"Lead by example, energize with positivity, and plan your path to success."
April Jordan Tweet
In their remarkable journey, April Jordan embarked on a career in insurance starting as a captive agent, benefiting from comprehensive product and sales training. This foundational experience instilled in them the core tenets of selling, client-centric service, and ethical conduct within the industry.
Achieving Round Table status and becoming a leading producer of property premiums fueled their early career aspirations. Briefly venturing outside insurance to work with the local Chamber of Commerce in Georgetown County, April honed networking and relationship-building skills before returning to the independent agency realm, serving as a Producer for over a decade.
Residing in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, with their husband Bobby and son Collin, April finds joy in family activities, church involvement, and nurturing their garden.
In 2021, April seized the opportunity to join Carolina Property Insurance LLC as Managing Partner, a role that introduced them to the intricacies of team leadership.
Through this journey, April learned that effective leadership is not inherent but rather a skill set acquired over time, particularly through guidance from leadership coaching.
Embracing a servant-leader mindset, April cultivated a culture of gratitude and mutual support within the agency, fostering a team-driven approach that prioritizes client satisfaction. Their commitment extends beyond business, as they actively engage in supporting charitable initiatives for children and veterans, reflecting the values integral to their agency’s ethos.
As Carolina Property Insurance LLC continues to flourish, April remains dedicated to nurturing growth, both within the organization and in their personal journey.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
April Jordan: My name is April Jordan. I am blessed to be Managing Partner at Carolina Property Insurance LLC. We are an independent brokerage that offers personal lines products focusing on, but not limited to, Coastal South Carolina.
I graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1997. I live in Murrells Inlet with my husband, Bobby, and my son, Collin. We attend LC3 Church.
We enjoy camping, watching Collin pay Lacrosse for St James JV Sharks and spending time with our extended family. We love where we live!
Can you share a time when your business faced a significant challenge? How did you navigate through it?
April Jordan: When I became a part of Carolina Property Insurance, my background was primarily as a Producer. I never had the opportunity to lead a team.
I trained other coworkers in past positions but never was considered a lead team member. I always worked in smaller agencies throughout my career. When I talk to my partners when they were considering me as a candidate, I told them, “I know insurance, but the management piece is going to be a learning curve.”
I did not realize how spot on my insight really was until I walked through the doors to begin this journey. The Friday afternoon before I started, I received a call from Darren. He said, “I hope you are ready because one of our producers put in her notice and she has moved to another agency.
Pull your boots up by your bootstraps and let’s go.” I walked into an agency that had a tremendous source of referrals and business, but we had no systems. I had one other employee. I was answering the phone, learning a new system, writing new policies and learning how to be a partner and a manager.
Morale was very low, and it got even lower once I started suggesting changes and introducing processes. To say it was stressful is an understatement. We worked hard, and it was very difficult to service the volume of business we were getting. For the 18 months, it was extremely difficult trying to keep my head above water.
Things got better and then we would take a few steps back. Our agency was growing, I had employees who did not like the changes and did not like my management style. There was a lot of turn-over in a small-time frame. I was not being the leader that I wanted to be.
In October of 2022, I attended the Annual Conference for SC Big I. I was eager to find resources to help our agency and introduce my agency to new carriers in order to offer more products to our clients. At that conference, I met Matt Kirby by just simply saying hello.
Matt was with Southwestern Consulting, and he was one of the keynote speakers at the conference. Before this conference, I also registered for a series of webinars for agency management. I knew I needed help. I suddenly realized that Matt was the trainer who led the webinars as well.
On my birthday, Matt and I met via zoom, and he introduced me to how his company could help me become the leader I was struggling to be. October 25, 2022 was the day that we met, and it was actually my birthday. I decided to invest in myself and my agency by enrolling in coaching with this wonderful organization.
My partners were totally behind me and knew it would be the game changer that we needed. After time spent with my personal coach Victoria and deciding to dig in and get the job done, we are growing and thriving as individuals and as a team. I learned how to be a leader who leads with the attitude of serving others.
