Episode #18 - Proud to Be w/ Scott Howell

In this episode Carey and Lindsay sit down with Scott Howell from iProtect Insurance and the Insurance Guys Podcast to talk about how his time in the Marine Corp helped sculpt his career as an independent insurance agent, some of the lessons he learned as a result, and about a new project he is working on called Big Industry Small Community. 

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Transcript: 

Lindsay Wallace:

Hey mom, how's it going?

Carey Wallace:

I am fantastic, Lindsay. I get to introduce the one, the only, the actually the person in this industry that gives the best introductions. I have the honor and privilege of giving an introduction. So today on our show, we have Mr. Scott Howe. He is originally from Hamilton, Alabama. He graduated from Birmingham Southern College. He served four years in the United States Marine Corps. both in security forces in London, England, and the fleet with the third battalion, fifth Marines, was also part of the 27th Marine, I don't know the word to that, 27th Marines unit. While in London, Scott completed the British Royal Marines all arms command course, making him one of only a handful of US citizens to ever complete the US Marine Corps training as well as the Royal Marine Corps training. In 2008, He joined State Farm. 2010 joined Nationwide Insurance. 2013 became an insurance, Independent Insurance Agency owner, and is regarded as one of the fastest growing agencies in the Southeast. Beyond that, Scott gives back in so many ways. He is the co-host of the Insurance Guys podcast with Mr. Bradley Flowers. He is a keynote speaker at countless events and beyond everything I just said he is loved and admired by so many people including me because he's an incredible guy and an incredible friend. Scott I could not be more happy than to welcome you to our podcast.

Scott W. Howell:

Carrie, thank you so much. I'm it's making me emotional here. Thank you for the, thank you for the kind introduction. I really do appreciate that. Lindsay, thank you so much for having me on today and, uh, you know, just proud and honored to be here. I, um, don't know, don't really know what, what more to say other than. Let's get it on. Let's talk a little bit. Lindsay.

Carey Wallace:

Let's do this!

Scott W. Howell:

uh, I hate, I'm not trying to take over the podcast here and become the host, but as we were talking about right before we came on air, I saw, I probably get on Facebook, well, any social media for that matter, maybe five minutes a day, just glancing, scrolling through real quick. And I care because Carrie's one of my friends and I do see her post probably more than other people. I saw where you'd graduated from college last week. So congratulations.

Lindsay Wallace:

Thank you, thank you, it was a big accomplishment.

Scott W. Howell:

Where did you, it is a big accomplishment. Where did you go to school?

Lindsay Wallace:

So I was actually getting my masters from the College of Charleston. So I live in Charleston, South Carolina. And oh man, I'm telling you, I worked full time while I did it for my three semesters of the four semesters. Holy crap, I sat down on my couch on Monday. after work and I was, because for the last two years, I've had class every Monday and multiple other days in the week, but consistently on Mondays. And I sat down on my couch and I'm like, how do I human right now? Like, what am I, you know, what do I do on like a Monday night, what do normal people do?

Scott W. Howell:

Right.

Lindsay Wallace:

I sat on my couch, but that might be my going new Monday trend, I'm excited about it.

Scott W. Howell:

Absolutely. Lindsay, do you mind? I feel, you know, you're not ever supposed to ask a woman her age, but do you mind telling me how old you are?

Lindsay Wallace:

Yeah, I'm 23. I'm actually turning 24. The day before this podcast comes out, I'll be 24. 

Scott W. Howell:

I heard somebody explain something the other day on on TikTok that really spoke to me and I was passing this along to a friend of mine this morning whose son's about to be a freshman at Auburn University. And I said, you know, uh, The thing about growing up and growing old, or is from zero, meaning the day you're born until you're in college and you get out of college. Now, you know, you've, you reached this point where you were actually working while you were going to college. So you might be a little, a little, a little earlier than this, but say zero to 25 years old, in your case, 23. Man, it's a lot of fun. You know, your parents take care of you for all those years. You, uh, high school is usually pretty fun. It was for me. College was a lot of fun. Had a good time. Uh, but I, but I only got my bachelor's degree and I know the higher you go, even in college, you know, the harder it gets, the more responsibilities now you're older. But then you hit this age. It's like 23, 24, 25 in between like 25 and 45. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of moments of happiness. You know, you start a family, you have babies, you go to T-ball, you know, there's a lot of moments of happiness, but that 25 to 45, it kind of sucks because life just punches you right in the face about, for some of us every day, for some of us, you know, not that much, but it gets really hard. After college and you're like, man, I wish I could go back to high school when I could screw off and not do anything. And my parents took care of me or whatever. And then from about 45 to 65, it kind of seems to start the hill starts going back down again. Um, at least that's, that's the way I think it works for a lot of people. The problem for me personally has been. Uh, as an agency owner that got started in insurance late, I was 35 when I first started in insurance, uh, as an associate agent with state farm, uh, as, as our agency has grown, you know, mo money, more problems, right? Uh,

Carey Wallace:

Amen.

