Renee Fairley

My career path has been anything but traditional. I'm prior military, and after my service, I owned a hair salon. I got involved with Mary Kay and actually won a car through them, which led me to move to Hawaii. When I came back to the mainland, I was struggling to find work and no one would hire me. A friend suggested life insurance, and honestly, I thought she had insulted me at first - you know how we think of insurance agents as not being the best. But when she told me she made $10,000 in her first month, I said sign me up. That's how I got into the insurance market in 2017. I started with a captive company where I could only work with one company, and it was really hard because if someone had one health issue, they wouldn't accept it and you'd waste all that time and couldn't help them. That company kind of burnt me. I moved around a bit - to Seattle, then to Texas - and eventually connected with a lady who brought me into the company I'm with now. I operate as a broker, not just an agent, which means I work with multiple different companies instead of being tied to just one. We focus on the senior market, the baby boomer generation, and we help them make sure they're getting everything they're entitled to and that their policies will actually pay out like they think. We also make sure they're getting living benefits, which means if something happens and they become critically ill, chronically ill, terminally ill, or permanently confined in their home, they can use the policy while they're alive. Medicare has become a huge part of what I do, and it's so rewarding. I can get seniors qualified for Medicaid, which helps pay that $200 monthly premium they really can't afford. For someone who only gets $900 a month, putting $200 back in their check is life-changing. I can also help them get food cards and other government programs - that extra $100 or $200 a month that you and I might take for granted really means everything to people who are struggling. Now I'm responsible for a team. My job is to help them make their paychecks. When they go out into the community and get into a home, they call me and I help them close that sale. We start every morning with a conference call that's training and motivational, then I reach out to my team and they call me throughout the day when they need help. I hit it hard when I started - from September to December 2022, I won the Rising Star Award. Then in 2023, my first full year, I won Rookie of the Year, Female Agent of the Year, and Agent of the Year. I won all three of those awards. I recently moved to Corpus Christi, and I live right across the street from the beach. Life is good right now.