Episode #24, OG Ep: An Introduction

[00:00:00] Lies you decide to start moving trends brokers. I think it was important for me to really start something. For some reason, I just had that in the back of my mind. You're entrepreneurial. Yeah. And, you know, through my family, through various, you know, different businesses growing up,

[00:00:22] I just always kind of gravitated towards that. And so, in doing insurance, I just looked at it like this is a great opportunity. I can do this, you know, I could maybe continue on working for, you know, a different agency.

[00:00:42] But for me, where I wanted to go and how I wanted to do it, I really felt like it had to be on my terms. Welcome to the podcast dedicated to real estate insurance and everything in between.

[00:01:01] Join us as we take you along our own brokerage building journeys with additional wisdom from our network of business experts. Welcome to Bricks and Risk. Hey everyone, welcome to another edition of Bricks and Risk on TimGarity.

[00:01:23] I'm Sean Mooney. And today we're going to do an intro episode where, unfortunately, going to have to talk about ourselves because this is one of our first episodes. And we have to let people know who we are, what we do and why we're here.

[00:01:38] So I'll start with you Sean, pressure's on. I'm Sean Mooney, president of Mooney Insurance brokers. We are an independent insurance brokerage in based out of Amber Pennsylvania. And our story is a simple story, in a way. My background is that I was working for an all-state agency.

[00:02:07] It was a family agency, well, yeah. Yeah, close by and Huntington Valley not far from where we are. But really got introduced into doing insurance by way of service and sales for that agency. Doing, you know, service something existing book of business with clients,

[00:02:32] focus on car insurance, home insurance, life insurance. And I liked it. And I said, this is a pretty good business. Industry to be in. A lot of room for growth, a lot of different ways that you can go and you enjoyed it. I'm assuming. Yeah.

[00:02:52] And so started out like very low level just doing, you know, pick up the phone, deal with people's issues, claims, billing, and that sort of thing. And by the end, it was more of a sales based position where it was, you know, monthly sales. Yeah.

[00:03:17] How old is an older? So how long did you do that before you started your own brokerage? How many years? So 10. It was 10 years. Yeah. I got my belt prior to jumping out and then getting going on my own.

[00:03:29] And why would you say, what was the biggest driving factor? Because, you know, I have a similar story. It's the big driving factor to say, I'm not just going to work at an agency.

[00:03:38] I mean, you could have worked your way up to like a manager or maybe a partner over time because you're good at it. Why did you decide to start moving trends brokers? I think it was important for me to really start something.

[00:03:53] For some reason, I just had that in the back of my mind. You're entrepreneurial. Yeah. And, you know, through my family, through various, you know, different, businesses growing up, I just always kind of Rhabitated towards that. And so in doing insurance,

[00:04:14] I just looked at it like this is a great opportunity. I can do this, you know, I could maybe continue on working for, you know, a different agency. But for me, where I wanted to go and how I wanted to do it,

[00:04:31] I really felt like it had to be on my terms. Yeah. And really for growth and, you know, where I saw my value and really looking down the road as to like where I wanted to be. Just that ownership of the business.

[00:04:52] It was important to me in a lot of ways. That's a great story. And you're from the area. Yep. I grew up in the countryside Pennsylvania. Just like I'm in dealing over here. Dylan, 109038. I don't have the tattoo yet.

[00:05:12] I don't think you're ever going to get a tattoo because I've known you since I was about ten years old. So I'm going to say that probably won't happen. But I'll believe when I see it, you know, maybe get it.

[00:05:21] You know, get it somewhere where people can't see it. Maybe like an ass cheek or something like that. Perhaps. That was a couple of hill story. Yeah, absolutely. So, so Tim Gardy.

[00:05:31] The broker for record one of the partners at Copperhill Real Estate helps start the brokerage from scratch very similar to you. My backstory is, you know, grew up in the local Philadelphia area grew up in the suburbs, living in the city for a couple decades. Absolutely loved it.

[00:05:47] But when I started in corporate America, I actually started out on the mortgage business. So I was I was a low-knot for sure. And it sales. It's kind of like a lot of jobs I had grown up. And I say everything in sales, by the way. That's true.

[00:06:02] I mean, you can work at a hardware store. It's still sales. But even if you have nothing to do with sales, if you just have a role in a corporate office. Yep. You're selling yourself. That's very true. So for me, how good can you sell yourself?

[00:06:20] You're selling yourself to your manager? Yep. You're a president? Who out of your, you know, your Cheney command? I always say everything comes down to sales. No, I like that. And I agree. And it's like, you know, you and I both come from sales.

[00:06:34] So like, I start out as an L.O. in the mortgage industry. It was 100% commission. Pretty risky. What year? Let's give a timeline on this. This is 2002. So we're old. And, you know, I started doing, I did it for a couple of years. And, and I liked it.

[00:06:50] But I didn't love it. Um, but through my networking, I met a real estate agent who said, hey, my wife works for a builder and she's looking for a young manager. So I'm 24. I got that job as hard to get. I landed it was very proud of that.