Scott W. Howell:

More, more response, more responsibility, more employees. I mean, uh, Literally as I'm coming on this podcast, when the camera came on, y'all were like, Hey, I had a long time employee that's down here from Michigan here today. And we're in here literally fighting as I'm coming on this podcast. Uh, not fighting. I shouldn't say fighting, but we're getting after it pretty good. Right. But she and I can do that because we're like family. And I just think that you're entering. what I call the base camp of Mount Everest now.

Lindsay Wallace:

Lovely, lovely.

Scott W. Howell:

And I know, I know it's, I know you think it, I know you think it's been

Carey Wallace:

Hahahaha

Lindsay Wallace:

Yay.

Scott W. Howell:

hard up till now. And I know you think it's been, you know, it's, oh man, I work and then I go to school, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But you're at base camp and you are about to start ascending Mount Everest. And hopefully at some point you get up to the top and you can start coming back to back inside of that. But that analogy. For me Anyway, has rung true. And to some degree, I feel like I'm still climbing Mount Everest. And

Carey Wallace:

It's true. 

Scott W. Howell:

I, at one day I hope, and it may be when I'm 60 years old, your mom and I've talked about that before that I want to hang it up at 60 one day, I can start coming off the back of Mount Everest. Uh, but I do congratulate you on your accomplishment and don't get me wrong. There will be many, many, many moments of happiness and joy and fun and excitement. And But those will be interrupted by, oh shit, I'm having a bad day today.

Lindsay Wallace:

Well, I can't wait. You just made me really excited for going into adulthood. Thank you so much.

Scott W. Howell:

Yeah, it's gonna be real. It's gonna get real.

Lindsay Wallace:

Thanks.

Carey Wallace:

You know what's funny, Scott, when you're talking about that, I think about people saying that the days are long, but the years are fast. And I would agree, like in the moment they're super long, but then you look up and you're like, oh goodness, a lot of time has passed. And you know, the thing is there's more responsibility when it's you, like adulting is a thing.

Scott W. Howell:

Right.

Carey Wallace:

Like it's just a thing, right?

Scott W. Howell:

It really is.

Carey Wallace:

So I wanna ask you a couple of things, Scott, and honestly, I don't know if you know this actually. I grew up in a military family. I'm an army brat. I actually moved and went to 12 different schools. When people say, where are you from? I hesitate every single time. I have no idea how to answer that question. But I think it's shaped me. It's shaped me very significantly,

Scott W. Howell:

100%.

Carey Wallace:

right? And I'd love to talk about your military service. This actually is really important to me. It was important to me before I even had a podcast, but I remember where I met you and spent time, significant time with you was when we were in Connecticut at a mastermind and we took a picture of all of the veterans together. And

Scott W. Howell:

Mm-hmm.

Carey Wallace:

it was an impressive photo, but more than that, it was a really great, impressive group of people. And I could see commonality in every single one of those people. Um, and I want to talk about it because I think it influences everything you do. Um, so talk to me, first of all, why did you join the Marines and why did you decide to do this elite? Um, thing in London, where you're one of a handful of people that have gone through that training. Can you talk me through that a little bit?

Scott W. Howell:

Yeah. So we go back to my grandfather was at Pearl Harbor. He was at a Hickam airfield when the Japanese mom Pearl Harbor,

Carey Wallace:

Wow.

Scott W. Howell:

he was asleep in his barracks and a couple of his buddies that were there with him. They, they woke him up and they ran down while the bombing was going on. They ran down to a. Uh, place where they worked on trucks and jeeps and things like that. And they jumped in one of these oil changing platforms, which, which are all concrete undergrounds. So it's kind of like being in a bomb shelter a little bit. And he, he survived that. And I knew that my dad had told me and on his, on his vehicles, it said, you know, Pearl Harbor survivor and stuff like that, never gave it a whole lot of thought. But when I was growing up, I was always pretty athletic guy. You know, played a lot of sports. Um, I was in high school between 1987, well, 87 and I graduated in May of 90. And every single high school and middle school coach I had was of that old school mindset, blood on the saddle, screaming, yell at you, uh, You know, I played the high school football for a guy named LC Fowler, who I think to this day is not pretty, pretty well noted as the meanest high school football coach to ever coach in the state of Alabama. Um, I remember we were playing the number one team in the state, Fayette high school, my senior year. And I didn't come up quick enough on something. It was like a quick pitch to a kid named Rudy Fluker, who was one of the top running backs in the nation. Tackled him, but I didn't come up fast enough. He drug me from the hash mark over to the sidelines by my face mask in front of about 5,000 people.

Carey Wallace:

Oh my goodness.

Lindsay Wallace:

Whoa.

Scott W. Howell:

And so for me personally, when I, when I got to Paris Island, South Carolina, which is like this big deal and they yell and scream at you for 13 weeks. I'm like, this is just another Tuesday for me. I mean, I'm not to mention the fact my dad when I was growing up, uh, was not Mr. Rogers. You know, he would be, he would beat my ass at a drop of a hat. You know, he, he, uh, you know, his, his big thing was the yelling and screaming and if he got mad about something. So, you know, I get to Paris Island and everybody's like, you know, whatever. And I'm just thinking, shit, I've, I've been dealing with this since I was like first grade. What are you talking about?

Scott W. Howell:

Oh, so I finished there and there was none of this that was like intentional necessarily. I was a senior at Birmingham Southern. Some stuff happened. I didn't feel like I was going to graduate at one point because I was just like, I don't know if I'm going to get through this. And so I, I literally one day got in my car. And I was going to see at the time I was dating a girl in Hoover, Alabama, and I was going to take her to lunch. She worked at a tanning bed place on the second floor of a shopping center. And as I'm walking upstairs, the stairs to go take her to lunch, Marine Corps recruiter steps out the back door of his recruiting office and he looks at me and he goes, you ever thought about being in the Marine Corps? And I looked at him and I go, nah. Never had, not really, but that got the wheels turning. Right. So I went in the delayed entry program, promised my parents I'd graduate and I did graduate the next, uh, the, I think it was a couple of semesters later. Maybe I graduated from college. And I went to Paris Island, um, left there and went to, um, anti-terrorism school in Chesapeake, Virginia, and was selected to go to, uh, this special unit that I wanted no part of because

Carey Wallace:

Hmm.

Scott W. Howell:

I'd seen what they did and what time they got up in the morning. And I'm like, I do not want to do that. And just so happened this kid that was there was married and he's like, he, his, his orders were to London and I'm like, Hey man, let's see if they'll let us change orders grace to God they did. So he went to this high speed, low drag unit that I didn't want to go to. And I went to London and I served there. I was only supposed to serve there for 12 months and towards the end of my time there. Uh, they had a party or something in the, uh, commandant of the British Royal Marines came over and they were with, with my commanding officer. They were drinking one night and he said, you do not have one guy in this Marine Corps unit that could go through our commando course. And he said, Oh, I know, I know we do. And so they made a bet. I was not the first one selected.

Carey Wallace:

Oh really?

Scott W. Howell:

We had. Yeah, we had a kid that was my size, my height built about like I was that was from Iowa, that was a state championship wrestler, chose him first. He goes down there, gets hurt after like a week or two comes back, call me in his office. I was, I was option number two that they sent down there.

Carey Wallace:

Oh my goodness.

Scott W. Howell:

And I was down, I was down there for like 14 or 15 weeks going through their, they called it the all arms commando course, which was the abridged 14 week training of the British Royal Marines training because their training was like a year long. So they're

Carey Wallace:

Oh my.

Scott W. Howell:

abridging that training for other services. Right. And I ended up, you know, went through hell week and uh I think our last uh day before you get your green beret they did we did a like uh 30 35 mile force march through like the marshes down there and stuff and got my grant now what was really cool about that that I did not know was gonna happen is when I get to the finish line to graduate to get my grant my green beret my dad was there my best friend from high school were there

Carey Wallace:

Oh, that's awesome Scott.

Lindsay Wallace:

That's cool.

Scott W. Howell:

That was really cool.

Scott W. Howell:

We had a lot of fun. Had a lot of fun. I wouldn't want to do it again for a nickel.

