IAM061 – Social Entrepreneur Owner of Insurance Agency Helps Families, Women & Girls Realize Their Dreams

Erin Lewis is the owner and risk advisor at one of the fastest-growing personal lines insurance agencies in the country – Goosehead Insurance. She and her team help families protect and realize their dreams by utilizing unbiased risk management expertise to provide the right insurance coverage at a fair price. She is Founder of The Dream Queen Association & Foundation – an organization dedicated to creating a world where all women and girls have the knowledge and support they need to step into positions of leadership and bring their whole selves to impacting the world, making it a more positive, peaceful, and joyful place to live.

Erin currently serves as a Maryland Governor appointed Commissioner for the Governor’s Office on Service & Volunteerism and Steering Committee Member for the Million Women Mentor Maryland Initiative. Erin has been awarded the Business Leadership Woman of Impact Award from the Southern Maryland Women’s League and the Lifetime Legacy Leader Award from the Carolyn E Parker Foundation. Erin received her BA in Economics & Political Science from St. Mary’s College of Maryland. She is most proud to be the mom of an energetic, strong-willed 5-year-old daughter, wife to her husband of 6 years, and step-mom to two athletic boys.

• CEO Hack: Books: Extreme Ownership, E-Myth and have the right People Processes and Systems
• CEO Nugget: Quote – “Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
• CEO Defined: Having vision, leading from the heart and making a difference in whatever it is that you do

Website: http://WeProtectYourDreams.com
FREE “Dreams Transform Manifesto” by joining The Dream Queen Association @ YourDreamQueen.com
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/dreamqueenassociation/
Twitter – http://twitter.com/thedreamqueens
Instagram – http://instagram.com/dreamqueenassociation
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinllewis/

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Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of.

This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:27

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Erin Lewis of Goosehead Insurance and The Dream Queen Association & Foundation.

Erin, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Erin Lewis 0:40

It's awesome to be here Gresham, thank you so much.

Gresham Harkless 0:42

No problem. What I want to do was read a little bit more about Erin so you can learn and hear about all the awesome things that she's been able to accomplish and she's doing.

Erin is the owner and risk advisor of one of the fastest-growing personal line insurance agencies in the country- Goosehead Insurance. She and her team help families protect and realize their dreams by utilizing unbiased risk management expertise to provide the right insurance coverage at a fair price. She is also the founder of The Dream Queen Association and Foundation, an organization dedicated to creating a world where all women and girls have the knowledge and support they need to step into positions of leadership and bring their whole selves to impacting the world and make it a more positive, peaceful and joyful place to live.

Erin currently serves as a Maryland Governor appointed Commissioner for the Governor’s Office on Service & Volunteerism and Steering Committee Member for the Million Women Mentor Maryland Initiative. Erin has been awarded the Business Leadership Woman of Impact Award from the Southern Maryland Women’s League and the Lifetime Legacy Leader Award from the Carolyn E Parker Foundation. She received her BA in economics and political science from St. Mary's College of Maryland. She is most proud to be the mom of an energetic and strong-willed 5-year-old daughter, wife to her husband of 6 years, and stepmom to two athletic boys.

Erin, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

Erin Lewis 2:06

I am. I'm so excited.

Gresham Harkless 2:09

Awesome. Well, what I want to do is just kind of pass you the mic so to speak to see if there's anything additional you can tell us about your CEO story and what led you to start your business and organization.

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Erin Lewis 2:18

Yeah, so I was born to two parents, neither one of which had a college education. My dad fixed cars all of his life. My mom stayed home with me until I was eight years old and then she had her youngest daughter and the family needed more money and finances. So she went back to work as a receptionist, you know, we grew up without a lot of money. That became for me, my driving motivation. I figured you get situations in life so that you can figure out whether you want to repeat them or do it totally differently. In this case, I wanted to do it totally differently.

Unfortunately, growing up without a lot of money created for me a lot of situations where my self-confidence was hindered and in middle school, I had dorky closed, dorky glasses, like just didn't think very highly of myself. My parents were great parents and instilled a lot of great values, responsibility, work ethic, being part of a family, and all of that. But I just felt like if I had more money, things would get better. What ended up happening is I was looking for a job going into college and to pay for car insurance of all things. There was a position open at a State Farm Agency, I applied, got selected, and have been there for 18 years up until this past July when I decided to branch out on my own and open an independent agency with Goosehead Insurance as a franchise owner.

So you know, what I love about insurance is that it protects people's assets and income. At the same time, it's a lucrative career, you're helping a lot of people and it's a great opportunity to make income. So it totally has changed the financial trajectory of my life, it has given me so many opportunities that otherwise wouldn't have been there. Yeah.

