If you’re going to support a cause, give it all you’ve got. That’s how one broker has approached a commitment to help a friend make a difference in the world.
Ryan Spilar (pictured, middle), commercial account executive at Heart Lake Insurance Brokers, took a ride on the wild side back in 2016 when he joined Filipe Leite for a journey on horseback to the end of the world in Argentina – and he plans to rough it again, this time in Alaska.
Outside of Spilar’s outdoor activities, he spends much of his time at Heart Lake, a brokerage that prides itself on customer service. Its commercial and personal lines team members have on average two years of experience, and Spilar says that all of its employees have a clear reason to be there.
A 2016 Young Guns professional, Spilar has plenty of experience in the world of insurance, and he had room to build his own book and develop a passion for the business, which he points to as a way to encourage other young people to become brokers.
“We were given time to screw up and make mistakes, and not be on a deadline with someone looking over your shoulder. You own your own book, so you have a reason to stay,” he said
Read on to find out whether Spilar worries about returning to the wilderness, why the bonds of friendship isn’t the only reason he’s supporting Leite, and why he’s an insurance professional through and through.
I flew down about a year and a half ago to São Paulo with him, in the southern part of Brazil, did the journey with him, and try to help him out whenever I can now. He’s starting his other leg next May, and he’s going from Anchorage, Alaska to Calgary to finish his trip. He’ll have the entire continent done, and I’m just trying to raise awareness and see if we can do anything for him to generate some buzz. He’s doing it for a children’s cancer hospital in Brazil.
It was surreal, but it was also the southern part of Brazil, which is not the glamorous part of [the country]. It’s countryside and cowboys and hard living, but it was a mind-blowing experience and I’m glad I got to be a part of it, which is why I’m so into his next part of his journey, because if it’s anything like that, it’ll just be another amazing experience.
I was able to quarterback that and launch that, and it’s just absolutely taken off. We’re hoping to get it to about 10% of our revenue from Heart Lake Financial, and we’re really close to that number. I would say that’s my greatest accomplishment, but it’s ongoing. It’s not a finite goal, so I would say that and being able to build my book from scratch. I wasn’t given a book or anything like that, so everything that I‘ve written, I’ve had to write from cold calling and knocking on doors, which was again another proud experience for me, being able to do that and survive.
It’s good for me in a sense because there’s not many people that are out hungry for business knocking on doors like I was, but it’s alarming at the same time.
