Two Decades as an Insurance Agent, and Still Growing

BY EVAN WILLIAMS ewilliams@floridaweekly.com

In 1985, 30-year-old computer salesman Ted Todd — who a year later would begin an epic career in insurance, building one of the country’s most successful Allstate agencies — moved to Southwest Florida with his family. He had a bachelor’s degree in marketing and a minor in computers from the University of Evansville and had previously sold early versions of personal computers with 10-megabyte hard drives.

One of his first stops was the Edison Mall in Fort Myers, where he bought renter’s insurance. An Allstate agent there suggested he get into the businesses. “One thing led to another,” Mr. Todd said, and he joined an Allstate booth at the mall inside Sears department store in 1986.

He’s still married to Marilyn and their family has grown to four children and two grandchildren, while the Ted Todd Insurance Agency continues to grow. He oversees about 30 employees at seven offices in Lee, Collier and Sarasota counties, selling about $30 million a year in policies. The agency has been rated one of the tops in Florida for more than a decade and Mr. Todd’s success made him a member of Allstates’ hall of fame at the company headquarters in Chicago.

As it turns out, Sears was a good place to start out.

“In those days Sears was the biggest retail store in the country,” he said, “And the type of people that were moving to Florida had grown up with Sears and they trusted Sears. (And) the good-hand symbol was one of the most trusted symbols. They’d walk up and say ‘hey I need home or car insurance,’ and they were comfortable and it was busy. It was a busy, busy place.”

Homeowners’ insurance and automobile insurance are still two of the primary policies he sells, although now he offers a broad range of products that cover most insurance needs.

Looking back, Mr. Todd attributes the success to hard work, but also identified some key turning points along the way. One was a Dale Carnegie lecture he attended in 1985 in which the public speaker advised, “It’s good to be outside your comfort zone.” Mr. Todd said he pushed himself to make more bold decisions after that, including starting a new business.

Mr. Todd also continued to stay abreast of technological advances. For instance, he was the first agent at the Sears Allstate booth to purchase a pager so clients could reach him on the road. “And the other six agents made fun of me,” he said. “But in two or three months, every agent in that booth had a pager.”

Now, with the help of operations manager Ryan Kelly, he uses social media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to promote his company and get his message to clients.

Mr. Todd rented his agency’s first office in Gateway, a community in Fort Myers, for about $700 per month. In 1997, a friend — a prominent Lee County Realtor — suggested that Mr. Todd look at expanding to Estero since new communities were being built.

“I went down there and to me there wasn’t anything but cow pastures,” Mr. Todd said, “And I can’t sell insurance to cattle. So I decided I wasn’t going to do this. It’d be suicide. I’d go broke. But it was still kind of in the back of my head.”

A month later, he took another drive to Estero, saw a new Publix grocery store and plaza opening up, and changed his mind. He wasn’t comfortable with the decision, but remembered Mr. Carnegie’s advice, to stay outside your comfort zone.

“I didn’t really have the money to build out at the time,” he said. “(But) I just said ‘I’m gonna do it.’”

About three years later, Estero had grown rapidly, and Mr. Todd opened another new office, in Bonita Springs.

In 2005, Mr. Todd acquired offices in Lehigh Acres when he bought out the Allstate agent who, 20 years earlier, recommended he go into insurance.

The dynamics of his company began to change in other ways. For instance, he started looking to hire agents with college degrees and pay them a salary instead of commission. Hurricane Charley also changed the way he did business. Allstate decided to allow Mr. Todd and other agents to sell products by other insurance agencies besides Allstate, giving them a broader range of options and customers.

As for the recession, Mr. Todd said that for him “it was like a tiny hole in the bottom of the bucket” compared to the growth that keeps his company growing.

In recent years, Mr. Todd joined the board of directors of the Boys & Girls Club of Lee County and participated in fundraising efforts there. His role in his insurance agency is also changing. He has hired others for specialized positions like underwriting and managers to take over some of his past duties. Mr. Todd plans to open more offices — although he is in “no hurry” to do so — and use his experience to teach new insurance agents.

“Now I’m entering into a different stage of my career which is mentoring and teaching and training,” Mr. Todd said. “It’s just a different role than I have today. Maybe I’m more of a businessman.”