Robert McKnight: The Human Side of Commercial Insurance & Community Impact

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. It is my pleasure to introduce you to my guest today, Robert McKnight, client executive with INSURICA in Phoenix, where he specializes in commercial real estate and construction risk insurance. An Arizona native and University of Arizona grad, Bob has spent nearly a decade in the commercial insurance industry, earning experience with global firms like Marsh and Willis before joining INSURICA, where he’s known for his relationship driven approach and sharp understanding of sales psychology. Yes, we’re going to talk more about that outside of the office. Robert is deeply committed to his community. He spent five years with the Scottsdale Saguaros, helping raise over $1 million a year for local children’s charities. And today he serves on the board of Save the Family, supporting families on their path out of homelessness. He’s a husband, a dad and a believer in giving back to the place he calls home. Robert, welcome to the show.Robert McKnight: Thanks so much for having me, Trisha.
Trisha Stetzel: Super excited about our conversation today. But before we dive into any technical work stuff, tell us more about Robert.
Robert McKnight: Yeah, well, you hit it pretty good. I feel like I should hire you to kind of do my intro and meetings, quite frankly. But yeah. So a husband, uh, to a beautiful wife that I don’t deserve. But I’m not giving her back. Um, uh, two crazy children and a three year old and a one year old boy. And then, um, you know, Monday through Friday, you can hear me talking to real estate owners about the crazy world of commercial insurance and what’s new and what’s not new. Um, and then in my free time, I like to stay active and fit. And then also, I know we’ll get into it at some point. Um, talk about giving back to the community, which I now do through Save the Family. So a lot of great things to, um, help families in Maricopa County, which is the county we live in here in Phoenix, um, overcome homelessness and poverty and reach for self-sufficiency.
Trisha Stetzel: So that’s beautiful. Thank you for giving back. It’s so important. You know, I, I have a motto. It’s not well written, but if I go out into the community and I expect people to buy from me, then I should be giving back to that same community, right? Um, yeah. Share that in common. Yeah.
Robert McKnight: No, it’s so true. So true. Yeah. It’s even one thing. I’ve, um. You know, I’ve only been on the board with Save the Family since January of this year. But even one thing, I’ve talked to the leadership team and, you know, because it’s it’s constantly looking for different ways to funnel income because as a as a board member, right? I don’t get paid for that. That’s all. You know, quasi volunteer. I’m happy to do that. Just like my time with the Scottsdale Swirls all volunteer. But it’s it’s funny because, you know, we have clients, for instance. Um, and I actually have an event tomorrow, even though we’re, we’re seeing a ton of rain in Phoenix, so we’ll see how it goes. But, you know, when they became a client of our agency, they’re like, hey, just letting you know, part of a requirement for all of our vendors, including our insurance brokers, is that you buy a foursome to our golf tournament every year. And it’s like, it’s like, okay, so we know that going in. And so one thing I’ve really pushed back on with Save the Family is like, we’ve got to get that same methodology going on with all of our vendors. Like they they own and manage, you know, over 170 rental units. So in Arizona, just like in Houston, you know, HVAC is a big thing, especially in the summertime. So it’s like all those people coming out to service your units and whatnot, um, or restoration services. It’s like you’re giving them thousands of dollars, or you’re buying new cars every year. You’re giving dealerships thousands of dollars. You know, it’s it’s okay to go to those vendors and ask for some money back to your organization. So it’s like a quid pro quo.
Trisha Stetzel: It is. Absolutely. And, you know, we’re all there for the same reason, which is to serve the community. Uh, some in some cases not asking for money because we’re volunteering, but in other cases using vendors who also need to get paid. Right. We understand that we all want to be profitable. Whatever profitable means to you doesn’t always have to be monetary. And having those partnerships is truly important. And there are vendors out there who want to, uh, play that game, right, uh, and be a part of something bigger than just themselves. I love that, um, I’d like to circle back. I was okay to talk about work for a minute. Uh, when I introduced you talked about or I said something about sales psychology and even building rapport with anyone. What does that actually look like? I know you’re in the insurance business. You have to go talk to people all the time. Yeah. So tell me more about that. Sales psychology and building rapport with anyone.
Robert McKnight: Yeah. So I think it’s from our previous conversation, which I think you and I really intertwined with. Well, which is a lot of times and as you’re mentioning, whether it’s virtually like this, since, you know, the 2020 days of Covid, when it used to be kind of all in person before then, I remember, you know, hopping on my first virtual meeting and the camera turned on and I saw my face and it freaked me out. And now, like, look how far we’ve come in five years, because it used to be all in person, right? This used to not really be a thing. And but it’s funny because I’m meeting with a ton of people, but for the most part, um, when you’re having that first meeting, whether it’s virtual or in person, it’s it’s a complete stranger a lot of the times. Right? You don’t know them from Adam, and that’s totally okay. And that’s how business gets done a lot of the times. But sales people in general, and myself included, because no one’s perfect, we’re all still like, on a path to getting better, right? Our are terrible at to a certain extent of talking about themselves way too much, talking about their product and offering, and not taking the appropriate amount of time to get to know the person that they’re talking to.
Robert McKnight: And so the one thing that we spoke about that I think rings so true, when I first heard it, I was like, man, I am so bad at that. And I’m working every day to get better is the one upping method. Um, and one upmanship is a lot of times what it’s called. And so when you’re sitting across from a buyer or a decision maker and you see a placard on their wall or a picture with, you know, a bunch of boys, and it’s their sons and their wife, maybe. And it’s like, it’s like, oh, what was that, Joe? And it’s like, oh, well, I was just in Cabo last week, you know, doing like deep sea fishing with my with my family. And before they could even finish their sentence, the salesperson’s like, oh my gosh, I was just in Cabo for my bachelor party two weeks ago, and we did this. And you’re completely Ruining a chance to do a deep dive and get more into their story and learn more about the their why behind that story and their why behind their family and how they came to have a family and their their sons names and so many, so many more things that you can identify about them in their story that can help you just build rapport, that take it from a stranger to someone having somewhat of a relationship by the time that meeting is over.
Robert McKnight: So that’s one thing I, I really, really try to do is, um, is much as I can resist, um, talking about myself and then starting questions with what and how, which is usually going to lead to an open ended question. It’s not going to lead to a yes or no answer, and making sure that if there’s a 60 minute meeting on the books, I’m trying to talk maybe 15 minutes of it and have them talking for 45 minutes of it, regardless if we’re hitting an insurance. Because, you know, in our business, um, the sales cycle can sometimes be, you know, 18 months to three years because it’s a business to business, and it’s usually a multi-million dollar decision that they’re making annually. So they’re not going to move at the drop of a hat. Right. And so it’s it’s three four meetings sometimes stretched over a year or year and a half before you’re even making solid, solid movement on an opportunity. So building rapport is nothing to to glance over in my mind.
Trisha Stetzel: So yeah, absolutely. It’s so important, this relationship building. I know I think you used the same example in the conversation that we had before, and I said, tell me more. Right. And it’s hard to resist, I think, because we want to have that connection with someone. So we want to say, hey, you and I, we’re similar. Let’s have this conversation instead of really digging into what’s important to them. I love that such great advice on knowing what those triggers are and saying, okay, be quiet and open and using those open ended questions and starting your, uh, questions with those who? What? When? Where? Why? How so important? Absolutely. So how do you balance then? You talked about having several conversations and building rapport. It’s huge. It’s huge in my business. And in your business, how do you balance that? Building rapport, being personable with also being prepared when you’re sitting down with someone to talk about your product.
Robert McKnight: Yeah. And that’s that’s a great, great question. So building rapport I think comes from the meeting and doing some research on the individual that you’re sitting down with. Right. Like very, very similar to this having like a prep call even internally with your team to find out as much as you can about the organization or the individual you’re meeting with. And then, you know, my thing with people taking meetings with insurance professionals is one, you know, we’re we’re helping guide them towards a necessity. People have to buy insurance. A lot of people think of it as kind of a necessary evil. And fortunately I don’t I don’t see it as that. But I guess where where I’m going with that is anyone that takes a meeting with you, knowing that they currently have a broker in place, I think is feeling some sort of pain. Now, where they are on the pain scale is like on a 1 to 10. It’s very similar to going to the doctor’s office, like are you a three? Are you a six? Are you a nine? Which is like excruciating pain, right? So but still a firm believer that pain has to override the fear of change in order for change to occur, right? So it’s understanding the premium they’re paying, the losses that they’ve suffered maybe over like a five year period.
Robert McKnight: And then I know another thing that we were probably going to talk about. So I apologize for potentially jumping ahead. But is owning the idea because of what’s going on in commercial insurance is there’s really kind of been a bit of an infusion specifically in property insurance. And as it relates to commercial real estate, an infusion of capital into the reinsurance market, which is reinsurance is actually insurance for insurance carriers because the property insurance market, as far as losses go, the losses haven’t really dissipated at all. And so what it tells me is there’s a ton of huge infusion of capital coming in. Right. And basically watering down the losses. And people are getting double digit rate decreases currently on their property insurance. But at the end of the day, Tricia, if you pay travelers like the red umbrella, it’s a household name. That’s why I bring up that company. If you pay them $1 million a year in insurance and you have a goose egg of losses at the end of the year, travelers is going to give you like a nice pat on the back, maybe a hug from your underwriter and they’re going to go on their merry way. You’re not getting a dollar of that back, right.
Robert McKnight: And so where I’ve where I’ve been successful and where I’ve had a lot of changing the conversation with my insureds and clients is showing them an alternative risk transfer, a captive self-insurance on training wheels showing clients that, based off of how they’ve performed over the last five years, if they were in a model that I brought to them a self-insurance and training wheels model, because there’s still a stop loss in place. If a loss ever got too bad, there’s a carrier to come in and grab the bag, if you will. Um, they can get up to 30 to 50% of their premium back in some cases as a dividend back to their organization. So and you’re talking about real money. It’s not it’s not an if it’s a when it’s like when your losses perform like they performed in the past, you can get up to 50% of your premium back. So it’s a it’s a conversation that’s captivating to a lot of insurers, a lot of clients. Um, sometimes it’s a little window dressing. People are like, oh, it’s too good to be true. There is some risk involved. Like there isn’t any program like that where there’s an offering like that. But, um, it’s certainly great conversations to have.
Trisha Stetzel: So wow. So I’m learning so many things. I didn’t know there was insurance for insurance. Uh, so thank you for sharing that. And it sounds like that’s a big differentiator for you. And working under the, um, or in or with in Surekha. Um, what are other reasons why? So that’s a fantastic program and I love that. What are some other differentiators besides you, Robert? Because you love building rapport. And I think that the human behind the name is so important. What other differentiators does Nsereko have from other companies that people might be using or thinking about using right now?
Robert McKnight: You know, it’s funny. It’s funny you bring that up because there are, um, you know, working at two of the largest publicly traded firms in in Marsh and Willis. If you look at like the rankings and there’s a ton of mergers and acquisitions within the insurance space. But Marsh, I think is still number one and Willis is probably top five. Um, you know, companies like that. And I’m not a big fan of, of blackballing my competition. So I’m going to keep it very light. But companies like that are a big fan of data and analytics and the power of the data and the analytics. And I’m telling you from working at both of those companies, I’ve seen the data and analytics fall flat on their face in front of clients, you know. And so there isn’t a lot of solutions to be had there. So what I like about INSURICA is it’s all about client first principles, sitting down, meeting with your client, listening to your client, understanding their risks through what we call a risk assessment, which is once again asking a bunch of open ended questions and basically scoring them throughout that questionnaire, usually doing it with a colleague. So there’s a second set of ears and eyes and understanding the client’s reaction. And then coming to them with a plan based off of those questions answered, um, with basically whether it’s for their worker’s comp, whether it’s for their property.
Robert McKnight: Sometimes there’s large fleets involved with 18 wheelers driving across the country on a daily basis and a bunch of Dot regulations and whatnot. So, um, I think INSURICA holds themselves to a standard of of, you know, sometimes salespeople can get a bad rap. And to a certain extent, what I love about Eureka is where a bunch of salespeople that do what we say we’re going to do, which is a lot less common than people think it is, quite frankly. Um, and then another thing, personally for me, how I kind of build my brand outside of, you know, being a busy dad and a lot of activities outside the office is my best ability. Is my availability, right? Is when your clients I, I joke with my in-laws actually quite a bit. You know, when they’ll be visiting for a holiday or something like that and they’ll say, hey, you know, Rob, what’s your what’s your week look like? And I say, well, hey, here’s all the meetings I have on my calendar currently. And I go, But Joe wasn’t planning on his truck getting in the crash on Monday or, or, uh, or the ABC worker falling off a ladder or this person certainly wasn’t planning on their building catching on fire on a Thursday. So it’s like there’s everything you have planned for the week, and then there’s all the stuff that pop up in the world of insurance, right?
Trisha Stetzel: So yeah, absolutely. Thank you for sharing that. And I know people are already interested in having a conversation with you, Robert. What’s the best way for folks to connect with you.
Robert McKnight: Yeah. So best way is through my direct line, which is (480) 881-6236. And then my email, which is Robert McKnight at ins u r com.
Trisha Stetzel: Perfect. Thank you. As you guys know, I’ll put that in the show notes so you can find Robert’s phone number and his email address. If you’re sitting in front of your computer, you can just point and click to get in touch with him. All right. Robert. Um, you’ve been in commercial insurance for nearly a decade. So two part question what’s changed the most and what hasn’t changed at all?
Robert McKnight: What’s changed the most and what hasn’t changed at all? So I would say once again, I would say getting into the alternative risk transfers and the captive insurance, I think that’s changed the most, that’s evolved the most. Now, having said that, um, the biggest Wedge you might want to call it when you’re meeting with an insured. Unlike creating an opportunity for yourself is when you’re going out and meeting with an insured or potential new client, and you tell them about a brand new idea, and it’s the first time they’re hearing about the idea. And then a constant question you’re going to get after a presentation like that is like, wow, that’s really interesting, Robert. How long has that existed for? And you tell them that it’s existed for ten or 15 or 20 plus years. And it’s like, well, I’ve had a broker for 15 or 20 plus years that does exactly what you do. And I’ve never heard of anything that you’re talking about. So it starts to create a little bit of doubt and a little bit of pain. Like I said, that’s like, do I what? You know, I don’t know what I don’t know to a certain extent if I’m the client at that moment. And so it’s creating a wedge for me, which is great. Um, what hasn’t changed and quite frankly, is like the the worst ones that we see on, on times like that that I just described is the 30 year very stale relationship. Um, and, and the the constant of blocking other brokers. And I get it. Relationships are very important. It’s not a good thing to hire a broker and then change brokers every like 2 to 3 years.
Robert McKnight: That’s not it. But having said that, having a broker relationship and something as serious as insurance, which is responsible for protecting the company after a loss and pre-loss, quite frankly, based off of fishing trips and trips to the casino. Also, isn’t it so giving you a perfect example of it, of a potential client obviously going to keep their name out of this, but, um, that we’re we’re going through this process with currently, we missed out on getting their insurance a couple of years ago. And I talked to their CFO a couple months ago, and they had their renewal in August. And during their renewal in August, they barely talked about their cyber insurance policy at all. And last month I touched base with her, and she wants to meet in the middle of December to talk about potentially making a switch. But basically what happened a month ago was they had an uncovered cyber loss for about $900,000, and it was because they were underinsured in that specific cyber category. And so my point being is it’s a 30 year relationship where the renewal meetings have turned into like, hey, Linda. Hey, Joe. It’s like, how are your kids doing? How’s everything going? It’s like, totally get that. It’s great to have a relationship. It’s great to build rapport. We talked about the importance of rapport, but there’s also business to be done. At the end of the day. We also have a fiduciary duty to our clients to put their business in the best place forward. So going forward, I should say so hopefully that I know I said a lot there. Hopefully that answers the question no.
Trisha Stetzel: And what a great example. Thank you for for sharing that. It really brings it to life when we can share examples like that. So speaking of building rapport and relationships, we did touch on the work that you’re doing with Save the Family when we opened up. I’d like to know your point of view on the The importance of not only being a professional and having a business and working in that space, but giving back. Yeah, because you always have. And what drives you to do that? And why is it so important?
