My CIC Class Experience

By: Don Allan, Agent Relations Manager

A few months ago I was discussing different forms of continuing my education in the insurance industry with my boss. Being fairly new to the business, I had heard through fellow employees and other agents about the CIC designation. I didn't know much about it at the time except that every time those three letters were mentioned it was usually followed by a casual eye roll and a "good luck" sigh as they walked away. But nonetheless I signed up for the Commercial Casualty class at the Salem Waterfront Hotel. Here is my story about my CIC class experience.

I couldn't help but feel that I was biting off more than I could chew considering I am fairly new to the industry and focus solely on the condo market here at Brownstone Insurance. But I found that there are a few perks to attending a CIC course.

My boss would tell you that I was there for the exposure and networking. I would say I was really looking forward to taking as much info out of the course as possible and the 25 CE's for attending are not bad either. Plus, all the coffee, muffins, bagels and cookies you could take down in four days was an added bonus.

I arrived in Salem on Wednesday morning and pulled up to a quaint hotel surrounded by a comfortable amount of restaurants that I could escape to on breaks.

The first introduction was the educational consultant Mike D'Orlando, who gave us a quick briefing on what to expect from the course and the basic rules and regulations which we’d need to follow the next few days. Our first speaker, Bob Ford, was then introduced, and he would spend the next 8 hours with us going over Commercial General Liability.

As Bob took command of the room I felt myself sink down into my seat and prepare for information overload with my highlighter in hand. But Bob had a different approach.

He began with some comical stories and a little interesting history about his background and how he even chose the insurance industry over being a pastor. “What a great concept,” I thought. Bob had found a way to fulfill his dream of being a pastor by preaching insurance at a CIC course.

His combination of power points, illustrations and personal stories made it very easy to follow along, and most of all kept it interesting with his North Dakota accent that he claimed he did not have. I remember having a conversation with a fellow CIC attendant hoping that the next speaker would be just as good.

And without fail Mr. Bruce Thomas did just that. Bruce spent a whole afternoon discussing workers comp, but man did it fly by. He was a local guy from Rhode Island who kind of spoke our language, and he incorporated blasting music into his presentation and loud antics which kept everyone on the edge of their seat. He also added some history into the mix which helped us all understand workers comp and why it exists.

Our last speaker had the longest presentation of all. Kevin Brady took us through Business Auto, Additional Insured coverage, Excess Liability and later finished up with Umbrella Coverage. He went through all of his material without any powerpoints, blasting music or history lessons. His approach was simple -- interrogate and embarrass as many CSR's as he could.

I kid, but his interaction with the room kept you attentive. Plus, Kevin was more of a natural born comic, so nobody was safe and everyone got their fair share of antics from Kevin. 

Overall I left Saturday afternoon with a much different perspective on the CIC designation than I had going into it. Not only did I learn a lot, but I also had a lot of fun while doing it. And best of all, I got to meet people in my industry with the same passion as I have. After all of this, I am looking forward to signing up for the next one.

Brownstone's Holiday Party in the Fast Lane

Brownstone Insurance closed our offices early this past Friday to celebrate our staff holiday party.

First, our office decorating contest took full swing as the Brownstone management team visited each office and took note of each team's effort. Each department spent the week decorating their space to celebrate the holiday season in an effort to win one additional day-off in exchange for their effort. Here are some photos showcasing our handywork:

 

In the end, it was decided that we were all winners for putting together such great team efforts, and every one of us was awarded an extra day off in 2013!

At noon, we headed over to F1 Boston, a state-of-the-art indoor kart racing facility. As only two staff members had ever been to F1 before, it was quite the experience for the rest of your Brownstone staff.

With several courses to choose from, Brownstone opted to compete on the City Course (we insure Boston, after all), complete with a hill, a corkscrew turn and a tunnel! These tracks and karts are no joke! You can reach speeds of 35-40 mph!

After 5 qualifying races of 12 laps, Brownstone employees competed in the final 15-lap race, with Murphy & Jordan Client Advisor Michelle Prall coming out on top. Way to go, Michelle!

Here we all are in our racing suits!

Big Event Contest Winners

The 2012 MAIA Big Event was a great success for Brownstone Insurance, having 50% of tradeshow participants stop by our booth to enter into our contests. For those of you who were not able to attend the Big Event, Brownstone offered attendees the opportunity to enter into 3 contests via a custom iPad application developed just for the occasion.

The first contest was for our grand prize contest for a luxury LV luggage set. Rather than require participants to be present for the drawing, we decided to hold the drawing via live internet broadcast the Tuesday following the event. Anyone could log into our LiveStream channel and watch live as we first broadcast some professional photos taken during the event by our photographers at Imagemakers Photographic Artists, followed by the live drawing here in our office.

The winner of the luggage set was John George from Jimcor, who coincidentally, was a vendor located next to our booth at the Big Event who mentioned during the show how much his daughter would love the luggage set. We hope John's daughter enjoys her new LV luggage!

The second contest was a Friday-only contest that was known only as our "secret contest." Many of you probably received custom Brownstone boarding passes in the mail or from one of our agent relations managers, Don Allan or Alexis Kimball. The purpose of these passes was to provide a place where you could write down your personal boarding pass code that was texted to you shortly after entering your cell phone number into our iPad app.

Then, at 7:18 Friday night, we used a computer program to randomly select a winning boarding pass code -- and we had not one, but two winners of the secret contest! Paul Zielinski from Horace Mann Insurance and Mark Germani from Germani Insurance both held the winning boarding pass code and will be boarding a plane with their guest for a whirlwind weekend getaway to Paris! Airfare, hotel and dinner will all be courtesy of Brownstone Insurance. Congratulations to Paul and Mark!

The last contest was for an instant prize at the Big Event -- a stainless steel luggage tag complete with the Brownstone Insurance logo. We awarded over 200 luggage tags during the event so if you weren't lucky enough to win the LV luggage or the surprise trip to Paris, hopefully you walked away with one of our custom luggage tags.

Thank you to all those who visited our booth this year, and to those of you who we did not see, hopefully we see you in 2013!

Brownstone Gearing Up for the 2012 MAIA Big Event

If you've ever taken part in the Massachusetts Association of Insurance Agent's annual convention and trade fair, better known as the Big Event, you know that Brownstone Insurance pulls out all the stops when it comes to our booth.

From our eye-catching displays to our classic, luxurious giveaways, the Brownstone Insurance booth is always a must-see! And this year we have a truly special experience planned for Big Event participants.

Be sure to stop by our big double-booth located at #'s 120 and 121 to see what we have in store for you this year! You will not be disappointed.

For more information on the Big Event, visit www.massagent.com/events.

Brownstone/Murphy & Jordan Employees Return from TENCon 2012

Four employees of Brownstone and Murphy & Jordan Insurance just returned from the TENCon 2012 conference held in Tennessee.

TENCon is the flagship annual conference for insurance professionals who use Applied Systems. The conference allows insurance professionals to fully understand all that Applied has to offer and how to utilize the different technologies to best serve their clients and prospects.

Our staff has been attending TENCon for several years now and always return with countless new ideas and plans for implementing new, improved procedures and workflows.

Here are some photos from the event: