Today we’d like to introduce you to Rick Thornton.
Rick, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I grew up playing high-school sports, mostly basketball. In my community, basketball was “the sport” and you were expected to play, and be good. This created a huge competitive spirit in me. At the same time, I had very good role models. Both my parents were educated with master degrees, therefore getting a good education was simply expected. I also had another key role model. A very close friend’s father, Joe Goodstein was an entrepreneur who owned a clothing store in Richmond, VA. Watching his business succeed, his work effort and the freedom to call his own shots was-something-that is embedded with me to adulthood.
Later, I would go to college and major in Engineering. Majoring in engineering was considered a good idea by my father, for I loved the high-tech concepts of Star Trek and always was making model phasers and communicators out of cardboard; props from the show. After graduating from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA with a Mechanical Engineering degree, I went on to work as a Mechanical Engineer on Aircraft Carriers for Newport News Ship Yard.
Living in the Tidewater area was great for college, but I wanted something more. I wanted to see the country and become a sales engineer where I could work with people and sell new ideas. I figured learning how to sell would be a great introduction to entrepreneurship. So, I packed my bags and moved across the country to Las Angeles. In LA, I interviewed for sales jobs, but each time was told, “You don’t have enough sales experience. We need someone with sales experience”. My thoughts were, “How can I get sales experience if no one will hire me”? After being in LA for a couple of months, I decided to take a job at another shipyard, Long Beach Naval Ship Yard.
Not enjoying the light-hearted Hollywood spirit of LA, I decided to relocate back to the East Coast. I moved to DC, where I worked as a Program Manager for Naval Air Systems Command, Pentagon extended. In this job, I traveled and managed large Pentagon projects for about three years. Still, there was something missing. I was not an entrepreneur and not in sales. One day after work, I was approached by a guy recruiting to sell life insurance. He convinced me to start selling insurance part-time. That way, I could teach myself to sell and have sales experience. This sounded like a great idea. This was my chance to become an entrepreneur and start a sales career.
About three months later, I quit my job and started selling insurance full time. At first, I sold no policies. I thought I was crazy for quitting a job at the Pentagon to sell insurance. What I learned later was this decision was the best thing I could have done for myself at that time. Eventually, policy sales took off as I taught myself sales skills by reading books by Zig Ziglar, Less Brown, and Tony Robbins. Later, Mr. Ziglar would be my Sunday school teacher.
After three years of selling life insurance, I felt I needed formal training in business. So, I applied to business schools and was accepted to Carnegie Mellon University, in their MBA program. About 40% of the MBA student body there were engineering geeks; me one of them. This was a 2-year program where after graduating, there was a good chance you could work for the company of your dreams.
Well, I got lucky and landed a job in Silicon Valley as a program manager with a large high-tech manufacturing company. This was, at the time, the best job of my life. I did not have an outside Business to Business sales position, but there were internal selling skills needed for the job. I was managing large multimillion dollar projects for companies such as Silicon Graphics, Intel, Western Digital and Cisco Systems. I had very skilled engineers from different cultures reporting to me. This was my first experience working on a large scale with so many cultures and races all under one roof.
Later, I was recruited to Dallas by another manufacturing company headquartered in Europe. Here I got the opportunity to travel the world and visit manufacturing facilities in Finland, Estonia, Germany, China, Hungry and Mexico. I found myself traveling to these countries often to give a presentation or participate in the company’s six sigma program. This job was even better than the one before, for I finally had an engineering sales position.
On this job, I had matured to a point where I was doing more teaching than learning. Opportunities seemed great with much potential. Then in March of 2001, the tech bubble burst. On September 11, 2001, the US was under a terrorist attack. Three weeks later I was laid off from my high-tech manufacturing position. For months later, there were no job posting or openings, especially in manufacturing. After these two tragedies, if you were without a job, it appeared as if the country had just shut down.
Now, I had a decision to make, do I keep looking for a job, or do I start my own business? About a year later, I went to a party in Washington, DC where I met an old friend from my insurance days. He told me how well his health insurance agency was doing and convinced me I should get back into the business. Well, I did and here I am.
Has it been a smooth road?
After starting the insurance agency, little did I know the road ahead would be so bumpy. Besides the usual challenges of an up-start such as cash flow, there were also large industry changes. In 2008 we had the great recession. This put a huge dent in sales. In addition, on September 23, 2010, was the start of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Massive changes came to the industry. Established companies were required to adjust or go out of business. I learned to adjust quickly. I would say this was my biggest struggle and still is. The industry is up for another big change in a few days as I tell this.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Insurance4Dallas story. Tell us more about the business.
When forming my business, I decided to name it after the great city of Dallas, calling it “Insurance4Dallas”. Knowing how far behind the technological curve most insurance agents were, I would use my background in technology as my core competency. Insurance4Dallas would specialize in individual and group health insurance, with an emphasis on online service by employing technology as a strategic advantage.
Using technology, coupled with the good personalized service I learned as a Program Manager, would be the perfect combination for a winning company. What I am most proud of is being able to help other people with their health insurance worries by taking the time to explain the difference and nuances of different policies. In the long-run, I am-able-to help manage their total cost of ownership with their future health needs.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
It is very difficult to say where the industry goes from here. This Wednesday there will be a major vote in Congress that will repeal the Obamacare mandate. That’s a huge change to the industry if the bill passes.
Recently, Insurance4Dallas acquired a product that is about half the price of Obamacare which includes dental insurance. This product has low deductibles and is a PPO plan, which is hard to find in Texas on individual policies. I show all my clients two options, an ACA option and an alternative to the ACA for healthy families and groups.
I give superior customer service by explaining the pros and cons of each policy. Most of my clients will opt in for the alternative plan to reduce their total cost of ownership. If this bill passes Congress, this policy will triple our sales.
Contact Info:
- Address: 7700 Windrose Ave. Plano, Texas 75024
- Website: http://Insurance4Dallas.com
- Phone: (469) 766-4769
- Email: mail@insurance4dallas.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Insurance4Dallas/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Insure4Dallas
Image Credit:
Jasmin Arnold, Genevieve Clark, Lora Arnold, Apple Murphy
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