[00:07:05] And while I was managing again, I was selling the mortgage company. So it was like managing locally and Philadelphia, like our communities that were new construction communities that we built in and around the city. And then managing the mortgage process from application to closing.

[00:07:18] Like that was what I did. And I got good at managing people. And then I lost my job in 2009 when everything crashed. And I had an opportunity to really think about what I wanted to do. And I knew I wanted to stay in sales.

[00:07:32] I wanted to stay in the relationship business. I didn't want to do mortgages anymore. But I didn't fall far from that tree. I decided to get my real estate license, which, you know, you got to be a complete self-starter to do that.

[00:07:44] You got to pay for the classes. You got to sit in them. You have no idea how much you're going to make. You have no idea where you're going to work. Like, you're just doing this to like, okay, I'll go be a realtor.

[00:07:53] What was the like driver where you're like, I want to do real estate? Like, like, how do you go from mortgage and corporate then to be like, I'm going to real estate? I think the first thing that really attracted me to real estate was really

[00:08:09] you're working more with people and like problem-solving and like, repri-sending them. Whereas in the mortgage industry, it's kind of just like numbers and steps. Now, again, you have to like, you have to help put their words at ease with like

[00:08:24] if the rates go up, the rates go down. So, again, you're calling people down, you're solving problems. I'm just not a numbers guy. Like, I'm fine with them, but it's not one of my passions. Like, people. I love helping people.

[00:08:35] Like, I've always, a lot of the jobs I've had growing up. Like, restaurants and setting up beach equipment and even selling newspapers. Like, they're happy getting the paper from you because it's Sunday morning and it's the weekend and maybe it's summer and they're like, this is great.

[00:08:49] And you're just helping them. They're reading, like, oh, thanks. Here's a tip. So, you know, I've always liked that. And I think getting into real estate, I knew I was really going to be more involved with people and more hands on. Like, your in-person, like, mortgages back then.

[00:09:03] Yeah, you maybe you did a paper application again, where old. But, you know, everything is digital now. And real estate is never going to be digital because you got to go see the house. You have to go see the neighborhood. You have to do inspections.

[00:09:18] I mean, these are, again, not every time, but most of the time, these are the things that happen. Do people buy homes, sit on scene? They do. Do people wave inspections and buy homes with cash? Yes. But you're still working with them. You're still going there.

[00:09:30] There's probably a closing. There's an opportunity to connect. And, you know, I think seeing that, I just wanted to go do it. And I was in corporate America for like 10 years. So I went out and I worked for two small brokerages for about five years.

[00:09:42] And I started taking my broker classes at night, knowing that I liked it. And, you know, after five years, I had a brokerage license. I had two people that were willing to start a brokerage from scratch, which has a low barra of entry.

[00:09:55] And we just went lean with our office and our expenses. And Booth, Copperhill was born in the end of 2014. I think we got our license approval, like it was like Christmas Eve, like 2014. Did you celebrate? Or did you like it? Or did you like it?

[00:10:12] Or did you like it? Or did you like it? Or did you like it? Or did you like it? Or did you like it? Or did you like it? I'm sure we did. Hey, everyone. This is Tim. Your favorite bricks and wrists co-hosts. But don't tell Sean.

[00:10:28] I hope you're enjoying this episode. And I'll get right back to it in a moment. Our audience grows through word of mouth. We'll review on the platform you're on. That would be fantastic. Please also help spread the B&R word by sharing your favorite episode with a friend.

[00:10:43] We greatly appreciate your time and trust. Now, back to the show. Yeah, that's my story. And I want to shift a little bit now that everyone knows who we are. The next day I want to ask is like, How'd we get here? Like why are we doing this?

[00:11:05] I'm not going to take care of that. You came up with that. But what was the name you came up with? I was got off of whatever it was. Brokers building businesses. The real estate and insurance introductory podcast. I think we can still and we'll check that.

[00:11:29] We'll let you know. We'll let you know. We have to check the text message, Shane, to make sure I actually said that which I didn't. But again, we'll go with it. Oh, it's been similar. Let's talk about the story.

[00:11:42] I love a good story in business because the story helps people relate to how things happen. So again, this doesn't just happen. You don't just wake up or like, here's our name. Like, here's our brand. Like, here's where we're going. Like there's many, many, many steps.

[00:11:55] We've been talking about this for months. Planning, spending money. Or a lot of layers. Yeah, so tell me, so you know, based on your recollection of the record. I don't know the story of the story. How did this come to be? I don't know the date.

[00:12:11] I don't know when it occurred. It was the summertime. Yep. And I remember. Don't even know why I called you. We were on the phone. And somehow it came up. I think just generally speaking that we're talking. Listen to podcast. Listen to podcast.

[00:12:25] Oh, I heard this on this podcast. And then I think that you were talking about, oh, I was a guest on this. And my first reaction was you need a podcast. Yeah. That sort of was. It was like you need a podcast. If you can do a podcast,

[00:12:43] Right. It's going to massively change your business. I agree. And that's how I remember it. And I literally remembering. I think, if I have it right is me. I was on my way to shore. You have you have three kids. So remember we have short term members. Yeah.

