“We firmly believe that an educated customer is in a better position to evaluate the services we provide … . They have learned to trust us.”
—Elisha Cavanaugh
Founder and President Sound Pacific Insurance
Self-professed insurance nerd
creates agency that allows for more family time
By Dennis H. Pillsbury
Photography by Melanie Maganias Nashan
One of the greatest strengths of the independent agency system is the first word in that description of this
preeminent marketing channel in the property/casualty insurance world. Adherence to independence means that practitioners have the ability to create their own way of doing things, including determining how to measure success when they decide to create an agency that will operate as part of this system.
The characteristic appealed to Elisha Cavanaugh, who calls herself an “insurance nerd who loves all the different facets of determining the best insurance coverage for clients.” She expands on that, admitting, “I love looking into all the factors that determine insurance rates. It’s all interesting to me. I really do love it.”
Elisha’s career started in 2000 at the age of 16, when she interviewed for and got a part-time office job at a local insurance agency in Tacoma, Washington. That grew into a full-time job, where she remained until she had five years under her belt and had shown real ability in the ins and outs of insurance.
In fact, her knowledge and her ability to use technology to enhance the insurance transaction led to her being recruited by a headhunter for a captive insurance agency. After bouncing around a bit, she wound up managing a really large captive agency, where her talents for developing insurance solutions for clients grew, as did her ability to develop trusted relationships both with the captive insurance company and with her clients.
Change changes everything
Meanwhile, at the same time as her business life was growing, her personal life also experienced some interesting and welcome changes. Her position at the captive agency was requiring that she spend a lot of late hours at the office in order to perform her job effectively, and this meant that her time with newborn son Nolan would be curtailed.
So, she developed a solution: As the mom of a 15-month-old, she started Sound Pacific Insurance, Tacoma, Washington, in March 2012. She set the agency up such in a way that she would have the time she needed for Nolan while still providing excellent service to the clients she expected to attract and to the insurance companies she hoped would give her a contract.
The first step was to meet with company representatives to obtain an agency contract. “I had a solid business plan and a proven track record with the captive agency, so nearly everyone was willing to listen to what I had to say,” Elisha remembers. “It’s basically a sales presentation where I’m selling myself and my abilities and the way I intended to develop business that would still allow me to spend time with my family.
“I was candid and open about what I intended to do,” she adds, “and in describing the ideal customer for me to accomplish that, which is a customer who is happy to be taken care of electronically. Still, I was quick to point out that we still would meet them in person six or seven times a year.” (I’m willing to bet that’s a lot more often than they ever hear from their captive agent.)
“My approach has proven successful,” Elisha continues. “The sincerity that I conveyed to the companies resulted in appointments from most of the ones with which I met and,” she adds proudly, “we have not lost any carriers that signed on with us. We view our carrier relations as symbiotic; it is beyond just a business deal.”
The approach has proven to be successful on the personal side of the equation, as well. Elisha was blessed to be able to take several months of maternity leave six or so years ago when she and husband Nick welcomed Nolan’s younger sister Emery to the family.
Carrier recognition
“I have developed a trusted partnership with my companies,” she continues. She currently serves as president of the Safeco Agency Council and was recognized by Safeco/Liberty Mutual in its annual Agent for the Future competition as 2023 Outstanding Female Agency Principal. Among factors that drives her success—and that led to winning the award—are the fact that Elisha has dedicated herself to creating a positive culture for her employees, helping customers understand insurance, and advancing the insurance industry as a whole.
Also, Elisha views her team as her greatest asset and is heavily investing in staff development and training to equip her team to meet the evolving needs of clients. To support a work-life balance, the team at Sound Pacific works a hybrid schedule and gets unlimited paid time off.
“We view our carrier relations as symbiotic; it is beyond just a business deal.”
—Elisha Cavanaugh
Elisha points out that she believes that what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. She recognizes that she’s not the only person who views time with family as a priority and determined right from the start that she would offer the same opportunities that she wanted to any employee who came to work with her.
At the same time, she adds, “I expect my people to take care of every customer with the same dedication that I do. It took careful recruiting to find those employees, but now I have two full-time people and a part-time marketing person who I trust implicitly.
“I know that they will work hard to keep customers happy,” Elisha says, “and that is proven by the fact that we have more than 300 positive Google reviews—and counting.”
“What I like best about the channel is that we can all do it differently and still succeed in whatever manner we deem to be most important. In my case, the number one priority was time with family … .”
—Elisha Cavanaugh
In her work with clients, Cavanaugh aims to make insurance accessible and straightforward. She tailors her communication to clients’ individual preferences, while delivering information that is easily understood by the average consumer. This year, she developed several videos and graphics to help consumers understand the constantly evolving insurance marketplace. She shared the videos with other agents as well as clients.
Elisha is particularly proud of one trait that some find to be elusive: namely, the ability to translate insurance into plain English. “One of the key focus areas in how we deal with clients is the notion of simplifying insurance concepts and trends,” she explains. “We strive to decode coverage and industry jargon with easy-to-digest terms.
“We firmly believe that an educated customer is in a better position to evaluate the services we provide, as well as understand that we are there to help them navigate the insurance market, whether it is hard or soft, and so will be less likely to shop for the lowest price,” Elisha adds. “They have learned to trust us.”
Independent is best
“I really find value in my collaboration and connection
with other agency owners across the country.”
—Elisha Cavanaugh
Elisha says she is thrilled with her decision to become an independent agent. “What I like best about the channel is that we can all do it differently and still succeed in whatever manner we deem to be most important,” she observes.
“In my case, the number one priority was time with family, and it’s really great to be able to spend time with friends and family. But at the same time, I also know that there will be days where I will have to spend 10 or more hours on the job.
“I and my team have developed an understanding of when that is required,” Elisha says. “You need to find the flow and achieve a kind of harmony that allows for both a happy work life and a happy family life.
“I’ll readily admit that there are sacrifices that have to be made,” she notes. “When I first started out, there were many days when I couldn’t go home early because I was busy getting company appointments. And my family understands that when a client has a serious loss, my job is to be there for that client. In fact, they’re proud of me for doing that.
“It also means that we have probably sacrificed some opportunities for rapid growth,” Elisha explains. “We are in a steady, sustainable growth mode. We aren’t looking to be one of the largest agencies, just to continue to be one of the best.”
Another reason she is thrilled about being an independent agent, she adds, is the willingness of competitors to share, just as she has shared her videos with other agencies. “I really find value in my collaboration and connection with other agency owners across the country,” she says.
She helped create a Facebook group called Insurance Mavericks. “The group hasn’t just given me great friends; it’s become a crucial resource for gaining knowledge and advice,” Elisha says. “Being part of this community has been a big change for my agency. It’s like having a team of experts to turn to, which helps me stay on top of industry trends, solve problems, and make better decisions.
“The support and insights from this group have helped me improve my business and offer better services to my clients,” she adds. “It shows how powerful it can be when professionals come together to share their experiences and help each other grow.”
Today, Sound Pacific is primarily a personal lines agency. However, Elisha points out that her background before founding the agency was in commercial lines. “We still plan to dive into the commercial space,” she says. And we at Rough Notes suspect that this too may prove to show us a unique way to maintain the work/life balance while achieving success in the complex commercial arena.
We are very proud to recognize Sound Pacific Insurance as our Agency of the Month. Its ability to create a harmonious workplace appeals especially to this former music major, but also to the rest of the Rough Notes team.
The author
Dennis Pillsbury is a Virginia-based insurance freelance writer.
Captions:
