INSURING SUCCESS
Insurance entrepreneur Dan Garzella’s perseverance and commitment to the professional growth of his employees has led to a legacy of helping others succeed.
Insurance wasn’t on Dan Garzella’s mind as he drove his Mitsubishi Eclipse from Michigan to Arizona in 2003 at 23 years old. A recent graduate of Central Michigan University following friends to the Grand Canyon State, he arrived unemployed and with $500 to his name.
“I figured that I could work as a server when I got there,” says Garzella. “I went to at least 50 bars and restaurants before I was hired, only to find the place shut down on my first day of work. I had to take one of the first jobs I could get, which came from a recruiter at Farmers Insurance.”
Encouraged by his father and mentor to become a scratch agent, Garzella accepted the offer, got his insurance license, and was provided a list of leads for selling home and auto insurance. After 10 years, he become one of the top five agents in the country at Farmers Insurance.
“Perseverance, persistence, and a commitment to the growth and success of others drive me forward,” says Garzella. “I look at every challenge as an opportunity and apply that mindset to my mentorship. I get a lot of intrinsic value out of seeing someone succeed after walking them through a step-by-step process.”
Personalizing Insurance
After working his way to the top of Farmers Insurance, Garzella saw an opportunity to create his own brokerage to better serve clients and provide employees with opportunities for growth. It meant risking everything for a dream that might fail, but in 2014, he took the risk and founded The Garzella Group.
Starting over was daunting, but I found opportunities in the risk,” says Garzella. “I wanted to make good on the commitments that I made with the team that led to my success and I knew we could do more. So I sold the Farmers agency and used the money plus a business loan to pay the salaries of my employees and worked seven days a week for 18 months before I felt I had a foundation secure enough to build on.
Since 2014, the brokerage has grown from an idea to handling $62 million in premium organically without acquisition, leveraging cutting-edge technology developed to overcome industry hurdles for customers, employees, and partners.
I wanted consumers to have options with their insurance rather than defaulting to a one-size-fits-all solution,” Garzella explains. “As independent agents, we can provide consumers with a multitude of options without a scale that caps us. This offers the highest level of creativity for a business owner and increases our ability to solve problems with creative solutions.
