For Mike Valentine, working at Beehive Insurance is a family affair, although he never imagined that he’d be working in the industry.
“Todd Valentine is the head person for the benefits team here, and he happens to be my older brother,” Mike said. “Our sister, Kim Beal, also works at Beehive Insurance, and our dad has been in the insurance industry his whole career.”
Mike came to Beehive Insurance from working for a graphic design company specializing in anatomy software.
“My brother Todd got so busy where he had more work than he could handle, so he reached out to me,” Mike said. “I was actually looking for something new at the time, so we connected, and that’s how I came over to Beehive Insurance.”
After earning a degree in psychology from BYU, Mike’s career path has become much different from what he expected.
“I always joke that I’m using my degree mostly for my personal life, dealing with my wife and kids,” Mike said. “Psychology goes hand-in-hand with sales and dealing with employees and HR professionals. I’m not your prototypical salesperson. I never thought I would be in sales, but I’m pretty good at it. I’m good at relating to people, asking questions, and being a listener as opposed to a talker.”
As a Senior Account Executive/Producer at Beehive Insurance for just over eight years, Mike has had to continually learn more and more about the ever-expanding industry.
“Insurance is one of those things that’s really hard to understand, especially as a broker,” Mike said. “You have to know a little bit of everything. We sell multiple different medical carriers, dental carriers, vision carriers, life, and disability policies. You have to know all of their products and the networks, so the product knowledge is extensive and takes time. In a lot of ways, I feel like I wear a lot of different hats, which I love. There are a lot of moving parts, and I love that I don’t go to work each day and do the same thing over and over. It’s something new pretty much every day.”
That variety, combined with the benefits that Clyde Companies offers its employees, has compelled Mike to dig into the company.
“I love the mission statement and purpose of Clyde Companies,” Mike said. “The fact that they really care about their employees and invest in them is amazing. They have an incredible benefits package. It feels like you’re working for a Fortune 500 company with the benefits here. You’re backed by a very large organization, but you feel like you’re working for a much smaller company. You get the best of both worlds.
“I love the culture here. You need to love where you work. You need to enjoy the people that you work with. You need to feel valued. You need to feel like there’s opportunity to grow and expand. All of those things are in abundance at Beehive Insurance, especially within our benefits department. We cultivate a culture of collaboration. The insurance industry is typically very siloed where you work independent from everyone else but feeling like you have a voice is huge. I’m glad to have found my voice at Beehive Insurance.”