Carey Wallace:

Really? You wouldn't do it over again? 

Scott W. Howell:

I couldn’t, I couldn't at this age and yeah, I don't know. I don't know if I knew what I know now and what all I went through. I probably was sometimes in life. It's kind of like being an agency owner sometimes, sometimes in life, you just, it's better just ignorance is bliss. Just do it and get through it. You know,

Carey Wallace:

Absolutely. 100% If someone told a person, kind of like we were just saying with Lindsay, if someone said this is what it's all gonna be, you might be like, I don't know, you just gotta go

Scott W. Howell:

Right.

Carey Wallace:

Like you just gotta go through it, right?

Scott W. Howell:

exactly, exactly. And I could say, I could tell a lot of other stories too, but from a timing perspective, I could say we could talk about this for an hour. So

Lindsay Wallace:

I'd love to talk a little bit about the skills that you built while you were doing that and how they transferred over to the insurance industry. Like what were some of the, well, first of all, I guess, start with why did you choose the insurance industry over anything else you could have done when you came back? 

Scott W. Howell:

I didn't

Lindsay Wallace:

You didn't?

Scott W. Howell:

Tripped and fell into it.

Lindsay Wallace:

Ah, as we all do. 

Scott W. Howell:

Yep.

Lindsay Wallace:

So what types of, what are the skills that you learned when you served in the Marine Corps, right? That really help you as an agency owner.

Scott W. Howell:

So I obviously I've had a lot of time over the last, uh, however many years I got out in 99. So whatever that math is, 2023 minus 1999 had a lot of time to think about that. I would say the very first thing, uh, that's not a skill, but was probably the most important thing that happened to me in the Marine Corps is I, I grew up a lot. Because before I went in the Marine Corps, I think I was very immature. I was, I was fun time, Scott. I just want to have a good time. Uh, didn't really care much about working. Didn't really care much about doing anything. Play a little ball chase girls. That's about it. So I think I grew up a lot more than anything else that four years, I probably grew up a lot. Um, Other skills that I probably learned while I was in there, there's probably some leadership type skills that I learned things like that. Um, I also. Learned some things that are, or, or was part of some things because say in the Marine Corps, you, you don't work with women. Like I, most of the time I was never around women

Lindsay Wallace:

Yeah.

Scott W. Howell:

when we were working, you know, or doing whatever crazy shit we were doing. It's not like, so when I got out of the Marine Corps for years, really, but the space of the first two or three years, I had a really hard time working with women because I was used to Lindsay. Hey, I need you to do this, this and this. Let me know when it gets done. And if it didn't get done, I was probably going to chew your ass real good.

Lindsay Wallace:

Mm-hmm.

Scott W. Howell:

And as you both know, with a lot of people in the real world, that's especially females, why,

Carey Wallace:

It's not really not going to work out actually.

Scott W. Howell:

So, so I had more than I had a couple of bosses had to come sit down with me and be like, Hey dude, you're going to have to soften the corners just a little bit because you're, you're pretty damn, I mean, I'm still direct and I'm still. But man, it used to be. Pretty bad.

Carey Wallace:

So it's funny you say that, Scott. I actually have an uncle. So my dad and three of his brothers, he's one of seven, are all in the military. In fact, three of them celebrated Christmas in Vietnam together. So it was, you know, we are a military family. The three others were all in the army, and my one uncle. was a sergeant major in the Marines. He was the highest enlisted rank that you can be, but he was tough

Scott W. Howell:

Yep.

Carey Wallace:

as nails and he never

Scott W. Howell:

Yep.

Carey Wallace:

learned that soft edge. He did not transfer into the civilian world. He was a drill sergeant. So honestly, he had no way to get let go of the things that were ingrained in him in a lifetime of military service. So you're right. There are some great um things that you learn discipline um seriously leadership trusting

Scott W. Howell:

Don't, quit. Can't quit, got to complete the mission, that kind of thing. Yeah. you said that. Yeah. Oh yeah. So you said he was your what uncle.

Carey Wallace:

He's my uncle, yeah.

Scott W. Howell:

Yeah. So what happened to him was if he's a Sergeant major in the Marine Corps and you're exactly right, highest enlisted rank you can get, well, what that also tells you, he was probably in the damn Marine Corps for at a minimum. 20, 25, 30 years.

Carey Wallace:

That's correct.