Gresham Harkless 4:01

Awesome, I know that that's often what happens. I'm glad to kind of point that out. Sometimes you go through certain things, and it puts you in a position where you appreciate things more you want them more so sometimes that's kind of how the world kind of works.

Erin Lewis 4:14

Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 4:16

Now I wanted to ask you more about what exactly you're doing for Goosehead Insurance. Can you touch a little bit more on how exactly you serve the clients that you work with?

Erin Lewis 4:23

Yeah, so we focus on serving those who are purchasing homes and need coverage on their cars. No, one of the things I think that's always important is to make sure that you've got the right coverage at the right price. A lot of times what happens is when you're used to dealing with just one company, just one option, you think that might be the best one out there. What we have the opportunity to do is shop 30 different carriers for our customers to ensure that they're getting an unbiased opinion on your insurance.

You know, we're not tied to one company or one option. So that gives us a lot of flexibility in terms of price points, different companies want different clients, and so they price the risk for that purpose. So Goosehead is super exciting for us because it gives us so much more possibility and opportunity to help more customers and more ways, because of all the options that are provided. I think nowadays, that's what consumers are really looking for.

Gresham Harkless 5:20

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Yeah, a lot of people are definitely looking for ways that they can find different options and be able to like reach their goal. So it's incredible that you guys are able to do that at Goosehead and you've taken on the mantle to kind of do that yourself within the area.

I wanted to ask you a little bit more about your secret sauce, and what I call your secret sauce. Kind of like what you feel makes your company and organization unique.

Erin Lewis 5:42

I think the thing that impressed me the most about Goosehead, especially initially, when I went down, there was the culture of meritocracy, which you know, do the work get paid for it. One of the things I think my parents taught me most is if you want something in life, you have to go get it. Don't expect the handout, don't expect somebody to do it for you, you have to take responsibility for where you want your life to go. When I walked into the company that first time, that was exactly what the culture said to me these people are about helping other people, they're about taking care of the needs of customers, they provide an incredible customer service experience, which in our industry is huge.

You know, there are so many choices out there, so oftentimes, that's the one differentiating factor that folks are looking for when they're out there shopping. But that is the second to the culture, and this idea of if you work hard, you'll get rewarded for it, it was the way this winning attitude that I've always been excited and proud of, as an agency owner. Even 10 years with the prior company, was the ability to create a winning culture inside of the team, bringing people on board who wanted to do what was best for other people and win at the same time.

To be in an environment where the whole company operates around one singular mission of becoming the number one distributor of auto and home insurance in the country in the next three years, it's pretty exciting. I've always been a little bit of a risk taker, a maverick, a color outside of the lines, rebel, if you will, in how I did things. So when I found a company that didn't have such stringent guidelines around how things needed to be, especially when it came to the creative part of marketing, the business, I got excited.

Gresham Harkless 7:31

Yeah, that makes sense. I feel like that's where a lot of kind of magic happens when you are able to color outside the lines and push against boundaries to some degree. That's kind of like where those innovations and those breakthroughs kind of come from.

Erin Lewis 7:42

Absolutely. You mentioned The Dream Queen Association & Foundation in the bio that you read, it's truly my heart and soul. It's why I do what I do. You know, we all have to work to make a living and earn an income and I'm grateful that we do something that does that and is rewarding. At the same time, there are a lot of things that you can sell, but at the end of the day, if you're able to provide money that rebuilds somebody's house, or money that makes sure the car can get fixed or the medical expenses are taken care of, I feel like we're doing a good thing.

With that being said, the foundation is really what has driven me and so much of who I am and what I've stood for the inside of my company professionally, we've tried to teach and instill back in these teenage girls, and there's a new way of needing to do things in the world. There's a three-step process that I teach on, it's called reclaim, re well steps are reclaimed, revamp, and resuscitate. The whole idea behind reclaim is to figure out who you are, at the core, understand the unique nuances that make you who you are, and celebrate that. Don't try to be like everybody else, like being different is okay, and embrace what that is for you.

So reclamation of self reclaim, step to revamp is all about, once you've done that reclamation piece, which is a lot of personal growth and development work. Right? Once you've done that, it's all about taking that and going back into these sort of old institutions, if you will, or these standard institutions that we've all grown up in and infusing your unique perspective in that environment and breathing. Resuscitating meaning breathing new life into those places.

