PENDLETON — Final September, when Sean Kirby and his spouse had been planning a getaway previous to the start of their first youngster, he obtained an invite to a small convention in San Antonio for insurance coverage professionals.
“My spouse was pregnant, and our anniversary is in September, so I stated, ‘Why don’t we do three issues directly?’ ” Kirby recalled.
The convention concluded with the announcement of a stay vote to decide on a winner for an “Apprentice”-style competitors referred to as “The Protégé.” The present, hosted on YouTube, options 15 insurance coverage brokers from throughout the nation competing in challenges designed to assist them develop their enterprise.
Following the vote, representatives from Killing Industrial Insurance coverage, a gross sales coaching program tailor-made for impartial insurance coverage brokers, put out a casting name inviting submissions for the present’s second season. On a whim, Kirby determined to submit a video audition.
“The entire program is about easy methods to construct a business enterprise and work with enterprise house owners and resolve enterprise proprietor issues,” Kirby stated. “I obtained excited as a result of I’d discovered what makes me glad.”
Kirby’s audition video, one in every of tons of of submissions, was chosen for him to be one of many second season’s contestants. After 10 weeks of challenges and fan voting, he’s made it into the ultimate trio, from which a winner might be picked after on-line voting closes subsequent week. The winner receives a full membership within the Killing Industrial program, valued at practically $17,000.
Kirby, who graduated from Pendleton Heights Excessive Faculty in 2014 and attended the College of Iowa, has run the Efficiency Insurance coverage Group, owned by his father, Mike, since 2017. He stated his expertise with “The Protégé” has helped him convey an outgoing persona to a career that, he admits, many discover unexciting.
“Insurance coverage, plainly, it’s a boring factor, proper?” he stated. “Should you have a look at it from the surface wanting in, it appears very boring to observe us undergo the challenges of constructing a marketing strategy. However (the present) has allowed me to point out persona and keep fascinating in my very own side and sort of add to the present as a lot as I can.”
He added that, regardless of the consequence, he hopes his appearances on the present will convey welcome consideration to the native enterprise neighborhood and its efforts to revitalize the realm.
“Eyeballs are all the pieces,” he stated. “Should you have a look at what Madison County is and has all the time been, it’s blue-collar, hard-working folks. If someone in a nationwide competitors can nonetheless achieve success in Madison County and work with massive enterprise, that’s the thought.”
Observe Andy Knight on Twitter @Andrew_J_Knight, or name 765-640-4809.