Scott W. Howell:

What will you become institutionalized? Right. And so was somebody that stays in that long, whatever way they are when they come out is going to be almost impossible to, to, to, to change stuff. 

Carey Wallace:

No doubt. No doubt.

Lindsay Wallace:

So I'd love to talk a little about a big industry, small community a little

Scott W. Howell:

Yeah!

Lindsay Wallace:

bit. So I listen to your podcast all the time, I truly do. 

Scott W. Howell:

Thank you, I appreciate it.

Lindsay Wallace:

And I was cooking dinner when I was listening to the episode with Ciara where you, that idea was like born on the call, right?

Scott W. Howell:

Absolutely.

Lindsay Wallace:

Yeah, so, I immediately was bought into the idea and I'm like, this is the smartest thing I've ever heard. The Ciara girl is my hero. Like I was like, this is amazing. And even when you guys had your event this year in Austin, my mom did not hear the end of it that I wanted a shirt or a hoodie. And

Scott W. Howell:

Oh man.

Lindsay Wallace:

I'm like, you better bring one of those home for me. And she did not, but I forgive her.

Scott W. Howell:

I understand. I've got, I actually got, I came back from vacation Wednesday and in my house, there were two enormous boxes that Daniel song had sent me of hoodies and t-shirts or another t-shirts, maybe some hoodies too. So I think your mom sent me your size. So I will try my dead level best when we get back from Utah to get you one out. Okay.

Lindsay Wallace:

Heck yes, heck yes. Knew I had to slide that in somewhere.

Scott W. Howell:

Plug that, yeah.

Lindsay Wallace:

Me, swag, yes. But I'd love to talk a little bit about what it means to you and what your goal is with it.

Scott W. Howell:

So yeah, that idea was born on the podcast. You are right. And for, I would say the better part of 20 years, independent insurance agents have really eaten a lot of shit when it comes to, um, sitting on the couch and watching all of these carriers promote themselves, promote, uh, you know, really, yeah, themselves and. More importantly, you know, we've gotten down now to the lowest common denominator. We've got emus and flow and you know, it's

Lindsay Wallace:

Geckos!

Scott W. Howell:

pretty, it's pretty, Geico it's pretty apparent that what they're trying to do is keep eyeballs on that television set, no matter what's being said, whether they're guys juggling chainsaws or whatever, but the, the, the, the thing that always bothered me about that was like, Take progressive, for instance, you know, they spend a billion dollars a year on television advertising, but yet like 48% of the total policy premium sold is by independent insurance agents. And I realized that budget for those television commercials comes out of what I call the flow budget, the direct budget. But still, I mean, you just don't have any carriers promoting the local independent agent.

Lindsay Wallace:

True.

Scott W. Howell:

And more than that, you know, I know I've talked to all be down about it. You know, he's pretty passionate about it. And he's like, look, we've tried, we've done this, we've done that. Well, whatever they've done ain't work. And I remember the times in my life ever seen a commercial for a local independent insurance agent were way far and way between like you might see one twice a year maybe. 

Carey Wallace:

Here’s the other thing. When you see them, they look like buffoons, Scott. They are not the people I know, like, and trust. Oh my goodness, sorry. But it's almost embarrassing when you see it. It's like this person that is disheveled. I'm like, why is that the commercial? Please stop it,

Scott W. Howell:

And you know, he showed me a video. They ran a couple of years ago. The big guy, I guess paid for, and it w it was, it was a decent, it was a decent commercial. It was set in a little league field with kids playing little league baseball. But the spokesman was John Smoltz, the guy that pitched for the Atlanta Braves. And he did, he did a pretty good job. I mean, it was, it was a, it was okay. Commercial. But it certainly to me didn't really capture the, you know, here's who your local independent agent is. And I mean, it was, it was okay. It was okay. It wasn't great. It wasn't horrible, but it was probably about what I expected. And so I just feel like there's, there's white space out there for somebody to go out. And create some commercials and do it in different formats. So maybe you can fit it to tick tocks format or, or maybe, maybe a longer video for Facebook, Facebook

Lindsay Wallace:

Mm-hmm.

Scott W. Howell:

or Instagram or whatever to promote who the local independent agent is, and I'm going to take it one step further guys. Everything that's happened over the last 20 years with the carriers doing what they do on television and things. I think there is a ton of people out there, a ton of people out there that don't even know what a local independent insurance agent is anymore.

Lindsay Wallace:

100%.

