Oct 23, 2018
He is the owner and broker of Basin Pacific Insurance. He is
quite the jokester in the family along with
his 2 sons. His wife offsets the sarcasm in the house. One of his
sons is funny, the other one is funnier,
and he is the funniest! He also said he gets up at 5:00am whether
he likes it or not without an alarm
clock.
He was raised on an orchard ranch in the Yakima Valley. Both his
parents worked in Yakima and at the
age of 11, being the oldest boy, he was given all the
responsibility of taking care of the orchard ranch.
He learned about hard work and accountability at a very young age.
That has carried him all the way
through his life. His parents couldn’t afford college; so he worked
his way through college while
attending WSU. After WSU he worked as a professional with The Boy
Scouts of America. He then
became a banker and that is what brought him to the Tri-Cities. He
was an Ag Lending Officer. He
promised his wife they would only be here for 2 years and that was
40 years ago…she has forgiven him
for that. Banking wanted him to move, but they twice had fallen in
love with the Tri-cities. He had a
friend in 1985 tell him he needed to get into insurance. He told
him no twice then decided to say yes,
and it was one of the best decisions he ever made. Both of his boys
are involved in the business now as
well and it is very rewarding.
His advice to parents: Don’t be too easy on your kids. His father
was self-educated, and was very firm
with his kids. There was no slacking on chores even if you had
football practice. Let your kids struggle a
little bit. One of his mottos is there is nothing for free. If you
want something, you have to work for it.
He is a very big proponent of the Boy Scouts of America.
The advice he would give to his 20-year-old self is understand
yourself, know thyself and follow your
passions. Do what you love and do it to the best of your ability.
There will be bumps and bruises along
the road; just learn from them and just keep going.
He is a relationship person. He likes being out in the public,
meeting people, doing one to ones. He
enjoys serving people, taking care of people. That is his strength.
He is capable of doing HR, accounting,
etc., but he delegates those services out and focuses on his
strengths. His company has many strategic
partners that he uses.
He met his consultant in his industry at a golf tournament. He
overheard many people asking him
questions and he really liked his answers. He got to know him a
little more, asked him to be his
consultant once they got to know each other a little more. He had
no room to make mistakes. There are
many people out there that can support you.
He starts his morning very early and he uses that time to organize
his thoughts, feelings, and plans for
the day. He plans out his week on Sundays. By 6:00 he has a cup of
coffee with his wife and then he is
out the door. He recommends that everyone create time for white
space. His first boss at The Boy
Scouts required him to have the next week planned out by the
hour--that had a big impact.
He keeps himself out of ruts by constantly setting goals and a
vision. He makes sure he is watching what
is happening around him. Today his company is 2.5x’s larger than he
had envisioned and now he has set
bigger growth plans. When you stop growing, you are going
backwards.