34:39)
• What are Aurora’s other niches, outside the Hagerty? (35:13)
• Aurora mentions that everything else is property driven, and it’s all about high risk. (35:44)
• How does Aurora manage her loss ratio, with all the classic and exotic cars? (36:25)
• Aurora mentions that they do a lot of public education speaking to fire councils, to the board of supervisor meetings, and in social media, as well. (38:34)
• What has Aurora seen that has been the most successful? (41:06)
• Aurora shares that they’re setting up, they brought Better Agency, and they’re bringing a VA for the same concept. (47:19)
• Has Aurora found the path to be more resistant in this industry, as a female agency principal or a female producer? (51:07)
• Aurora mentions that she’s a pretty strong individual and she will communicate, where she needs to communicate. (51:28)
• Aurora shares that some people need to realize that if they take help from a woman as a man, they’re not weak. It’s a process that they have to go through, internally. (52:26)

Tweetable Quotes:

• “After seven years, I looked around and saw that my salary wasn’t increasing, my responsibilities were increasing, my knowledge of how to run the agency was increasing. And I finally just decided that I didn’t want to make that money for other people.” – Aurora Mullet
• “Being in the niche portion of it, I feel part of my job to be able to serve customers is to know the marketplace, not just know my marketplace, but to know all options that are out there.” – Aurora Mullet
• “I probably get about 15 instant messages a day from agents going, where do I place this, what do I do? So that’s not just high fire, it’s any property in California, farm, or whatever it is.” – Aurora Mullet
• “Education in general, where we’re helping to create the first entire county wise of fire-wise community status. It’s I think helping to educate people, especially our customers on how to maintain your property properly has helped keep our loss ratios down, and higher deductibles.” – Aurora Mullet
• “Probably the thing that we strike up the most resistance on is just, you know, somehow the idea is better if it comes from a man to a man than, a man to a woman.” – Aurora Mullet
• “For a lot of individuals, it’s just a lifelong process, that they have to realize that if they take help from a woman as a man, they’re not weak. It’s something internally that they have to go through, and probably be open to all suggestions out there.”  – Aurora Mullet

Resources Mentioned:

• David Carothers LinkedIn
• Kyle Houck LinkedIn
• Florida Risk Partners
• The Extra 2 Minutes
• Aurora Mullet LinkedIn
• Intrinsic Insurance Services