[00:13:04] I was on my way to shore. But I, we started when I called. It was I started on the wall with an image. Got down the shore. Part the car. We were still going. Yeah. For like another 20 data driving the shore. I do remember that. About the idea.

[00:13:22] Because it evolved from. It evolved from me saying you need a podcast to. We need a podcast because you said, You said, well, I wouldn't be opposed to it. I like the idea. But I couldn't do. I would have to have someone do it with me. Yep.

[00:13:43] And then that kind of snowballed into, Well, I really like podcast. Let's do it together. All right. And I'm going to add one more detail, Okay. Which you may remember may not or may be left out. But when we were having that conversation.

[00:13:57] And both being on the same page. It's like, yeah. Like we think we could do it as individuals. But wouldn't it be fun to do it together? And we have complimentary industries. Yeah. Not only that. We have complimentary business backgrounds and stories. Like starting businesses from scratch.

[00:14:11] And I remember when we were talking about it. And you were like, Get ready. You want to hear something? I've had two microphones in my office for over a year, like you bought them, you know what the intention of doing something,

[00:14:26] whether it be a video or a podcast, Whatever it is, it doesn't really matter. And then I started dying laughing and Wait, hold on. I get it's better. There's a thing called, like, a cloud lifter? Damn, do you know what that is? It's like some regular railroad hookup

[00:14:40] that I thought I needed. I'm like, well if I do my power, I'm a gadget dude. If I do my podcast, I'm definitely gonna need this. That's because I need this sound like gold. And so it literally is in my office

[00:14:56] in a closet, go pull it out now. But I always wanted to do that. And during the pandemic, I had thoughts of like, hey, I'll do this and I'll do this podcast and I have these ideas and it just never, it just never kind of came together.

[00:15:14] Yeah, and in talking to you, it's like, I'm like, what? Well, first and foremost, what do we have to lose? Maybe a little bit of money in some time. But really, you and I had the same mindset where like, look, it's just, it adds value.

[00:15:29] And we have good stories. And just like we're telling the story of how we got started in business, where we're from, like how we got to where we are. There's a story to this. And will we fight cat basement stories? We will.

[00:15:42] Absolutely, we were in the same fraternity and college as well. So we go back. I believe that. Yeah, let's leave that where it is. But here's another good part of the story is like, so we get out the Google Doc

[00:15:54] and we're like, oh my gosh, we got you. Hey, B, C, D. And we're putting all these things down and we're like, let's come on with the name. And then I had the dumbest name which I just said, it was like brokers building businesses or something like that.

[00:16:07] And I said, we'll call it triple B. And I'm like, well, and you started laughing which again is fine because we can laugh at each other. And I'm like, well what do you got? And you were like, what about bricks and risk?

[00:16:19] And I was like, whoa dude, that's awesome. Like bricks like real estate and risk like insurance. Yeah, I'm like, we're done. No, no, I don't know how about that. Seriously. You were more into it than the other one. That was like, cheers. Awesome.

[00:16:37] And then the night personally wanted the Tim and Sean check. You did it. I did it. Like please, no. And so like we're going through this we're trying to figure it out. How do we do this? And coming up with the logo, hey,

[00:16:54] we wanted something clean again, Brent Bush design to care the logo, check them out. Who are numbers below? That's right. Check them out on Instagram. He's got funny stuff. And they cut his podcast. That's true. He does a fan of football pockets. He will link up the podcast.

[00:17:08] So when we consented with to be like, yo, like what did you do? Consult and consulted. Consulted. And coming up with bricks and risk, you know, we're like, hey, we're both from Philadelphia. Let's have some Philadelphia. And this is very relevant now because the first Kelly Green

[00:17:27] Philadelphia Eagles jersey game, and I don't know how many years was this past weekend against the dolphins in the one. It was awesome game. And we're like, let's go old school Eagles. Yeah. And that's why we came up with the Green,

[00:17:41] the White and the Black as well as the fact it's like, hey, we're in business. So it brings the color and money so that that makes sense as well. But I like to tell that story or just share that with everyone because I think it encourages people

[00:17:54] to not get paralysis by analysis. Don't overthink it. If you're thinking about doing something like this, we're a perfect example of a few months ago. We had a conversation. A perfect example of, we shouldn't be doing this, but we are doing this, right? Absolutely.

[00:18:11] And I think you and I are very big. We're very big on authenticity. We're very big on being ourselves. We do this in business. We do this in life. You know, you gotta be able to make fun of yourself.

[00:18:20] You gotta be able to look at your failures as reasons to succeed. And you have to know that again, it takes time to do well in anything, including podcasting. And this is an intro episode. So just know we're going to get much better at this,

[00:18:34] but at least get it. You're maybe. But you're getting a sense of who we are, where we come from and how this came to be. So just want to thank everyone for tuning in to Brickson Risk and see you next time.

[00:18:47] Thank you for joining us on another episode of Brickson Risk. Our goal is that you walk away with one or two valuable nuggets and we greatly appreciate you sharing your time with us today. You can find all B&R episodes on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube

[00:19:04] and anywhere else you get your podcast content. Until next time, keep learning and keep growing.