I think I've always been a visionary Gresham, so when I look out at the future, I think about what needs to be done to change the world and create a big impact. It definitely comes down to knowing who you are and being able to take who you are and infuse that into an organization so that it can grow and become the best that it can be and ultimately breathe new life into the world that we live in, so

Gresham Harkless 9:43

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. I mean definitely in true entrepreneurial form, you know, not even just having those ideas or those visions but actually putting kind of the pen to the paper or putting action behind that and actually creating that to not only help out yourself and help out the people that are around you, but also those young women and girls that you're working with as well.

Erin Lewis 10:02

Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 10:03

Awesome. What I wanted to do was switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. The CEO hack might be an app or a book or it might even be a habit that you have, but it's something that you feel makes you more effective and efficient as a business owner.

Erin Lewis 10:17

Yeah, definitely. So there are two things that I have in one of the books that I've been reading recently, it's called Extreme Ownership, How US Navy SEALs Lead and Win. And it was by Jocko Willink, and Leif Babin, and they, it is awesome. It's all about how to create that winning culture inside of your environment by taking 100% Extreme personal responsibility and ownership for whatever happens inside the organization. And I just love the one the stories that they share, but also, you know, the tactical stuff about how to do that inside of an organization.

So that's the first thing. The second thing is making sure, and I've learned this a long time ago by setting really successful people. But inside an organization, if you have the right people, processes, and systems in place, you can create unparalleled success, you know, we were ranked in the top 2% of 18,000 agents in the form of content. And we did that because we hired top talent, we created processes and systems, every single thing that we did so and there's a book about this E-Myth. But yeah, that's the other hack.

Gresham Harkless 11:24

Yeah, I love that. And, you know, that's definitely, you know, great reminder, like you said, developing that culture, because that's when things start to really reach a different level when you create that culture, not just within yourself, but also within the team that you have. And then The E-Myth is always a good classic book that for people to remember, like working on the business, not necessarily in the business, working on those processes and systems and making sure they're in order so that you can continue to be successful.

Erin Lewis 11:49

Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 11:50

Now I want to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. This might be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice that you might have for other entrepreneurs and business owners.

Erin Lewis 11:58

Yeah, you know, I love this quote, If it keeps coming up, as I think especially as I've made this transition from old to new and reinvesting in the new company, and it's the Steve Jobs, quote. Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs and square holes, the ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules, you can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can do is ignore them. Because they change things.

They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do absolutely love that.

Gresham Harkless 12:37

Yeah, love that quote, as well, too. And just kind of piggyback on what you were talking about, like how you kind of looked at things in a different way. You've always been a risk-taker and a maverick. That quote by Steve Jobs, definitely kind of, you know, builds upon that.

Erin Lewis 12:50

Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 12:51

Awesome. Now I wanted to ask you, which is my favorite question, which is kind of like the definition of being a CEO. We're hoping to have different types of quote and quote, CEOs on this podcast, whether it be solopreneurs or people that might own franchises or people that have 1000s of employees. So I want to ask you, Erin, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Erin Lewis 13:09

Oh, Gresham, I think being a CEO, to me means having a vision leading from the heart and making a difference in whatever you do.

Gresham Harkless 13:19

Awesome. I love that definition. It's a good reminder for everybody whenever you're running or managing your business so Erin, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out of your schedule. What I wanted to do is kind of pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers know about Goosehead Insurance or The Dream Queen Association & Foundation and also how best people can get in and get out of you.

Erin Lewis 13:41

Yeah, Goosehead Insurance, it's gooseheadinsurance.com, erin.lewis@goosehead.com. That's how you can get a hold of me directly on that front, happy to provide comparison quotes, and opportunities, and talk about the opportunity itself. It's a fast-growing company with a lot of opportunities for entrepreneurial-minded people. So that's on the Goosehead site. On The Dream Queen site, it's yourdreamqueen.com.

We're really excited right now to provide women in particular opportunities to go and give back to the next generation of young girls. There are all kinds of different ways that we do that through the foundation. So it's YourDreamQueen.com. And if they go there, sync up with us on that site, look around, and find the opportunities that best fit them. We're in the middle of a big expansion, and what we're doing in terms of launching different programs in different areas and giving women an opportunity to give back to the younger and next generation so that they can become a leader that so many of your followers are Gresham so thank you.

Gresham Harkless 14:42

No problem, and thank you and we'll make sure to have those links in the show notes just so that anybody can follow up with you. But Erin, thank you so much for all that you've been able to accomplish and all you're doing and for taking some time out with us to kind of give us an insight into you and your business.

Erin Lewis 14:55

Absolutely. Gresham, thank you. It's a pleasure.

Outro 14:58

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community.

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Thank you for listening

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