Phalesha Kyes

Agent/director of marketing and communications
Alliance Financial & Insurance
Grand Rapids, Michigan

Age: 27
Guilty pleasure TV show: New Girl
Uber or Lyft: Uber
In your earbuds: “The Five-Second Rule: Transform Your Life, Work, and Confidence with Everyday Courage” by Mel Robbins on Audible

Why insurance?

My dad started the agency a little over 10 years ago, and I’ve been in the business since the doors opened. I was 16 and wanted to make some money, so I started just by cleaning the office. And then when I was getting ready to graduate high school, my dad gave me the books to study to get licensed. I stayed in state for college, but I had no idea about anything about insurance. I failed the test three times.

But I trekked through that, graduated with my associate’s and was like, “I don’t know what I want to do.” I was getting ready to apply to a school down in Florida, and my dad was like, “How about I give you a full-time position and more money?” So he hired me on full-time and helped make that decision a little bit easier.

What’s to love?

From a community give-back perspective, insurance businesses do so much for their communities, and I love that—it’s probably one of my favorite parts. Whenever we have an idea, we’re always backed by the companies. Four years ago, we started a Quotes For A Cause campaign where for anyone who goes to our website and gets a quote, we donate $10 to one of two local charities—Kids’ Food Basket or Mel Trotter Ministries, you choose. Kids’ Food Basket provides meals to children in need, and Mel Trotter runs a shelter and programs for people who are homeless or addicted to drugs to help them find jobs, find homes and get back on their feet. We went to one of our carriers with this idea, and they were like, “Yeah, we’ll donate half—you donate $5, we’ll donate $5.”

That’s been running four years now. But our agency has a dual approach to community service where we do agency bonding plus community giveback. We’ll team up two agents who get together and go down to Kids’ Food Basket and just volunteer for an hour. And then I personally work down at Mel Trotter at the soup kitchen, and I teach a class once a month to help people in the program write their resumes and learn how to use a computer.

We’re definitely involved with the charities—it’s so much more than just throwing some money at them. We believe in getting down there and getting our hands dirty a little bit. There’s just no limit to what we can do to help people in this industry. Insurance has such a negative rap, but I want to prove everyone wrong.

Millennial stereotype that drives you crazy?

That we don’t work for anything, that we’re flaky. I hate that—it makes me so mad, because I’m very independent and self-motivated. I’ve been in the business for almost 10 years, I bought my first house when I was 20, I sold it, I bought a second house, so this idea that our minds change every time the wind blows and we’re never going to be committed into a career—that is not right!

Millennial stereotype that fits you?

I do see that millennials are getting married later. I’m 27 and I’m like, “Meh.” I’m just not in a rush at all. I have to travel, I have to go see the world, I have all these things I want to do. When it happens, it happens. I saw this meme the other day—and maybe that’s another stereotype, my life is consumed by memes, so that one I concede to 150%—I saw this meme that said, “My parents at 27: house, five kids. Me at 27: Did I feed my dog?” So true. I got kicked out of the gardening club because they were like, “You don’t know what you’re doing.”

Thoughts on Gen Z?

I have nine sisters, and three of them are under the age of 18. I swear, they could unlock iPads, download games and do all that stuff before they could speak in full sentences. It’s ridiculous, but part of me is also just so impressed. So I see that, and I guess the fear is that the insurance industry is really going to have to fast-forward its technology to be able to market to the people who are that advanced. If Gen Zs come to a company where they have to fill out paper application or anything that involves manual work, they’re going to have a hard time feeling seen.

Industry’s greatest challenge?

Perpetuation plans for some of these older agency owners, because of that stigma that millennials are terrible. If you don’t have family you’re leaving it to, then you have to find a millennial you don’t hate, because what else is going to be your perpetuation plan?

Future goals?

I am new into the marketing and communications scene, and I’m self-taught—I can’t tell you how many YouTube videos I’ve watched on how to read Google Analytics. From a marketing standpoint with our online presence, my goal is to be able to properly identify the culture of our agency and then express that correctly when we communicate with our clients. I want them to know that we are family-owned and we do have this local hometown feel, but we can also take care of all their technology needs, we’re multifaceted in what we offer, and we all give back to our community. My goal is to properly display that culture to our clients, carriers and potential clients and make sure we have a good name in the insurance industry, because as big as it is, it’s also extremely small.

Advice for a fellow young agent?

Persistence. I remember when I started, there were so many times where I would just cry. I was an 18-, 19-year-old girl, and these guys were calling me like, “Is there someone else I can talk to?” I was like, “Come on, I know my stuff!” When you’re a young person in this business, there’s so much negative energy sometimes. It’s very easy to get discouraged. If you stick with it and always have that fuel for knowledge growth, you’ll be perfect.

This interview is the seventh in a series that profiles 10 millennials in the independent insurance industry, based on IA’s July cover story.

Jacquelyn Connelly is IA senior editor.