Deborah Vela

President/CEO
Vela Insurance Agency, Inc.
Lakewood, Colorado

Why insurance?

I’ve been in insurance for more than 30 years. I got started in claims, and then I went to HR, and then I went to sales for a captive company. I didn’t like that, so I became an independent agent.

Role models?

When I started, there were very few women who were owners of independent agencies. I didn’t know of any, much less Latina women. I made a lot of mistakes, but I learned a lot. I had no mentors that helped me. I learned by making my mistakes.

There are some Latina women in the community overall whom I talk to about my business. Gail Salazar is a good friend of mine who is also a Latina in the insurance industry. We’ve collaborated here and there, and we support each other and shared information. We started around the same time.

My office manager has been with me for 19 years. She left Allstate to be with me, so I tell her, “You’re my office manager BFF.” We laugh about it. I don’t know what I would have done without her.

Advice for young women?

Many of the Latina women who come into the insurance business come into the safe space of being a captive agent vs. an independent agent. It’s difficult to run an independent agency—you’re on your own, and there’s no support, nobody coming in to train you. When they do take the independent route, they should reach out. Many are overwhelmed with the amount of work that it takes, and they neglect that part of it, unfortunately. I’ve met women that have tried to go out on their own and didn’t make it being an independent agent. It’s not as easy as it looks. It’s difficult to represent many different companies and give excellent customer service and give back to people. It’s a challenge when you go from a captive company to an independent agency. I was totally amazed.

If you’re getting started in the business, look around to see who you can ask for assistance. I wish I had somebody I could have called and asked for the next step. I wasn’t able to grow as quickly as I could have if I had a mentor. I would like to see these women get in the insurance business and look for somebody to emulate. I don’t know why people don’t ask for more help. Think about this as a long-term endeavor. Look around to see who you can talk to. It’s hard in insurance because you get caught up every day. If you can take a moment to step out and ask for help, in the long run you save a lot of time and money and resources.

Leadership strategy?

Being very inclusive. I ask my employees for their input. I encourage it. I don’t have staff meetings just to have meetings. I bring them together when it’s necessary and when it’s a good time for us to share information. I encourage them to have something to say in our staff meeting about what they learned that week, or something they can share so we can be a collaborative team. They’re very independent. Including me and my husband, there’s 10 of us. All my agents are bilingual, with the exception of my two daughters.

This is the first time in 19 years that I’ve had a team that is strong, and they help each other. They’re happy to be here, and it makes a huge difference in how you can grow your agency. One person can cause the whole team to falter. I’m happy at this point that I’ve been able to attract and keep people for quite a while.

So much of it is work ethic. A lot of people don’t understand how many hours I have put in. I’m still here five days a week. There are other independent agents who don’t operate like I do, but I don’t mind. It’s good for me. I appreciate the fact that I have this opportunity. I come from a background where we had very little. I had 10 brothers and sisters, and I’m the first one in our family who’s an entrepreneur.

Toughest challenges?

Finding the right employees. I went through a lot of employees and hired people based on what I thought would be good salespeople. I’ve made mistakes in being too quick to hire and keeping someone on, thinking I could change them. Now I’ve turned around—I hire slow and fire fast. It’s not worth it to hang on to employees who don’t match what you’re looking for. Do you want a career in insurance? If you don’t, you’re in the wrong place.

There are definitely challenges as a woman, and much more because I’m a Latina woman. When people ask who I work for, I say, “I own my own agency.” They respond, “But who are you under?” It’s mostly a white male environment.

I just ignore it and moved on. I don’t like to dwell on challenges. I tackle them and make it my own way. I never allowed that to hold me back, and I was very successful early on. I won a national award for diversity from Travelers after being in the business as an independent for only a year and a half. A lot of it is because of my contacts in the community. I’m very involved in the Latino community here in Denver.

Motivation?

My two daughters who work here with me. I’m 60 years old now, so I see them taking over my agency. Training them, coming to work every day, being able to have lunch with them, helps me push through having those doubts about selling my agency. I have to trust that it’s going to work out. If they choose not to stay in the industry, I can sell my agency. That motivates me to be here every day and keep going.

It’s so rewarding that my daughters want to be here. They’re like, “Mom, you have to think about not working every day.” But when it’s my time to step back, I’ll know it. Right now, I tell them, “You need me, and I’m willing to be here.” It’s not a burden. It’s working out great—not to say that it’s perfect. It’s like any relationship. You have little things you question, but it doesn’t matter. You just work through those moments. I’ve been doing it for 19 years.

Giving back?

I’ve been involved with the Latina Safe House, an organization for women who come from Latin American countries and don’t speak very good English. If they’re in an abusive relationship, the organization provides services to help them.

I was also on the board for Adelante Mujer. We help educate young high school girls to make life decisions. If they don’t go to college, they can at least find a career where they can learn something. We teach them all the things necessary to keep them in high school and keep them successful in the future.

Goals?

To train my daughters and keep my staff asking me questions. I tell them to take advantage of me because I’m here now. Mostly my goal is to grow the agency. There are agencies I call and nobody answers the phone. How do these people do business? I’m strict about phone being answered and handling people’s concerns on the same day, if possible. There are a lot of things I want to do that revolve around making our processes better before I take a back seat to my daughters.

This article is the third in a series that profiles women leaders who are thriving in the independent insurance industry. Keep an eye on IAmagazine.com and upcoming editions of the News & Views e-newsletter for more.

Jordan Reabold is IA assistant editor.