Celebrating a century of episodes feels like crossing the finish line of a marathon—exhilarating and surreal. Today, we're toasting to this landmark with Denise Mansfield, an embodiment of resilience and adaptability. Denise's pivot from the automotive industry to the helm of Mansfield Insurance is more than a career change; it's a narrative of personal growth, tackling life's curveballs with grace. From the bittersweetness of pausing a career for motherhood to facing the trials of her husband's health, her journey underscores the power of finding one's true calling amidst life's unpredictability.
Step into Denise's world as she demystifies the insurance industry, busting myths and clarifying misconceptions with the ease of a seasoned pro. She's not just selling policies; she's on a mission to arm you with knowledge, ensuring that honesty in your insurance choices safeguards your family's future. And when the business day wraps up, Denise swaps policy papers for golf clubs, indulges her foodie passions, and thrives on the connections she forges in her community. Join us for heartfelt conversations, laughter, and lessons in life and insurance—it's an episode that celebrates the milestones of our lives, both big and small.
Celebrating a century of episodes feels like crossing the finish line of a marathon—exhilarating and surreal. Today, we're toasting to this landmark with Denise Mansfield, an embodiment of resilience and adaptability. Denise's pivot from the automotive industry to the helm of Mansfield Insurance is more than a career change; it's a narrative of personal growth, tackling life's curveballs with grace. From the bittersweetness of pausing a career for motherhood to facing the trials of her husband's health, her journey underscores the power of finding one's true calling amidst life's unpredictability.
Step into Denise's world as she demystifies the insurance industry, busting myths and clarifying misconceptions with the ease of a seasoned pro. She's not just selling policies; she's on a mission to arm you with knowledge, ensuring that honesty in your insurance choices safeguards your family's future. And when the business day wraps up, Denise swaps policy papers for golf clubs, indulges her foodie passions, and thrives on the connections she forges in her community. Join us for heartfelt conversations, laughter, and lessons in life and insurance—it's an episode that celebrates the milestones of our lives, both big and small.
Speaker 1:
This is the Good Neighbor podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Lisa Swiftney.
Speaker 2:
Hi everyone and welcome to episode number 100 of the Good Neighbor podcast. Today we have Good Neighbor Denise Mansfield, with Mansfield Insurance, with us. How are you doing today, denise? Good morning.
Speaker 3:
Lisa, I am good, how are you? Congratulations on 100 episodes.
Speaker 2:
So cool, thank you. Thank you, I'm doing well, so let's turn back by telling our listeners about your business. What do you do Well?
Speaker 3:
I am lucky and proud enough to own an insurance agency right in the community that I grew up in and Shelby Township, so we offer home, auto, life and business insurance insurance to protect people from the risks of everyday life.
Speaker 2:
And you are very good at your craft. You're very good at what you do, so I appreciate that very much. I'll tell you that. Tell our listeners about your journey. How and why did you get?
Speaker 3:
started. That's kind of a good one. So to backtrack a little bit, got a great job right out of high school and decided really didn't want to go to college and kind of just made my way through some careers and then got married and had a really good job. I was a buyer for an automotive company and decided to have a little one so wanted to take a few years off to be a mom, which is my first passion. And when I was getting ready to get and I went and finished my college degree and everything, and then when I was getting ready to maybe get back into the workforce, a friend of mine was like hey, would you like to come work for my insurance company? And I was like I don't really know.
Speaker 3:
I don't really know anything about insurance and she's like Well, I'll teach you, you know. So I, I decide to get my fee in, get my licenses and go into insurance and work there for a couple years. And then my husband actually, out of the blue, got sick, got colon cancer, and so we were like we're gonna, I'm gonna need a different career path and I didn't love. I didn't love where I was working anymore, in the way that I was doing the work. So I started looking for different opportunities and found Michigan Farm Bureau and seven and a half years ago became an agency owner.
Speaker 2:
Amazing. Thank you for sharing that with us. Can you tell us about any myths or misconceptions that you hear about in your industry?