The challenge was not a single event, but a string of events that drove me to a place where I knew I had to do better and be better for our agency. Coaching, perseverance and hard work started to get us through the storm. Most importantly, we added the right people to the team. We navigated this together!
How has a failure or apparent failure set you up for later success?
April Jordan: The failure of not being the leader that I wanted to be for my team set me up for future success in many ways. That feeling is a horrible feeling burns deep within your gut. I never want to feel that way again. I live my life every day not to go backwards, but progress forward little by little.
I know that my team members deserve a great leader and someone to lead with them. Our clients and referral sources deserve better! I deserve and desire to have the feeling that I know I am doing the best for my agency and my team. The success is so much sweeter when I know that we are creating something special together. I see how far we have come.
And I remind myself, that we will never go back to where we started. It is all about growth from the inside out. And we are growing both ways. Our agency grew with a 50% increase last year. We did this together. My mantra for 2024 is simply 1% better every day!
How do you build a resilient team? What qualities do you look for in your team members?
April Jordan: We celebrate the best in each other. We show gratitude for each other. We help each other. I look for people who are knowledgeable and experienced- absolutely. But I also look for people who are going to be a good fit for the culture we have worked so hard to develop.
Cooperative, coachable and team focused. Independently driven yet have the ability to consider the overall goals and focus of where we are going as a company as well. We want rock stars!
How do you maintain your personal resilience during tough times?
April Jordan: Stay positive and breath. Plan ahead when we can. Believe and accept everything is temporary. Surround yourself with good people, and it makes all the difference.
What strategies do you use to manage stress and maintain focus during a crisis?
April Jordan: Life is busy and the insurance industry along the coast of SC has changed a lot over the last two years. Rates have increased due to reinsurance costs for our carriers and the increase in claims on a global basis has added to the hard market. Some carriers have become insolvent or stopped writing in coastal areas.
We work the systems we have in place, and we are always open to tweaking things when they need to be changed. I have learned to take a step back and know that I cannot accomplish everything in one day. Time blocking has been an essential part of my organizational skills learned. It has been a significant part of handling the stress of leading a team. You have to take small pieces of the puzzle and handle them individually.
Each part that you finish, gets you closer to your overall goal. Fitting the pieces of the puzzle together by completing the small tasks allows you to tackle the entire puzzle. And, I have also learned to pat myself and my team on the back when we see movement and we accomplish goals together.
Otherwise, you just get overwhelmed. My team also is willing to help each other. When we get in the weeds, a word of encouragement and assisting each other is always an essential part of being a team. Take time to celebrate the wins! I am proud that we have this in our business.
How do you communicate with your team during a crisis?
April Jordan: We talk and discuss things in person. We approach issues together and collaborate on ways to tackle the crisis step by step.
I learned early on to never manage by email. It does not translate well. What you think you are conveying, is not always received. It was a hard lesson to learn.
What advice would you give to other CEOs on building resilience in their organizations?
April Jordan: Lead by example. We set the pace for the entire team. Our energy and our positivity are two essential motivators in others. Decide who and what you want to be and use reserve engineering to decide what parts are a must for you to get to that point.
Always show up and be willing to work along-side of your team. We should be able to hustle with the best of them. Find people that are talented and develop them in the roles they enjoy and thrive in. Surround yourself with good people.
The meaning of organization is an organized body of people with a particular purpose. You need people because you cannot do it all alone! There are people who can do things better than you and you need them in your corner.
How do you prepare your business for potential future crises?
April Jordan: I am better prepared for any crisis because of the journey I have already taken. My team is string because we can count on each other.
Because I have surrounded myself with good people, I know that we can accomplish anything together.
What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned about leadership in times of crisis?
April Jordan: Leadership is not a natural talent. I believed that once, but I was very naive. You are not born a leader. Leadership is a set of skills that you learn, strive for, develop, adapt and most importantly, SHARE.
You share what you learn with others. Invest in your people so that they can develop their own skills. The whole is certainly greater than the value of any individual part. I would love to have many leaders on my team when times get tough again. And they will.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank April Jordan for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with April Jordan or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
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