Board Spotlight: Patricia Clawson Hamilton

 

The short and sweet answer is family legacy. I feel like I was sort of destined to be in insurance because my grandfather started the agency in 1952, and then my father took over as president when my grandfather passed away. My family has been in the insurance and property and casualty space my whole life. As a kid, I remember sitting on the office floor and making paper clip necklaces, playing with the photocopy machine, and making photocopies of my hands. Fast forward to when I was in high school; risk avoidance was always part of our lives growing up. I remember asking to take the car out with some friends one time, and my dad said, “No, that’s too much liability.”  

 

It's always just been a part of my upbringing. I was born into it, and I’m glad because it's been a huge blessing for my family. If the agency’s still around by the time he’s looking at careers, I would love for my son Liam, who's only two now, to take over if that’s something he wants to do. We’re a third-generation agency, and I know a lot of our members at FAIA share that legacy story, which I think is one of the really unique aspects of our industry. 

 

 

The person who probably had the biggest impact on my career is Jeff Grady because he really helped connect the dots for me when I was feeling so lost in this industry. When I started working at the agency, my dad had just been diagnosed with cancer and passed away not too long after his diagnosis. It was a shocking event for me and our family, and so even though I had just got my license and started working at the agency, I decided to step away and didn't do anything with the agency for a couple of years. Three years after my dad passed, I decided to buy his ownership in the agency from his estate and    get back in the game, but I had only spent about two months working there before I left and had very little experience. I was trying to figure out how to push the business into the future and I remember getting a little postcard for the Sales and Leadership Conference (SALC) in the mail. I thought it could be a good starting point for me, so I went, and while the information was great and I got a lot of takeaways, I still felt intimidated and overwhelmed.  

 

I’m there feeling like a fish out of water and then this guy comes up to me and he’s like, “Hey, how are you?” We started having a conversation, and he was really kind and welcoming and wanted to know my story and what I was hoping to gain from the conference. At that moment, I had no idea that I was talking to Jeff Grady, the president and CEO of FAIA at the time. I told him I felt really lost, and he told me he thought I needed a mentor. I said I would love one. Ultimately, he introduced me to two agency owners, Karyn Roeling and Doug Wiles, who were also unbelievably kind with their time in having conversations with me, mentoring me, and giving me a better idea of how I could change the outlook of my agency. If it weren’t for Jeff, I don’t know if I would be as plugged in as I am into the association, which has been so pivotal for who I am today as an insurance agency owner.  

 

 

The first thing is getting involved and not waiting until you feel ready. It can be overwhelming, especially when you’re brand new and just licensed. But I don’t think young agents should allow that to stop them from getting involved. Because as soon I became involved and connected with people, it was a complete game changer; everything went so smoothly and worked out well from there. Don’t delay in getting involved with your association. You’re not too new or too young to make an impact at the association level and the industry as a whole. The second piece is to embrace technology and utilize it to further your career, find efficiencies, and drive results.  

 

 

Honestly, it is such an honor to be on the board. When I think about being on the board and the future when my son is older, and he wonders, “Who was my mom?” and what I did in my younger years, I’m really proud of this opportunity to be on the board, and I think he will think it’s pretty cool too! What made me want to be part of the board is how FAIA has been such a huge part of my career, development, and agency growth. Why wouldn’t I want to give back to an association that’s given so much to me? We get to make decisions that are going to impact the association for generations to come, and that's a privilege and an amazing opportunity for everyone at that table. I'm tremendously honored and really love being a part of it. 

 

 

Checklists! I use them every day and depend on them to keep me focused on what’s a priority for that day. I get so much satisfaction from checking something off my list that I even add things I forgot to previously list but already completed just for the reward of checking them off.  

  

 

I used to play guitar in my youth group band. I can also speak Spanish, and when people hear me speak, they just assume it's because I'm of Latin descent, but I'm actually Irish. 

 

 

Continuing the family legacy as a third-generation business entrepreneur and having these opportunities for leadership within the association are things I’m really proud of. I feel very blessed and grateful to have been given those opportunities.  

 

 

When I came to the agency in full force at the end of 2013, like many other agencies that have been around for a while, it was antiquated. We had paper files, no way to accept payments outside of a check in the mail, and in terms of quoting, you had to go into every carrier's portal to create a separate quote. So, when I came in, I started looking for technological solutions and implementing changes. Of all those things, the comparative rater and web forms have been really instrumental in improving my daily workflow. It's helped me gain efficiencies in collecting information from our insureds, having that on file, and being able to pull several different quotes without having to go to every carrier website. Thankfully, technology and these sorts of tools are a lot more prevalent in our space, and while they can be disruptors, I think they're good disruptors.   

 

 

Dealing with this hard market that we've been working in, losing critical carrier appointments, and, unfortunately, rewriting large portions of our books of business. Despite having to focus the majority of our energy on retaining our book of business, which ultimately has affected our new business growth, we've looked for the silver lining in it and focused on a path forward. 

 

 

Thankfully, this business has provided me with the privilege of being flexible with my time, and that's allowed me to step away when I needed to step away to be there for my son and savor those moments of motherhood. I would say it all comes down to passion. I have a passion and a love for my son and my business. When you have a love for what you do and what you have, you're going to find a way. As they say, when there's a will, there's a way.