Scott W. Howell:

I, I, I know that for a thousand percent because I went to the chiropractor four or five months ago and I was, he asked me what I did for living. I told him I was a local independent insurance agent and he said, what's that? He said, I don't, I don't know what that is. Well, that was just my chiropractor.

Lindsay Wallace:

Yeah.

Scott W. Howell:

So I just, I just think there's a, the whole, the whole purpose of this whole thing, when we get it off the ground and going is going to be direct to consumer. And it's going to be, here's who your local independent insurance agent is.

Lindsay Wallace:

Well, I think the thing also is we had... Who was that that said that? We had... we had someone on the podcast, I can't remember, I can see their face, the name is Escaping Me, and they were talking about the reality business and how it really got glamorized once realtors started going on Bravo, started going on HGTV, started doing all these things, and so in my head, you know, when I'm randomly having like brainstorming sessions, I'm like, how can we do that in a way that Cause all of those shows, they're not making realtors look smart and trustworthy. A lot of them are drama, but that's why people watch them. And so how do you transform an insurance, you know, a local independent insurance agent or a group of agents or something into a TV show? And I have... It's so hard because I have yet to come up with an idea that I'm like, oh yeah, I would sit down on my couch on Friday night and watch that without it making them look like petty drama, you know?

Scott W. Howell:

Right. Right. So there's a ditch on both sides of that road where you would, you know, I understand your methodology on one end. I think the real estate industry is probably the closest industry for us to be able to copy relative to how they market and advertise themselves and that type of thing. So there's, there's that there's that, but the other side of that ditch is these people that you see that are on Bravo and E television and stuff like that, that have become kind of really famous.

Lindsay Wallace:

Mm-hmm.

Scott W. Howell:

Well, you know, the one thing real estate agents do that we don't do is they are out beating the streets as far as getting in their car and going to the multimillion dollar condo and meeting the whatever, whether it's a, uh, somebody famous or you know, high end rich person or whatever they're doing,

Lindsay Wallace:

Mm-hmm.

Scott W. Howell:

but they have a little bit more, um, a little bit more, uh, th th th they're a little more mobile than we are, you know, what are they going to do? Come in here and listen to me talk to a client about a bad claim experience and then or make sales calls or whatever. We don't, I don't think we do quite as much of the, the cool hip flashy stuff that would make for good television really. So that's, that's tough to square. That's tough to square up. You know, how do you, how do you make, make a show that people would watch that was glamorous enough to get people to go, you know what, I'm gonna watch that right there. That looks pretty, pretty interesting 

Lindsay Wallace:

Yeah.

Carey Wallace:

Yeah.

Scott W. Howell:

You see what I'm saying? I think that's going to be hard to do.

Lindsay Wallace:

It is, it is. And then I was thinking about, you know, maybe you get a group of agents together who all have type kind of the same target audience and you have them all go out and quote the same person and see who can win. Like that might be interesting, but then you're pitting independent agents against each other. Like that's not what we're here to do, ya know?

Carey Wallace:

Yeah, that's not, its hard. 

Scott W. Howell:

Yeah.

Scott W. Howell:

The, the closest, the closest thing I've, the closest thing I've seen the, your suggestion that you just made is that David, that David Carothers came up with the protege. Uh, you it's a YouTube series and it, and it's got like six or seven agents that are all competing with each other. But even that, when you watch it, it's great. If you're an independent agent, you know, you want to watch it and be like, okay, yeah, that's, you know, it's just cool and learn some things, but it's still not something that Joe blow sitting on the couch is going to want to tune into every Wednesday at eight o'clock. You

Carey Wallace:

I'm guessing your chiropractor is not going to find that entertaining. Maybe,

Scott W. Howell:

Oh no. 

Carey Wallace:

here's the thing, I think what's missed is there is this incredible community. You know, Scott,

Lindsay Wallace:

Mm-hmm.

Carey Wallace:

like it's, and if you're in it, you know it. In many ways, listen, everybody goes to their roots. It reminds me of moving and having, when you move on base, there's like instantaneous friends. Like it has to be because you're going to move in 18 months if you're lucky. it might be sooner than that. So this community of agents, I've never seen an industry that they're willing to share with each other, they're willing to mentor each other, they're willing to coach each other, they're competitors, but they also give back. I mean, you and Bradley, getting on the podcast and sharing things about what's happened inside your agency helps other agencies that don't know. So it's a community that I think the average consumer has absolutely no idea and it's important because they are the people you want to trust. They are

Scott W. Howell:

Mmm.