Robert McKnight: Yeah. Um, I just think it’s I think it’s so important. Um, I trying to figure out what what drives me is really like my why in life, which is really just trying to put my, my family and my, my wife and my children. You know, it’s the same thing. You can talk about life insurance to a certain extent. Like if I go if I get hit by a bus tomorrow, are they taken care of? Like, do I have to look, look on hopefully from hopefully from heaven. You know, if I made the right decisions in life that they’re in there in a good place moving forward. And so when anyone is driving around and if you’re around a a big city like Houston or Phoenix, you know, you see homeless everywhere, right? And sometimes the worst part for me is when you see a family that’s homeless, because those, those those children, you know, those parents might have made some decisions. And I’m not trying to be judgmental here, but the children certainly had nothing to do with creating that homeless nature. And so that really pulls on my heartstrings. And so what I love about Save the Family is the organization isn’t called Save the family isn’t called Save the Parents. It’s called Save the Family. So there’s usually children involved in that. And so in the last year actually, because we had a board meeting this week, Save the Family has helped 780 families, um, overcome poverty and homelessness and start to achieve self-sufficiency. So that’s getting them into, um, you know, rental programs or rental housing with some down payment assistance, helping them build up their resumes, helping them get, uh, vehicles, jobs, financial assistance, you name it. So whatever supportive services they need.
Robert McKnight: Because if you look at what Save the Family is doing, as opposed to maybe like the government funding, which is, you know, through the Department of Economic Security, someone can come get their their Snap funding or their welfare checks, and then they basically have free reign on the rest of their day. We’ll save the family. It’s a real, real big. And what I love about it is it’s not just like a blank check, and we’re just going to keep funding, and we don’t know what these people are doing all day. There’s real accountability. And so the case managers on at least a monthly basis, and a lot of times case managers are meeting with the families at least twice a month, are going to the family’s home and quite frankly, checking on the home when they should be at work and things of that nature. Because Save the Family still owns the owns the rental property, so they’re able to access the home and making sure there’s no drug paraphernalia or alcohol. The children are safe, which is obviously protecting the children’s of the utmost importance. So I love what they’re doing for the community. Um, I love that, you know, unfortunately, there’s a lot of organizations out there that are, you know, if you if you give them $100,000 check or you made $100,000 donation, you know, sometimes 25 grand of that, it’s actually going to the families. So I love that there’s a great split as far as what’s really going to the families when it comes to save the family, because that’s, that’s, um, far too uncommon, quite frankly. Um, and yeah, I just I love what they’re doing for the community that I grew up in.
Trisha Stetzel: So yeah, I love that. So I’d like to tie your and we talked a little bit about this at the beginning, your sales psychology to these nonprofit organizations and why or your thoughts on why it’s important to look at them as a business, although they’re a nonprofit. So how do you bring that sales psychology into a nonprofit organization like Save the Family?
Robert McKnight: Yeah. So it’s not it’s not really I mean, there’s there’s really no like, business opportunity for me there on on save family and that and that’s by, by no means a priority at all. That’s that’s totally me being a connector. Um, quite frankly have our gala coming up in March, so I spent a good amount. I block out some time on my calendar every week to make cold calls, literally fundraising for the gala. Um, and then yesterday, actually through a great contact I had at, um, we give her a little shout out on here, if that’s okay. Um, but, uh, Jane Demilio from Valley, uh, Toyota dealers, was a great supporter of the Scottsdale Saguaros and still is for the last ten plus years. Um, you know, basically giving away a car or a cash check through, like a raffle through the for the Scottsdale Swirls. I was able to actually connect her, uh, yesterday over lunch with the development team that saved the family. So basically trying to connect dots, basically just trying to take my my whole connection pool and trying to reroute them to, to save the family as much as I can. Um, because I love I love what the organization is doing and I want to help it however I can with it. You know, with the time I have, I don’t have all the time in the world, but the leftover time I do have in my day. I like to spend, you know, giving back.
Speaker4: So I love that. And for clarity.