Speaker 3:
How long do we have? That's a big one. That's a big one. I am one of the most valuable and intangible products that you will have in your family portfolio. People think that insurance is a racket, or it's a necessary evil, and you know they hate paying for it and it's too expensive, or I don't understand what I have, and a lot of those things are true. There is a ton of misconceptions about what insurance does, what it doesn't do, and that's kind of my passion. Purpose is myself and my team as educators, to try to debunk some of those myths, because there is a right way and a wrong way to do insurance and there's a right way to spend insurance dollars and a better way to spend insurance dollars. So there's a myth for every single possible scenario around insurance. But what I will tell you is honesty is the best policy, because nothing would be worse than paying for an insurance policy and then, the day you need it, it doesn't do what you thought it was going to do because you weren't honest, you know.
Speaker 3:
And it doesn't cost you more. To be honest, it could cost you everything to not be.
Speaker 2:
That is so true. So what do you like to do for fun when you're not working on your business?
Speaker 3:
When I'm not working on my business, I like to work on my golf game, which is a work in progress. I like visiting breweries and wineries and eating good food I'm kind of a foodie and, quite honestly, networking and I know that sounds so silly because I'm a big people person. In fact, that's what my whole. I was never really good at anything besides people, and so I like being around people and hearing something that they need and trying to fill that void for them. So people and my family obviously my family are my people and doing things with my kids that is great.
Speaker 2:
So here's a hard one for you. Can you describe Well, maybe not, but can you describe one hardship or life challenge that you rose above and can now say, because of that challenge, that you're better for it and are stronger?
Speaker 3:
Well gosh, there's actually been quite a few of them. Let's be honest. I'm in my early 40s as a female insurance agency owner, so there's a few checks against the boxes of difficulty, if you will right. So I've got toI'm a female in finance, so that's very difficult. I'm a female agency owner. But I would have to say the thing that was one of the hardest things that happened.
Speaker 3:
I was about three years in the business and Michigan Farm Bureau took a rate change, the biggest one in 20 years, and I was only a couple of years in my business and I immediately said to myself I'm going to have to be so much more than just these rates, because this is something that I cannot control.
Speaker 3:
I cannot control what happens to the rates that I provide to people, so I've got to find a variety of other things to really be good at in my business, so that that's not the most important thing.
Speaker 3:
And when that rate change happened and we were able to maintain upwards of like 95% persistency in my book, I learned that I can manage my outcomes by focusing my efforts on the things that I can control. And then so when COVID came around and I had thisI moved. I signed a new lease for my office three weeks before the world fell apart. I had auto reform, which changed the entire auto insurance program in the state of Michigan at the same time and was trying to adjust and bring all my staff from different locations into this new place. We had COVID, we had auto reform changes and I took those gut instincts of focusing on what you're good at and what you can control and use those in that next pivotal moment. So I'm getting through those two big things in this last 7 1 half years is how I know I can surely handle anything that gets thrown at me.
Speaker 2:
Those are really good strong qualities that you have.
Speaker 3:
Thank you. It has not come without a lot of people lifting me up and skinning my knees more times than I care to say, but we don't learn when it's easy.
Speaker 2:
Right, you're so true. What is one thing that you wish our listeners knew about you and your business?
Speaker 3:
The one thing that I wish that the listeners could know about our business is there are, I think, like 5,800 professionals in the southeast of Michigan that carry the licenses that my staff and I do, but this work is not all created equal.
Speaker 3:
We are different, and we are different because we are educated and we ask the questions. We ask the hard questions, we go the extra mile and kind of live in that space, and we want the opportunity to earn your business by discovering ways to make your insurance make sense to you. I talk a lot about the right way to spend insurance dollars. We are never going to just give you a quote. We're going to take the time to ask the questions, to align your coverages and to set you up so that if your worst day happens, regardless of what that looks like car accidents, house fire, your spouse doesn't come home, that your insurance will be, and really, if any of those things happen, your insurance person is usually one of the first people you call. We want to literally be able to tell you that you are all set, and you cannot be all set unless you do all the work in the right way, and so that's kind of what makes us different.
Speaker 2:
Great. Our listeners are now intrigued. How can they learn more? How can they contact you?
Speaker 3:
Well, so I have a full staff of amazing female entrepreneurs here that work in Shelby with me, so the best way to reach us would be to call our office at 586-522-427. That is great.
Speaker 2:
Well, denise, I appreciate you taking your time and talking with us today, and thank you for being a guest on our podcast.
Speaker 3:
Lisa, I love the work you do. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1:
Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast, rochester. To nominate your favorite local businesses To be featured on the show, go to GNPRochestercom or call 248-988-9640.
