Mission Matters: Luke Shipp

Luke Shipp, of First Insurance Group, aligns his life with the values of the agency, which means placing your community and the people around you first and foremost. When you lead your life with this mindset then everything else falls into place.

Community and family first are not just an agency motto, Luke truly lives it. From when you are first hired at First Insurance Group, you quickly become part of the agency’s family, including your personal family. Luke wants to ensure everyone feels included into the importance of what they do for the community. To ensure this happens, Luke and his wife will take the new hire and spouse out to dinner to ensure the family connection is seeded.

Representing clients is not an 8-5 job. As you could imagine, claims do not always happen in that 8-5 window, but rather in the evenings, on the weekends, in the middle of the night, and holidays too! Luke ensures his team and his team’s family members understand and feel a connection to these values.

First Insurance Group is committed to two charities; Junior Achievement and United Way, two organizations that have a national reach but a local community-focus. The agency is so committed to community and putting people first, they provide 8-hours a year for anyone in the agency to volunteer their time to a charity of their choice. They do this because all their team members prioritize the same things, family and community. Not wanting to take any more time away from them being able to spend time with their family when they are not working, they provide this opportunity for the team to leave the office, during work hours, to volunteer. It’s just another way First Insurance Group brings their values to life.

So fittingly, this brand-new father of a sweet 3-month old baby boy, prioritizes charities that involve children. So outside of Junior Achievement and United Way, Luke and his wife spend any extra time they have focusing on improving the lives of children. When asked where this passion stems from, we received an answer we weren’t expecting!

Luke was majoring in education at Bluffton University and wanted to be a middle school math teacher. In his third year, he had a life changing conversation with his marketing professor that made him change his major from education to business. Within 2 months of that conversation, Luke had a job as an underwriter and the rest, as the saying goes, was history!

Even though he switched to business and entered the insurance industry, education still runs through his veins, as he spends quite a bit of time teaching and investing in others! He served as an adjunct professor at Bluffton University and still teaches producers about the current insurance markets.

It became quite clear through our conversation, Luke takes leadership to a higher level and really, we must describe him as a mindful, servant leader, both within the agency and throughout the community. He places an emphasis on education because it’s all about lifting people up and providing them with the tools and resources to succeed in what ever they are doing so they too, can pay it forward.

When asked what words of wisdom he leaves for the Next Generation of leaders, he reiterates what drives him. It’s not about the pay – how he makes money, is far different than what he does. He helps educate people and builds a plan that is customized for that individuals’ needs. It’s all about the client, the people, and the community. When you do right by them, and do the right thing, then everything else falls into place.

Success Starts Here

Sign up for our newsletter today!

This is an OIA member benefit, please log in to confirm your membership before signing up! Not a member? Contact Andrea Heiss at andrea@ohioinsuranceagents.com!