Carey Wallace:

the people who are advocating for you. I mean it's really kind of funny to me, you know, it's like this best kept secret and I don't know how to unveil that secret.

Scott W. Howell:

Okay, Carrie, I'm going to say this. No matter what happens in my insurance career from, from now until the time I retire, whenever that may be the one thing that I will be the most proud of, of, of all the accomplishments that I've ever accomplished in my whole life. And that includes the stuff I did in the military and some other stuff. The one thing I'm the most. proud of and that I will always be the most proud of is the Genesis behind our podcast was that for so many years when I was in the industry, I got this constant drum beat of people not wanting to help. And I feel like our podcast was in some small way. And I know that there's, there's, I could, I could sit here and talk about a hundred people. I could talk about Perry Disso and Ryan Hanley and David Carothers. And the list just goes on and on and on. And it's Daniel song and, and all these different people that have helped. You know, Mike Strom, so push that ball forward. But about the time our podcast came out in 2017 was also about the time you start, I really started noticing more agents with open arms saying, Hey, let, let me help you. Let's, let's all get together. Let's, let's do a mastermind. Let's do this. Let's do that. Before that, it, that was the whole genesis of the podcast. Anybody I ever called to help me was just like, Oh, just, uh, just sell more insurance or, you know, we just, you know, we just call people and That's about all we do. No, but nobody really wanted to help anybody. And today here, we fast forward five, six years. You have so many people that are willing to help that want to help that want to, uh, mentor people. And, and, and I'm, I will always be. The most proud of that.

Carey Wallace:

Yeah, it's something to be proud of. It really is.

Lindsay Wallace:

Mm-hmm.

Scott W. Howell:

Absolutely.

Carey Wallace:

It's a community that I'm proud to be part of. Like I understand I'm not an agent, but I'll tell you, there's no other, there's no other industry I'd rather work in. And I came from an industry that was super sexy. I mean, I worked in a tech startup. It doesn't get any better than that. Like that's exciting,

Scott W. Howell:

Right.

Carey Wallace:

you're building something. But it's not the same as this because I get to help business owners that I care about run their agencies like businesses and really grow something because they care about their customers, their community. It's a pretty cool place. So let me ask you this, like this episode's gonna come out around Memorial Day and I think that there's a whole group of people that have military background that might come into this industry. What would you say to someone who's brand new? You know you are an incredible mentor. If someone's brand new, came from military, how can they be successful? How can they be known as the fastest growing agency in the southeast? Tell me, tell me what advice you'd give them.

Scott W. Howell:

Well, I think, uh, I've always said competence equals confidence and wherever you start, wherever you start, whether your dad's got a $15 million book of business or a $50 million book, and you're going to take that over one day and you're going to start the first day as the, you know, cleaning toilets and work your way up or whether you start less than scratch. I would say you need to partner with great carriers if you can. And that's hard to do when you start unless, like I said, you come into something. You need to, as you grow, hire great people and great teammates and people that you enjoy working around. And the third leg of that stool is to. Don't care what it is. Don't care, you know, who it is. There's a lot of great, like you said, great people in our industry. I don't even like insurance. I just love the people I work with in the industry. I really don't. I mean, I, you think I want to, you think I want to sit in here fighting with her before I get on this podcast or the claim call that went sideways yesterday that I got a call and listen to somebody, you know, yell at me for 30 minutes about, which I, I don't want to do that. But the third, the third leg of that stool that I would say is to get with some people that are like-minded that are great. And I would even say ahead of you. Now you can't get too far ahead of you because then you're going to be like, I don't even know what these people are talking about right now, but you know, somebody's been doing it for four or five, six years, get with them maybe in a mastermind or a one city world tour or a. something like that and, and, and build relationships with other people in the industry. Uh, and that will help you grow and they can help and you can pick a phone and call them and say, Hey, what do I do about this? You know, one other thing that I think is important for newer agents too, is getting all these Facebook groups and things. I think those, those are real popular now and I think they can really help somebody. So that's just a little bit of what I would probably encourage people to do to get, to get, to get started. But. Um, you know, as well as I do, um, you have to crawl before you can walk and walk before you can run and there are different levels to this game. There's the, everybody starts down here usually. And then hopefully by the time you're done, you're playing a way different game way up here. And that's, that's where we're trying to get to over here at I protect is to get to what I call that next level.

Carey Wallace:

Well, you're definitely doing it. I watch you grow all the time. 

Scott W. Howell:

I don't know about that. 

Carey Wallace:

I think you have an incredible team there and it's fun to watch. What I love about it, Scott, is you're super real about what it takes to get there. You know, you're not sugarcoating.

Scott W. Howell:

It's not easy.

Carey Wallace:

No, it's definitely not easy. It's that Mount Everest climb. There's no two ways around it. It is Mount Everest all day long. Well, here's what I'm gonna tell you, Scott. First and foremost, I really appreciate your service to our country. I appreciate the example that you set to others and I appreciate that you're a super good friend to me because you've actually taught me a ton. You've supported my business in a pretty significant way 

Scott W. Howell:

Thank you. 

Carey Wallace: 

and you mean a lot to a lot of people. So I appreciate you coming on and sharing your thoughts because you're a pretty special guy. So thank you. I appreciate it. Oh and I bring him to tears. 

Scott W. Howell:

I appreciate you having me on. 

Carey Wallace:

How about that?

Lindsay Wallace:

Hehehe

Scott W. Howell:

I will, I will end with this and I feel the exact same way about you. You've been a true blessing in my life. But getting back to what you said relative to growth and us growing, I've never, and I'm not the lone ranger, never had a harder year in insurance than we're having right now because of the hard market, because of a lot of different things going on that you know about they're going on in our agency. It's, it's, it's, it's beyond imperative that we make great decisions over here with what we're doing with our future and people that are, you know, we're about to start having to recruit again and hire new people and, uh, just, uh, playing defense like the 85 Chicago bears right now has been really, really tough and we'll, we'll continue to be tough throughout this year and probably part of next year. But, uh, all I keep thinking about is if we hold the rope long enough, one day it's gotta get better. It can't, I can't imagine it can get much worse. And I'm in North and I'm in North Alabama. There's, there's some agents listening to this podcast right now in Florida, in, in California, don't even get me started about California. I

Carey Wallace:

Louisiana, like there's some tough places.

Scott H Howell: 

I would rather be, I'd rather be in Florida than I would California right now. And I can't imagine what some of those days are like. I've heard some of the stories you're going around right now, but, uh, yeah, we just all got to keep holding the rope. No, in one day it'll get better. And I think we have to lean on each other. Carrie.

Carey Wallace:

You do, you do. You have to, thats when the community matters, right? That's when you know this is not something you're doing alone and you learn from each other and you do. Here's the other thing I'll tell you though, this industry is incredibly resilient. When I first joined, people said it was dying. The independent insurance agency is gonna die. The independent insurance agent is going to be replaced by things. We could do a whole podcast just about that, but. The thing is it's incredibly resilient and it's a needed thing. As more complicated things happen, you need insurance and you need people to understand what kind of insurance and what kind of risk you need protected. So I agree with you. You're going to get on the other side of this, but it's the community that gets you there. Right?

Scott W. Howell:

Yeah.

Lindsay Wallace:

Mm-hmm.

Scott W. Howell:

Yeah, that's right. Lindsay. It was such a pleasure to meet you, ma'am.

Lindsay Wallace:

It was so great to meet you. I've listened to your voice so many times on the podcast, and so it feels great to meet you and actually get to talk to the voice behind the podcast that makes me laugh so hard sometimes.

Scott W. Howell:

Well, I can promise y'all one thing. I tell people, nobody can compete with me on stories because my life is, uh, it's crazy to say the least. And, uh, I have, uh, without saying I have, I have a ton of new stories that I could tell that will be very interesting to come out, but, uh, yeah, on a lot of fronts, but, uh, It is never a dull moment. I'll just say that. Um, but I, Lindsay, I apologize if I made it sound whatever about my little analogy at the beginning of this.

Lindsay Wallace:

No, you're good.

Scott W. Howell:

I'm sure you're like, great. This sounds wonderful.

Lindsay Wallace:

Great.

Carey Wallace:

Ha ha ha!

Scott W. Howell:

Um, my, my climbing Mount Everest, uh, analogy there, but again, there's a lot of happy and a lot of blessings and a lot of good things that will be. Part of that climb, you know?

Lindsay Wallace:

Yeah, it was great to meet you Scott. Thanks so much for coming on. 

Scott W. Howell:

Thank you guys. Thank you for having me. Look forward to seeing you here in a few days, Carrie.