2018 Break Out Awards, Midwest: Nick Hejna
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NICK HEJNA
President of AssuredPartners of Missouri and regional sales leader
AssuredPartners Inc.
St. Louis
Age: 39
Nick Hejna manages the day to-day operations of AssuredPartners of Missouri, leading sales efforts from a regional perspective. He also manages his personal book of business, and before moving into management he built a real estate/ habitation and brewery practice, writing 15 brewery accounts in 2015 alone.
Emerging risks in your specialty
Demographics. Although hardly emerging, the crisis is here. I believe Business Insurance did a story in 2016 or 2017 regarding the aging demographics in our industry. The stat I remember was 25% of our industry was to retire by the end of 2018. Latest stat I’ve heard was 400,000 set to retire in the next three years in our industry. To combat this, AssuredPartners has an industry-leading Emerging Producer Program aimed to responsibly hire and train the next generation of risk consultants. Through regional and national resources, including AP University, AssuredPartners is on the forefront of combating this lingering predicament.
Advice to someone starting in the business
The average success rate for a new producer hire in our industry is around 30%. At AssuredPartners, we have moved the needle on this metric to approximately 60%. How do we do this? We promote team selling. I tell every emerging producer we hire: “You need two things to win every account, relationship capital and intellectual capital.”
Hobbies and interests
Coaching my amazing 7-year-old son Matthew in ice hockey. Really anything that revolves around Matthew — he’s my shining star.
Favorite meal
Kale garbanzo soup and hot pastrami sandwich from Union Loafers in St. Louis. You haven’t had a pastrami sandwich until you’ve eaten at UL — simply amazing.
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2018 Break Out Awards
The 2018 Business Insurance Break Out Awards highlight the potential future leaders of the insurance and risk management sector from across the United States.
