Declaration of Independents: Jesse Konold

PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY?

If you sit on the sidelines, you shouldn’t get to have a word in. You can’t be upset the way things are going. If you get involved, you can shape something the way you want to see it.

ADVICE FOR YOUNG AGENTS?

Don’t be afraid to stand out and have a conversation with someone. If there’s opportunity, go out and chase it down.

RURAL AMERICA?

I once did a two-night prospecting trip where I put in over 700 miles within one county, because it was 35-45 miles between each ranch. In order to grow our customer base, we had to expand our geographic area. The only way to do that is to get behind the wheel.

WHY INSURANCE?

After I attended the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota, I worked part-time for a Midwest retailer called Scheels. At 24, I became a sales manager for them down in Omaha, Nebraska, where I helped build them out a store. That was a learning curve—I was in charge of about 80 salespeople, so it definitely set the foundation for what was good and what I should maybe do differently.

I grew up 20 miles from Mobridge, and my wife’s from Wyoming. We’re both small-town folks, and in 2006, we were ready to start a family. We were driving back from a Memorial Day weekend trip, and Katie asked, “Would you ever want to move to Mobridge?” My mom was the manager of the radio station here, so I reached out to her. She’d heard that John Badgley, our agency principal, was looking for somebody to get in the fold. My first interview was in a pair of gym shorts and a cut-off T-shirt.

WORK/LIFE BALANCE?

The freedom to have three kids under the age of 10 and be able to attend all their events and coach basketball and do all that fun stuff—not a lot of industries will allow you to do that. That’s a big deal. What I’ve learned is you can still be successful and cram it in 40 hours, whether those 40 hours are early in the morning or late at night.

BIGGEST MOTIVATION?

After family, it’s our community. We’ve only got 10,000 people in four counties—we’re 110 miles from the nearest Wal-Mart. I sit on several local boards here in town, and Mobridge actually hosts one of the largest ice-fishing tournaments in America. Every January, we have about 1,100 anglers come and fish for two days, and we give away $225,000 worth of cash and prizes. I’m actually the chair of that tournament, too.

PERPETUATING YOUR AGENCY?

There was a minor conversation when I was first hired that there was a possibility of future ownership, but I definitely had to prove my worth. I had to prove I had leadership qualities, that I was able to actually produce. Once that got legitimized, I started buying out the agency in 2010. We’ve got three co-owners today—myself, John Badgley and John Badgley IV, who’s based in Minnesota.

WORKING WITH MILLENNIALS?

I love the energy and the new ideas. That’s one thing I learned from John Badgley—back when I was 25 or 26, anytime I came in with different ideas, he’d either embrace them or ask more questions. They may or may not have been implemented, but they were never shot down. I really appreciated that openness.

Particularly in the rural areas, I am constantly on the hunt for young talent. I’ve got 3,300 people in my town, so that makes it even more of a challenge. But what I do see is the ability to embrace technology—maybe I don’t necessarily have to have somebody in my office here in Mobridge. Maybe I can start outsourcing.

PERPETUATING THE INDUSTRY?

It may not be in every state, but in South Dakota, there’s a lot of agencies that have reached that time to sell or merge, and I’m concerned there’s not a lot of plans in place—that they’re just going to fold in. That gives our insureds a bad taste. I think it could be handled more professionally. I don’t want our industry to have a black eye because we didn’t plan accordingly.