Insurance Broker Aaron Potts: Explains how Konsileo has allowed him to find the perfect work-life balance...
“I spent the first six months on guard waiting to find out what the catch was. Then I spent the next six months not being able to believe my luck and terrified it wouldn’t last! Now I’ve relaxed and I’m just enjoying the best job I’ve ever had.”
– Aaron Potts
How It All Began
Aaron Potts, from Kent, started with Konsileo in 2021, and honestly thought it had to be too good to be true. “I had a friend who worked here already,” says Aaron, “and he told me I wouldn’t believe him that Konsileo was really real. I didn’t, but I took the leap anyway. The flexibility and freedom it promised was exactly the antidote I needed after years working in very traditional and very structured environments.
“I was so disillusioned with the micromanagement and the targets and the competition – all the henpecking and dogfighting – I nearly left broking all together. It just got to be so soulless – and the client got left behind.”
For Aaron, that’s the bit that nearly killed the job for him. He explains: “Going for the biggest commission never sat right with me, because for me it’s always been about the people not the numbers. It’s not about what you can get out of it, it’s about what you can give back. The buzz is in building the relationships and the trust – and that’s what Konsileo values, too.”
Falling Back In Love
Now Aaron is doing the job he loves the way he wants to do it. He says: “I love speaking to different people from different walks of life about different scenarios – and helping them understand and manage their risk. I’ve got a background in construction and manufacturing, and that’s my focus. One day I can be talking to John the motor mechanic in Scotland, the next I can be talking to Jacinda, the CEO of a large haulage group in the Midlands. It’s fascinating, and it’s important to me that each and every one of my clients gets a fair deal. That’s what keeps them coming back.”
Aaron’s been steadily building his book of business, and is now at the point where he’s seeing repeat business, word of mouth referrals, and bigger and bigger returns. But it’s not just the work itself that’s been really different, it’s the work-life balance.
He explains: “I’ve gained so much with Konsileo – my freedom, my confidence, my love of the job – but the biggest thing it’s given me is a stronger relationship with my wife and kids. I’m not the parent who doesn’t show up to parents evening anymore – I’m the parent that’s there every single day, because I’m home and not stuck in the car or the office.”
Sharing The Load
“Just being able to walk to school with my daughters and having a chat is a privilege. They’re changing so much – and I nearly missed it all. I used to see them for maybe half an hour a day because I’d be out of the house before they got up, and back pretty much as they went to bed, and my wife had to put her career on hold to do all the childcare. Now it’s my turn to take up the slack on the home front, and her turn to go for all the promotions.
“In some of my previous roles I wouldn’t have been able to get off early for a school run no matter how much overtime I’d put in. With Konsileo I set my own hours, and I’m trusted to get the job done. And because I’m trusted, I’m actually working better than ever – for the most generous compensation I’ve ever had, too.
“Once you’re hitting your numbers, you share the profits pretty much 50/50 with the company. You don’t get that at your average brokerage, either. And you’re certainly not left on your own – you get to pick your own team from lots of other brilliant brokers and find the people that you work best with.”
A Virtual Team
Working with others while working from home has been the ideal scenario for Aaron. He continues: “I’ve got a little group that gets together virtually on a regular basis. We’ll set up a mini call centre to make cold calls and drum up new business, and we’ll lean on each other’s strengths. If you’ve got great brokers and great salespeople it makes sense to share out those tasks, and Virtual Team Contracting makes that really easy and really transparent. It also means you’ve got cover if you’re away, support for complex cases – and varied expertise to draw from. It feels like a group of friends as well as a group of colleagues.
“I feel like Konsileo has spoilt me for any other company – because I could never go back to working the way I did before. I’ll be here until I retire. I promise you I never thought I’d say that! In fact at first I was bit concerned I might have joined a cult. Everyone was just so lovely, and so positive about being here – I found it a bit surreal. But now I catch myself getting all evangelical about the Konsileo culture and model, too – so I suppose I’ve been fully assimilated!
Liberation
“What I love about Konsileo is that they don’t want you to conform. They WANT you to do you. They really believe in you, and in what you think is right. As long as it puts the customer first and as long as it’s compliant you’re free to work in your own way – and they give you all the tools and the all the support to do so. It’s liberating.
“Having said that, it’s also not going to be for everyone. You have to know yourself, and you have to know your stuff. You can’t just turn up and expect things to be handed to you – you’re going to have to work for it.
“I came to Konsileo with a plan – but if you don’t have a plan don’t worry, because they’ll help you develop one during your induction. So on your first day you’ll know what clients you want, what you want to do, and how you want to do it. So far for me, it’s going really, really well. And I’m finally starting to relax into it and stop wondering if it’s some sort of mirage!”
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