Like Father, Like Daughter and 10 Questions with Tiffany Bertolini, President of PIIB
Question 1:
Tell me about your background. Where did you grow up and go to school?
Tiffany:
I was born in St. Louis, Missouri, but I was only there until five.
My Dad was transferred from St. Louis to Sacramento, California. We were only supposed to be in California for five years, but we stayed. My mom wanted to move back, but we remained in El Dorado Hills throughout my childhood. After attending Sacramento State, I purchased a house in El Dorado Hills not too far from my childhood home.
When we moved here, there was a Raley's and a community center. That was it. It's grown into a great community to raise a family. My son, Eli, will attend the same schools.
Question 2:
You were introduced to the insurance industry by your father, Larry Manning, who unexpectedly passed away in March.
Did you always plan to follow in his footsteps?
Tiffany:
No, absolutely the opposite. I never had any plans to follow in his footsteps. I was "trapped" at an early age.
I can remember going into the office with him on Saturdays because he was a hardworking RVP for The Hartford. At that young age of ten, I was already conducting "meetings" in the Hartford conference room. My audience was my little brother.
We would go around the entire office with a wagon of candy, and our job was to pass out two pieces of candy to every desk, so on Monday morning, all the employees would have a surprise. We took our job very seriously.
I like to tease that I was "trapped" at the age of 10, but I was 16-years-old in reality. My father was running PIIB from his home office. We had seven agencies. He asked me if I wanted to start helping part-time while I was in high school by doing some administrative work. So I did, and that continued through college.
I remember attending one of our events and an agent telling me, "Don't get licensed. If you get licensed, then you're in it, and you can't get out. You're trapped." I held off getting licensed until I was 19.
After college, I decided, "Okay, I'm going to make this a career."
Then in 2012, my father had a massive heart attack. That's when I had to step up and take a more critical role in the company while he recovered. From there, we became a team. We didn't always agree, which was productive, but we were a fantastic team.
Looking back, I'm incredibly grateful to be in this industry and to have worked with him so closely over the years. He left us too soon.
Now, I plan to follow in his footsteps and continue to grow this amazing organization he built.
Question 3:
Why are dogs allowed in the PIIB offices?
Tiffany:
Why wouldn't there be dogs in the office? We're all dog lovers.
It started in our old building. Our landlord would bring in her dogs, and we thought, "Oh, that's a good idea, let's bring in our dogs."
This was long before the whole 'bring-your-dog-to-work' thing was an everyday thing. At first, Rachel and I were the only people working for PIIB, just two dogs to start.
Then as the team grew, the dogs grew. So now, on a typical day, there are five to eight dogs here. They've become branded as the "PIIB Pups," and they have their own Facebook page. It just is such an easy perk that people love. Dogs make you smile, and we all need to smile.
Mine's sitting right here. She's getting old, but she's right here.
Question 4:
What is your dog's name?
Tiffany:
Her name is Annie. She's 14-years-old now—and she's still hanging on.
Question 5:
What do you really call Annie?
Tiffany:
I call her Annie Girl, and Moochy-Poochy, because she's a big beggar. If you have food, then her little face is in your lap. She's a mooch for sure.
Question 6:
Let's talk about PIIB and AgencyKPI. How did you hear about AgencyKPI, and what do you think about the relationship so far?
Tiffany:
Our Chairman, Kirby Wells, originally introduced me to the concept and introduced me to Bobby and Trent.
To be honest, I was extremely skeptical. Internally, we were brainstorming a program of our own. Data has always been a pain point for us, so the timing of being introduced to Agency KPI couldn't have been better.
So, I remember when Bobby and Trent demoed KPI for the first time; I thought, "Do you have our wish list in hand?" It was terrific, but I was still on the skeptical side and had a lot of questions.
It wasn't until I met Trent in Texas at a conference. We had the opportunity to sit down and have a more in-depth conversation; then, I understood what AgencyKPI could do for an organization like ours.
Fortunately, the board of directors supported the initiative, and we signed on as the third beta partner.
Then pretty shortly after we signed on, we flew out to Austin to meet Bobby and the rest of the team. I remember leaving that meeting pumped. We got a feel for their company and the team, and were excited to start the project.
Life is short, and we like to work with people we like, and we love Bobby and Trent, and we love the AgencyKPI team. Their work is so important. They're transforming the space for networks.
Question 7:
Are technologies like AgencyKPI vital to PIIB's future?
Tiffany:
Absolutely. I think technology is changing so fast, and it was such a hot topic of discussion for our agencies, and trying to figure out how we help them navigate through the endless options that are out there in that space.
Now with our new world and COVID, it's forcing innovation on everybody. It's forcing us to do things that we should have been doing before, at least from a technology standpoint. So, for a network right now, it's great that we have a tool like AgencyKPI to identify different revenue streams and help our agencies in that sense. More than ever, we need to help our agencies adapt and create better alignment with our carrier partners, which ultimately generates revenue for everyone.
I think AgencyKPI is kind of a bridge to that alignment that we need. It's almost like data meets relationships—and our industry is still relationship-based, which I love. AgencyKPI will allow us to deepen those relationships with our carriers and our agents by having productive data-driven conversations.
We are focused entirely on our initiatives with AgencyKPI to help our agencies because right now, there are external factors we can't control. Still, we can control how we operate and how we automate, and we can back up the decisions we can make using the data.
The data's always been there for us; it just was never usable. It's like a puzzle, and the individual puzzle pieces are the data. They're all in different colors and sizes, and, individually, they don't tell us the whole story.
AgencyKPI, bit by bit, is helping us put that puzzle together with the outcome being a completed puzzle that's going to guide us in our next path and showing us that whole picture. It's crucial to our future success, and I'm excited for what is to come.
Question 8:
You're Italian by marriage, can you speak Italian? If so, what phrases do you know?
Tiffany:
No, I do not speak Italian. Unfortunately, my husband doesn't speak Italian.
The extent of my Italian is—if I'm feeling Italian and cooking pasta—I might go, "Berto-li-ni!" And I know "Grazie!"
The only other thing I would mention is we had a chance to travel to Italy before my son was born, and my husband started calling me "Mia Bella," which is "My Beautiful," but he doesn't do that anymore.
So I need to get his butt back to Italy, because I'm like, "Hey, remember that time you used to say ‘Mia Bella’ to me, like every day when we were in Italy? You can bring that back."
Question 9:
You say you're challenged in the kitchen, what do you mean by that?
Tiffany:
I hate to cook. I feel lost in the kitchen because I don't do it often. Every time I attempt to do it, it seems like the first time, and I'm lost. And, unfortunately, I think that reflects in my cooking.
I've always wanted to be a good cook and prepare nice meals for the family, but I think I'm finally coming to terms that will not happen.
I feel for my husband because he's this Italian man who grew up with a family who cooked every night. His grandma made homemade ravioli, and he has a wife who can't cook. But it is what it is.
Question 10:
Rumor has it that you like Oreos a little bit. True or false?
Tiffany:
I have to say true. I have a serious problem with Oreos.
My friends think it's funny to buy them for me, even out-of-town friends mail me packages. They find it funny I have no self-control and will eat the entire pack.
I have a real problem. People like to send me the different flavors or seasonal packages, but I'm all about the double stuffed original flavor.
British 2 Year-Old — Not Tiffany — Tries OREOS for the First Time!
Television commercial for Oreo Cookies. (1986)