Today we’d like to introduce you to Jim Schubert.
Jim, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’m an Atlanta native who grew up in Sandy Springs as an only child. My parents also have solid Southern roots. So I know it (culture) shocked them when I went to Boston College to become a high school English teacher. I had a passion for teaching. And I went into it with romantic visions of students standing on their chairs chanting “Oh Captain! My Captain!” But after finishing my student teaching positions, reality (and school politics) set in. My heart just wasn’t in it anymore.
So the night before graduation, I took my father’s offer to give it a shot in the insurance agency he’d built from scratch while I was growing up. I started at Southern States Insurance in 2001 by learning how to sell home and auto insurance. Then I moved into Commercial Lines Marketing and eventually became a Commercial Insurance Producer selling to small and medium-sized businesses.
A few years ago, my father and I started working on a plan to perpetuate the agency. I took over ownership in 2016. And we’re now proud to be a 2nd generation company! With a wife and three kids, I’ve found this only child still needs some alone time. So in the past few years, I resurrected an old hobby: Photography.
I’ve spent hours taking thousands of photos (and learning from lots of mistakes). Last year, I decided to turn my rekindled love of photography into a side passion project. Drawing on my teaching experience, I’ve now started Schubert Photography to teach beginner landscape photography online.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
We’ve been fortunate to acquire many independent insurance agencies over the years.
Their locations range from Douglasville all the way to Clayton in the North Georgia mountains. We even had an office in Destin, FL until a couple of years ago. But being so spread outcomes with challenges. It’s easy for some of our smaller and more remote locations to feel like they’re alone on an island. One of our branch managers jokingly used to refer to their office in Ellijay as the “red-headed stepchild” of the agency. I struggled to find a good way to keep in front of everyone as much as possible without constantly being on the road.
Then one day, I got an email from our CPA asking to meet with me and one of our managers. But they didn’t give a location for the meeting. It was just a link to a Zoom video conference “room”.
Lightbulb! This was my solution. Now, I’ve got regularly monthly (and in some cases, weekly) scheduled video conferences with almost every member of our staff across all offices. And the quality of the video makes it feel like we really are all in one room together. With Schubert Photography, the biggest challenge I’ve had is finding time to work on everything. Between running an insurance agency and being a family man, there’s very little time to take photos, process them, write blogs and produce videos.
But something that’s always stuck with me in my business career is what I learned from reading “The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey. Habit number 3 is “Put first things first”. So with that in mind, I’ve been waking up an hour earlier than I used to in order to put Schubert Photography first before the rest of the family wakes up each day. After two months of doing that, I’ve been able to produce several blog posts and videos that would have taken hours and hours away from my other responsibilities.
Please tell us about Southern States Insurance… AND… Schubert Photography.
Southern States Insurance has grown into one of the largest privately owned independent insurance agencies in Georgia. We have 3 offices in metro Atlanta and 3 in the North Georgia mountains. What we do comes down to Options, Value and Relationship. Our partnership with the nation’s leading insurance carriers provides clients with options. We find the best coverage at the lowest price. Ensuring that what they buy from us has the most value.
And having a trusted independent insurance agent means you can protect your dreams through a long-lasting relationship. Serving our local communities is important to us.
And nowhere is that more true than through our leadership in the Insure The Cure movement. Insure The Cure was started by Clay Snellings, a fellow insurance agency owner. A few years ago, Clay asked me and a few other insurance executives to band together as an insurance community to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
Clay’s daughter lives with cystic fibrosis, a life-threatening genetic disease that primarily affects the lungs and digestive system. Currently, there is no cure. Our mission is to rally the Atlanta insurance community to raise money to find a cure for the disease. Each year’s fundraising culminates in a one-day walk.
Insure The Cure has grown to almost 60 teams and several hundred people from the local insurance community walking in the Great Strides Walk. Since 2011, we have raised over $1.6M. Schubert Photography is an online learning resource for beginner and intermediate landscape photographers. Through blogs, videos and an online community, budding shutterbugs can learn the shooting techniques and post-processing skills they need to inspire others through their photos.
I’m a “weekend warrior” photographer who’s self-taught. So that’s the audience I tend to attract. Folks who want to learn for the sake of creating something beautiful and sharing it with others. Not necessarily someone who wants to quit their job and make a full-time career out of it. I have a special affinity for sharing what I’ve learned about long exposure photography.
Images of star-filled skies. Dramatic landscapes with sweeping blurred clouds. The passage of time in a striking time-lapse. The purpose of my own photos and what I teach others to create is to make people say “Wow!” and inspire them to fall back in love with the natural beauty that’s all around us.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
If I could go back and add a college major in marketing, especially digital marketing, I would do it in a heartbeat. Since my days as an English teacher, I’ve always loved writing. Telling a story and connecting with people gives me a sense of purpose.
So learning how to spread that message has become a secondary passion of mine. I’ve spent more hours than I care to admit studying on my own how to take advantage of 21st Century media. But it sure would have been nice to get a jump start on that in college.
Contact Info:
- Address: 3600 Mansell Rd. Suite 525 Alpharetta, GA 30022
- Website: http://southernstatesinsurance.com AND https://www.schubertphotography.com
- Phone: 888-800-4824
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