Trucking Through the Insurance Game with Cameron Pechia, Episode #30

In this episode of The Power Producers Podcast, David Carothers and co-host Kyle Houck interview Cameron Pechia, Managing Partner at Valley Trucking Insurance, a division of All Lines Insurance. Cameron talks about his career in insurance and his niche focus and verticals in the insurance business. He also shares his knowledge and expertise in commercial insurance.

Episode Highlights:

• David introduces Cameron Pechia. (1:32)
• Cameron shares his background and career in the insurance industry. (2:28)
• Cameron shares that 2007 was a terrible year for contractors, large establishments were going out of business, and the market was crashing. (7:04)
• Cameron mentions that his first account was essentially pivotal to his insurance career. (7:52)
• Cameron shares that he was constantly great at networking and building relationships, and it developed his contacts and referral partners. (10:40)
• Cameron mentions that they have a decent-sized personal lines book as an agency, and it’s stable, profitable, and it has provided them a big opportunity with staffing, marketing costs, and everything else to focus on the different niche divisions. (12:54)
• Cameron says that life and health insurance made him feel like he was spinning wheels and doing charity work. (13:37)
• What are the niche markets and verticals that Cameron and his team have been focusing on? (14:30)
• Cameron mentions that construction was his introduction to the insurance world. (14:36)
• David thinks that it’s crucial for anybody that’s out in the middle-market commercial to have a working knowledge of how benefits work. (17:04)
• David thinks that if you’re going to be successful in commercial insurance, you have to get ingrained into the businesses you’re working with. (19:28)
• Cameron shares that in any commercial sense for insurance, you need to know the business inside and out, the mindset of their employees, what they face daily, and if they have a culture of safety or bring them back to the work program. (26:16)
• Kyle shares what his brother did during the summer. (27:24)
• David shares a story about a guy on the corner of Causeway in Providence that was advertising. (27:38)
• Cameron shares a story about his family friend growing up who owned a chain of sandwich shops. (28:38)
• Kyle mentions that he’s happy he grew up like in the pre-social media era. (29:54)
• David shares one of the things that he admires about Cameron. (30:23)
• David mentions that some people just give up when they hear no, and they immediately quit and move on. (30:40)
• Cameron says that he despises agency bill. (33:20)
• What is a Chameleon Carrier? (34:35)
• What do Cameron and his team use to keep track of everything? (35:35)
• Cameron shares a story about his conversation with Great West. (37:05)
• Cameron shares that they built a lot of game plans, a lot of intentional focus, a lot of separation from other agencies. (41:40)
• Cameron mentions that if you want to work with someone, you have to put in your time, your legwork, your research, and you have to come up with a plan. (42:43)
• David thinks that social media has been a detractor from the right way to do things because it makes people feel they are in competition with other agencies for things that they don’t even need. (49:13)
• Kyle mentions how the industry has been very slow in adopting the technology. (49:25)
• Cameron thinks that it hardened him coming in the way he did and having to do what he did, grind it out on the phones the way he did, and make it happen on his own. (51:18)

Tweetable Quotes:

• “My heart is in the commercial, that’s where I get excited. That’s what drives me to get up in the morning and kind of keep pushing is the commercial grind, but it opened my eyes to what the personal lines were.” – Cameron Pechia
• “At the end of the day, we’re working to make a paycheck and we’re in a very lucrative career, and a career path that sets up a lot of people, but you have to be passionate about the industry you’re going in, somewhat have a deep dive knowledge into it and have a complete understanding.” – Cameron Pechia
• “I’m always looking at a way to improve to sharpen these tools of skill set. Things that are not shiny object things but how can I legit be better and add more value to our clients, add more value to my team, and kind of dominate the marketplace in that sense.” – Cameron Pechia

Resources Mentioned:

• David Carothers LinkedIn
• Kyle Houck LinkedIn
• Florida Risk Partners
• The Extra 2 Minutes
• Cameron Pechia
• Valley Trucking Insurance
• All Lines Insurance