Trisha Stetzel: Not about you doing business with them, but how important it is to run a nonprofit like a business.
Robert McKnight: Oh, yeah. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, we talked about, you know, in the board meeting the other day that CEO, um, you know, Rob and Julian, you know, talking about a lot of the challenges that even those businesses face, like there’s a a war and talent and you’re always you’re not always getting what you pay for. Um, same thing in the development space. It’s so important to have the right, um, development team, which is led by Rose Meyer and Misha Davis, who are an absolute dream team now. But before that, you know, in two years they had gone through like 3 or 4 chief development officers. And it just wasn’t wasn’t the right wasn’t the right fit. Constantly. Constantly. Constantly. So that that position has to be filled with extremely competent people, which they have now, which is so important because, um, if you’re not able to fundraise in those roles, you should not be in those roles, quite frankly.
Trisha Stetzel: So yeah, absolutely. Well, and oftentimes these organizations are started by people who just have a gift for giving and don’t really understand that raising money is part of the business of that nonprofit, and if they don’t have the money, they can’t serve the community that they want to serve. And I think that’s so important. And I know that you bring a lot of talent and connections. You talked about that, and it’s so important to have people like that serving inside of these organizations. So thank you for everything that you’re doing for that organization and all of your clients. Some great stories today. So as we get to the back end of our conversation, I have one last question for you and for the business owners who are listening today, sales professionals or even those community community leaders, what’s one small, consistent action they can start this week to build stronger relationships and a stronger community around them?
Robert McKnight: Yeah. So I would say more towards the sales professionals out there that might might just be getting started or might be like Robert McKnight ten years ago, who was completely lost. And and it’s that, you know, it starts off with a joke, but then there’s going to be a serious point, I promise. So I don’t condone any drug use, but the worst drug that a salesperson can take is what I call hopium. So not opium. Hopium. So I’m sitting around at my desk. I should be making calls. I should be making connections. I should be at association association meetings. But instead I’m refreshing my LinkedIn 15 times a day. Just thinking that a prospect or a huge fortune 500 company is going to LinkedIn, message me and say, Robert, can you please do my insurance? Never going to happen, Tricia. Never going to happen for anyone.
Speaker4: Confused.
Robert McKnight: Robert I know, I know, this is never going to happen. I’m sorry. And so my point with that is don’t get high on hopium be honest with yourself. No one knows your sales pipeline or your sales funnel better than you. You know, your bosses might. There might be smoke and mirrors based off of what you’re putting in Salesforce and whatnot. So be honest with yourself. Be honest with where you are in your business. Be honest with what you need to do and then implement the right discipline to make it happen. Um, it’s not sales. Salespeople are built because we were not meant for rocket science. It’s not that hard to succeed, but it does take discipline to do the right things day in and day out.
Speaker5: So I love that. I think that’s fantastic.
Trisha Stetzel: And I know there are people listening who know me, like, just pick up the phone. You can’t wait for it to ring.
Speaker5: You gotta go.
Robert McKnight: Yeah, yeah. No, just it’s gonna. Yeah, I’m sure it’s gonna ring and it’s going to be Nordstrom’s or or Nvidia. They’re going to say, yeah, please do my insurance. It’s like, I’m still waiting for that call. I’m still waiting.
Trisha Stetzel: Well, and you said some things that I think are really brilliant pieces of advice as well is get to know them, you know, where do they love to vacation. Did they go fishing in Cabo? Learn more about that. What are their children’s names? Like so much around, just getting to know them is so important. And it’s brilliant what you do in your business and even for the community. Robert, thank you so much for joining me today. It’s been my pleasure to host you.
Robert McKnight: Oh, thank you for the time. Hope we can do it again one day.
Trisha Stetzel: So really I would love that. Yeah. How about 2026 Robert comes back and we’re going to talk. Yeah I love that. All right Robert thank you so much again. And you guys it’s all the time we have for today. If you found value in this conversation that I had with Robert, please share it with a fellow entrepreneur, veteran or Houston leader ready to grow. And be sure to follow, rate and review the show. It helps us reach more bold business minds just like yours. And of course, your business, your leadership and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve.