If you have big dreams there's only one way to accomplish them.
It's by taking chances others around you are unwilling or unable to take.
Things really get interesting if you can aggressively collaborate with others around you.
The combination of those two activities pave an accelerated path to your ultimate destination.
Ebens Jean, Co-Founder and CEO of One Way Insurance, talks about his journey through the industry and the risks he took to get here.
Joey Giangola: Mr. Ebens Jean, how you doing today, sir?
Ebens Jean: I'm doing awesome, man.
Joey Giangola: Ebens, I want to know this before we really get into anything too serious. Is there something that you feel like you could win, but just don't really want to put forth the effort or time because it might not be worth it in the end for you?
Ebens Jean: I would say football, American football. I would say I might win, but I wouldn't take the time to invest the time. It would be football.
Joey Giangola: All right. So you have confidence in your athletic ability, but you're not quite sure you want to get knocked around like that.
Ebens Jean: Like that, yeah. Definitely not.
Joey Giangola: All right. Well, for me, Ebens, I recently got an email. I bought something and they offered to reimburse me the full purchase price of... I would have the potential to win a reimbursement if I made a YouTube video and published it about the product, and if it was chosen. I thought, eh, I could probably do that, but I don't really want to. And it was one of those interesting things where when you're kind of faced with an opportunity to do something you're pretty sure you could be successful at, but then decide to forego that opportunity because it's just not quite enticing enough.
Now, Ebens, I wanted to move this over to the world of insurance, and I guess this is also something that is a possibility. Is there an area of the business where you thought that, yeah, you could be successful in a particular area, but you just decided, no, I'm going to forgo that opportunity and really focus on something else instead.
Ebens Jean: I would say personal lines and I'm going to break it down, like auto, which is probably the easiest for us in the insurance industry to sell. In my insurance career, when I started with Allstate, that was the only thing that I was doing. I was doing personal lines, auto, auto, auto. I would say that part of the business.
Joey Giangola: And what kind of took you to the point where you felt ready to maybe forgo that and focus on something else?
Ebens Jean: What I did is that I found out what I'm passionate about, what I love to do, is talking to small business owners. That's what I love doing, going out there, find out about their business. How can I help their business? How can I offer their employee benefits? That kind of stuff that I love doing, I have a passion for, and I feel like I could be more successful on that side of the business.
Joey Giangola: So do you like to kind of go into a business and maybe go after the whole thing? Where some people only like to focus on the P&C and others, the benefits. Do you like to kind of play on both sides?
Ebens Jean: If I can take the whole thing, that's what I'm going for. Now if I could take it piece by piece, I'll be patient just to take piece by piece. I have a client, it's the town where I live, that's not too far. And when I went to that account, I went to offer them benefits for their employees. At the time, slowly, shortly, I'm going to get the rest of the stuff. So I went in to offer them employee benefits, and now I have a great relationship with the town manager. So it won't be no problem when I go back to service that account to ask them for the workers' comp, the other stuff of the business because I built that relationship.
Joey Giangola: Do you find it easier to lead with one or the other? I mean, which side of it do you generally find doors easier to open, I guess, might be the best way.
Ebens Jean: It really depends on the company because some companies, I might go in there and offer them employee benefits. Some, I go in there with the full package. So it really depends on the company.
Joey Giangola: Starting as a captive, I'm kind of curious in this, and working your way into your own independent agency now, and kind of going full service, that's a big jump, right? So how do you go from there to where you are now? Was there a moment that clicked for you that said, I need to do this? I need to be over here. And what did you sort of do to figure out how to get there, I guess?
Ebens Jean: I'm going to tell you a quick story. There's a pastor that I know for years, it's more than a decade, I know that pastor. And he had a small shop in town. And when I was working with Allstate, he came by my office and, at the time, he wanted business insurance for his business. And when I went to the broker that I was working with and I told him, this is the account, that I want to help this person, help this business owner. I found out that I couldn't help him. That was the moment it clicked for me. I was, hold on.
I can't help this person. That means I can't help other small business owners in my area. That was the aha moment for me. Then my wife, on the other hand, she used to work for an independent agency owner, so she told me to reach out to that broker. And I went to that broker, worked with him for a couple years. Then after that, me and my wife, we make the jump. We made the jump. We fall in love with the independent, where we are not limited. We could help more people than on the captive side.
Joey Giangola: Yeah. I mean, definitely, like you said, with somebody that you have a deep relationship with and you want to be guy. It comes to you and then all of a sudden it's hey, I can't really help you here, I got to send you somewhere else. It's probably a discomforting feeling knowing it's like tossing the baby bird out of a nest and you can't do anything about it.
Ebens Jean: It was man. That was that my aha moment. That was it.
Joey Giangola: I'm kind of curious. It seems like having your wife on the same page and getting that firsthand independent experience, again, I think you're giving yourself maybe a little bit too much credit here in the fact that to just go and make that jump, even from captive to another independent agency and then to get into your own agency now, there was another gap there. What was the moment when you said, I got to do this for myself?
Ebens Jean: Because I always have that entrepreneur mindset, especially where I came from. I always have that entrepreneur mindset, but when my son was born and I was I got to do something different. What kind of legacy am I going to leave for my family, working for somebody else? There's nothing wrong with working for somebody else, but I had big dreams. I had big goals. So my wife and I went back, okay, how can we do this? How can we create our own agency? It's all God, man, it's all God. I'm not going to take that credit. It was all God, man. God may made it possible for us and put people in our direction to help us out with that. And we took the risk. We took the risk.
Joey Giangola: Well, I mean, taking the risk is definitely more than half the battle in a lot of cases. I guess what's one of the biggest things, after taking that risk and opening up your own agency, that you feel has really paid off and worked out for you? I mean, something that you actually deliberately set out to do. Is there anything that has exceeded the expectations?
Ebens Jean: Giving back to the community. That's one of the things that we were focused on.
Sorry. I don't know if you could hear the sirens.
Joey Giangola: Ebens, is it okay over there? You all right? Got to evacuate or anything?
Ebens Jean: No, because where our office is at, it's right by the fire department, so right by there, so that's why if you hear the sirens. I would say focus more in the community, giving back to the community, for us, that was big. Giving back to the kids. We did a book bag giveaway where we gave over five hundred book bags out. We did a toy giveaway where we bless over a hundred families, so I would say that. By giving back to the community.
Joey Giangola: I want to talk about something that actually is the reason that we actually ended up able to talk today. And I saw something on social media my friend Marcus shared and where you'd made a trip to, I believe, it was an insurance industry conference in Virginia to sort of see him speak. And, I guess, walk me through that story where you felt compelled enough to make that drive? Your state wasn't providing that experience and why was it so important to you and how, again, maybe did that exceed or maybe not meet your expectations?
Ebens Jean: Well, with COVID everything shut down. So I think when I saw that, I was looking on online around my state to see if I find anything that I could connect with other people in my industry and learn something new. When I saw Marcus was speaking at the conference, I was I'm going to make the drive. Now I'm going to make the drive because the conference that I'm going to go to, the information is going to be a valuable, it's going to help me personally, it's going to help my business, and it's going to help my family. It's something that I've been doing. The drive for me it was only four hours. When I got there, man, people that I met, the stories that I hear, it was amazing, man. And I got a chance to meet Marcus, talk to him, and share my story. The information that I got from those conferences, I'm implementing that information to my personal life and my business, and my family.
Joey Giangola: Well, again, Ebens, I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit because I mean, there are definitely agents that won't make a 40 minute drive, let alone four hour drive to sort of think outside that box. And what do you looking forward to in your agency? What direction do you want to take it based on that information? Where do you think that you have a potential to really have an impact in a different way, based on, again, some of the things that you're able to connect with and learn from in those areas?
Ebens Jean: Man, what I saw at the conference blew my mind and I'm going to be a hundred percent honest, is that how everybody, even though we are in the same industry, there's going to be competition between us, but everybody come as one. And you don't see that a lot. No, you don't see that a lot, especially where I could see where I'm at in the city that I'm living in, you don't see that a lot, man, that everybody come as one. We're not the enemy. One of the gentleman I was talking to, he was, we are not the enemy. Yeah, we might have competition between us, but we not the enemy. Now we still could help each other to reach our goals.
And that was big. That was big for me, because some people don't see it that way. Some people don't see it that way. But most of them when I got there almost have the same mindset. Hey, if you need something, let me know. If you can't help a client, you let me know. We are in this together, even though we are not part of the same team. It's almost like the NBA or the NFL, we're in the same organization, but not on the same team, but all of us have one common goal, so that was one of the biggest takeaway I took from the conference. And, and I told my team members that we got to stop treating other people... Come as one, basically.
Joey Giangola: Is there something that, from when maybe you got in the industry, and that you looked to say, I can do this differently. I can do this better. There's something that I think everybody's missing. Is there something that has sat with you underneath the whole time that thought you had a different take, or why aren't we doing it this way? Is there anything that has sort of bothered you like that?
Ebens Jean: Yeah, I would say not really. What I would like to see is more of minority. That's what I would like to see. I would like to see more people that look like me. That was on the only thing that I would love to see in that.
Joey Giangola: Do you have any opinions or thoughts on what is preventing that? I mean, somebody in your position, what made you, again, like you said, want to come into this business knowing that you're not going to have a lot of people that, like you said, look like you around you. That's obviously, again, a situation that is uncomfortable for a lot of people. What made you go that route and not necessarily push it to the side, I guess. And then how would you encourage other people to follow in that path? And what do you think, I guess, is missing there, from your perspective?
Ebens Jean: If you have a dream, the way I look at it is if you have a dream, you got to make that dream come true. It doesn't matter how long, what it takes, you got to make that come true. Some people don't like to take risks. So I would say if a person that looked like me, has a dream, they just got to connect with other people that could help them out.
Joey Giangola: And do you feel like you've been able to find, even though, like you said, in limited numbers, have you been able to find the people that are able to connect with you and help you along your path in the industry?
Ebens Jean: Yes. I would say I've been blessed to have a few people. I have one of my mentors. He had built an agency and he had shown me what not to do, what to do, that kind of stuff. So I think having a mentor, connect with other people, I think that was one thing for me, just connect with other people in the industry that I could add value to them. They could add value to me.
Joey Giangola: Ebens, I got three more questions for you, sir. The first one, very simply, what is one thing you hope you never forget?
Ebens Jean: Where I was born. Don't forget my roots, where I was born.
Joey Giangola: Now on the other side of that, what is one thing you still have yet to learn?
Ebens Jean: That one, I would say the English language, if I had to say, yeah.
Joey Giangola: All right, Ebens, I mean, I think you've been doing fine so far. We're good. I think it's doing fine for you, but you can sharpen up a little bit if you want, but I think it's already good to go.
Ebens, last question to you, sir. If I were to hand you a magic wand of sorts to reshape, change, alter, speed up, really any part of insurance, what's that thing? Where is it going? And what's it doing?
Ebens Jean: It would be finding your ideal client. I think that would be it for me. Finding your ideal client. Anything that you starting, especially in that industry, you just got to know your client. And when you find your ideal client and you just work with them, this is where the magic is. Finding your ideal client.
Joey Giangola: Ebens, it’s been fantastic, so I'm going to leave it right there.
Ebens Jean: Yeah, it's been awesome, man. It's been awesome.