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Intro (00:00):
Welcome to the Why Alliant podcast, the show that takes a deep dive into what makes Alliant not only a great place to work, but a company that is laser-focused on putting our clients first, by investing in the best people, removing barriers and delivering the best outcome and every possible competitive advantage. Here is your host Bledion Dizdari.

Bledion Dizdari (00:29):
Welcome back to another episode of Why Alliant. I'm your host Bledion Dizdari, and with me today I've got the pleasure of having Tim Carlson. Tim is a part of our construction services platform. Tim, welcome.

Tim Carlson (00:43):
Thanks, Bled. Glad to be here.

Bledion Dizdari (00:45):
Awesome, so Tim, we'll just talk a little bit about how you got to Alliant and your experience thus far in the last couple of years.

Tim Carlson (00:52):
The last firm I was with, I was there for about 13 years and I've been in the industry for, hard to admit, but 30 years. And I've always been on the retail insurance broker side; for probably the first half of my career, I specialized in just general business, small middle market, construction, manufacturing, things like that. Over the last half of my career, I've really developed a specialty in construction project insurance. About 75% of what I do is construction project insurance, I represent owners and developers throughout the country, writing that insurance from New York to Hawaii. And when I was considering moving to another firm, it's a small world, so obviously I knew all about Alliant, familiar with the people there, either through industry events or competing out in the market for clients against them.

I've always had a very healthy respect for the management and the people at Alliant, especially on the construction side. So I knew that for what I do, joining Alliant was going to be plug and play. I knew I would immediately have a platform of people and resources to be able to service my clients. I like to think anyway that I have really high customer service standards, so I didn't want to have to build a practice group from the ground up. I had some offers from some other retail firms. They wanted me to start a practice group and potentially take it national. I didn't want to do that because what I do best is take care of clients and I knew that from day one when I joined Alliant, I would be able to do that without missing a beat at all.

Bledion Dizdari (02:47):
Thanks for providing that feedback. What reservations, if any, did you have about joining Alliant or thinking about joining Alliant?

Tim Carlson (02:54):
I think it's normal and healthy to have some reservations, even some fears, especially coming from my last firm of so many years. But beyond those, I really didn't have any reservations, because again, I knew a lot about Alliant, I knew a lot about the people and I knew a lot about what they did, so I felt confident it was a firm that I could succeed at.

Bledion Dizdari (03:20):
Absolutely. And what has impressed you the most or what have you found the most unique about Alliant since you've been here?

Tim Carlson (03:26):
The enthusiasm, the expertise and the willingness to help. I've talked a little bit about being able to plug and play and service my clients and things like that, but quite frankly, it's been an upgrade. The bench of talent and experience in the company is greater than what I expected. I've actually been able, in my opinion, to bring more to my clients. There's certain parts of the country, like New York, it's a very different insurance world in New York for what I do versus the rest of the country. Having access to the New York team for Alliant has just been massively positive for what I do and for the clients that build in New York.

Bledion Dizdari (04:12):
Absolutely. And just to go on the back of that, how has the one P&L model affected your service team, carrier relations and client service capabilities? I think that's where you were getting at.

Tim Carlson (04:23):
We all kind of work as one - the practice group, the construction practice group, as well as the other industry practice groups are very close knit. I have people all over the country. It really doesn't matter what office they sit in or where they might work remotely out of; there's not any sort of barrier to accessing those people to help with servicing the client. Or even on the broking side, a lot about broking is about relationships. Some brokers or some folks within Alliant might have a better relationship with certain carriers, and there's no barrier to access those directly.

Bledion Dizdari (05:02):
Absolutely. And how would you say that has impacted your everyday business interactions and overall success in the last two and a half years you've been in Alliant?

Tim Carlson (05:11):
I think it just makes it naturally easier. It's no different than all of us sitting in the same location.

Bledion Dizdari (05:19):
Of course. That makes total sense. Do you think the company you choose to work for impacts your success as an insurance professional? And if so, how, Tim?

Tim Carlson (05:28):
It does immensely. Obviously. There's only so much that one person can do. I can't be all things to all people, and especially when you're going after clients in the country that are typically larger and more complex, more sophisticated from the standpoint of risk management and insurance, they don't want one guy to wear every hat. They want to be able to deal with multiple people in the firm that have various specialties. So partnering or working for a firm that has those established practice groups or resources, whether it's risk engineering, loss control claims, it helps to bring that specialized talent directly to the client. And I could not handle the type of clients that I handle at just a small local or regional firm. I need the depth and the breadth of a national international type firm and Alliant fits that.

Bledion Dizdari (06:32):
Absolutely. You've transitioned phenomenally within our platform. You've been a seamless transition. You came right in and fit the mold of our players within our platform, and it's been very apparent your success right from the beginning. So congrats on that.

Tim Carlson (06:48):
I appreciate that. And the other thing too is that from the top down, everyone at Alliant, we all want to see everybody succeed, and especially coming in new and I'm a fairly seasoned insurance person. It was nice to see how people wanted me to succeed. They were available to help navigate things through the company that I may not know about or introduce me to people within the company that could help me that I wasn't aware of. There was this natural tendency to be helpful because they want to see you succeed as well. And hopefully now that I've been here a couple years, I'll be able to pay that back to somebody new that's coming in to the firm in the future.

Bledion Dizdari (07:31):
Absolutely. And what would you tell an aspiring producer to consider when choosing a career in insurance?

Tim Carlson (07:37):
First thing I would say is invest the time and the effort in learning the business and learning insurance coverage, learning about the industry that you're going to work in. I think it's important to have that foundation to succeed anywhere. And then choose a firm that's going to, number one, care about you and care about your success, and that's going to give you the support you need to go out and succeed. It's critical to have a firm that operates as one. I don't know how many offices we have. I think we have a couple hundred. Those offices are not operating autonomously. We're all operating together and we're all trying to share in the information and the ultimate success.

Another thing too, this industry is going through a massive shift in generations. You've got a very large generation that really built this industry over the years that ultimately will be retiring soon. And that creates a tremendous opportunity for younger talent to come in. And I know Alliant has invested a lot of time and resources into cultivating the next generation, so to speak, that can come in and be appropriate stewards of the client base that Alliant's really done a good job of growing. I think that's critical. It's very forward thinking. It's outside of the box and it's proactive.

Bledion Dizdari (09:03):
I think that's very good feedback. Tim, one thing I recall from our conversations before you joined Alliant is we had many conversations, and I think it's important during that interview process, that it be mutual back and forth. As much as we're asking you questions about you, you should be asking questions about the firm that you're about to join. I thought you did a profound job at that, where you were inquisitive about the resources, where they are and how it's going to help you succeed for the future. And as long as everything that we represent is correct and vice versa there's no reason why we shouldn't succeed.

Tim Carlson (09:42):
Agreed. And coming into the firm, we had a lot of success out of the gate and we continue to have success and there's been quite frankly, a need to grow my internal team and management has been absolutely willing and quick to allow me the ability to do that, and it's worked out really well. Awesome.

Bledion Dizdari (10:08):
Tim, we appreciate your time. Thank you for joining us today on another episode of Why Alliant. This has been a lot of fun, and I'm very happy to see all the success that you've had here in the last two and a half years going on three. I wish you continued success, 20, 30 more, however many more you got in the bank.

Tim Carlson (10:24):
You got it. I appreciate your time.

Outro (10:30):
Thank you for listening. For more information, visit us at www.alliant.com/WhyAlliant and mark your calendars: Alliant will be at RISKWORLD鈩� in San Diego, May 5-8. Visit us in booth number 1843. Want to meet with the Alliant team during the event? Go to alliant.com/RISKWORLD2024