Buddi Mckenzie’s insurance career has taken a winding path through multiple agencies and locations.
When she was finally ready to open her own independent insurance agency, a lucky twist of fate and a few compelling details made Smart Choice the easy choice.
A Winding Path
When Buddi was in college, she worked at an Allstate agency. During the evenings, she sold policies by phone using old lead sheets. “At that time, it was all I knew, and it was good,” she recalls.
Then one of the owners opened an independent agency, and Buddi was given a choice. Did she want to stick with the Allstate captive model, or did she want to learn the independent side of insurance?
She chose to help get the independent agency up and running. In hindsight, it was a good call. “I feel like it gave me a strong base,” she says. From there, her insurance career progressed as she moved to Houston, worked for larger insurance agencies, and took on more commercial accounts with higher value clients.
Then in 2020, Buddi’s husband got a job in Beaumont, and it was time to move again. It was also time to take on a new challenge. She decided to open her own independent agency.
A Lucky Twist of Fate
By the time Buddi decided to open Buddi McKenzie Insurance in May of 2021, she had two decades of insurance experience. Nevertheless, she still needed help securing carrier access.
“Because we’re in Texas, and especially in the Houston area, it’s very hard to get a direct contract if you’re a new agent. I knew I was going to need a network to help me,” Buddi says.
As luck would have it, Greg Galloway, the person who gave Buddi her first job at Allstate so many years ago, happened to be a Smart Choice territory representative. At the time, she wasn’t familiar with the network and what it could do for independent agents. She began learning about Smart Choice, and she liked what she heard.
Still, she dragged her feet for a while, trying to decide if joining a network was really a good idea. She didn’t want to miss out on profit sharing – although she also knew that she didn’t have enough business with carriers like Travelers to take advantage of those benefits anyway, and she didn’t have direct contracts with other carriers at all. In the end, she realized she had nothing to lose, and so much to gain.
“I liked the ease and flexibility,” she says, explaining what convinced her that Smart Choice was the right choice.
A Remarkable Milestone: 100% Commission
Under the Smart Choice contract, there’s a 30/70 commission split until agents reach a certain level, which the network calls achieving “Leadership”. After that, agents receive 100% of their commissions.
Buddi achieved leadership remarkably quickly. “It’s exciting because now I don’t have to give up 30 percent,” she says. Many other networks don’t cap commissions, so even if the commission split looks better at first – say 80/20 – there’s no limit to how much they take.
Now that Buddi has reached leadership level, she can save money as she keeps growing her book. With the momentum she’s experiencing, the savings will really add up. “By the end of the year, my book of business should hit one million,” she says, noting that the growth has been extraordinary considering that she started at zero, and has mostly been writing personal lines in the Texas hard market.
In addition to the compensation structure, Buddi likes the feeling of always having someone in her corner. “Suzanne’s been very helpful,” she says, referring to Suzanne Sansom, a Smart Choice territory manager. “She possesses great wisdom. She’s owned her own agency, and sold her own agency, so having that relationship helps a lot, especially in the hard market.”
Krista Gonzalez, another territory manager at Smart Choice, has also been a great source of support. “She’s amazing,” Buddi says. “She’s been very helpful with the paperwork and the processes of getting appointed.”
“By the end of the year, my book of business should hit one million”
– Buddi McKenzie
Will Fortune Befriend the Bold?
As Buddi moves forward, she has a lot of options to keep building her agency. For example, she hasn’t written much commercial business yet, but she knows she has the carrier access she needs, and she also likes how the Smart Start program simplifies the process.
She’s also thinking about making some bold moves. “My youngest son will graduate from high school in three years. And when he does, if not before then, I want to try to buy a book and grow through acquisition as well,” she says. She may also leverage the partnerships Smart Choice affords her to secure funding.
When asked to sum up her Smart Choice experience, Buddi says, “I wanted to start my own business and take control of my future and Smart Choice helped me do so.
Having an experienced territory manager, the ease of the contract, and the freedom to have appointments with other carriers outside the network made Smart Choice an easy choice. Hitting leadership status was a great achievement for me! I also like that I have the option to pass my agency onto my son when I retire.”