Community Highlights: Meet Jacquelyn Zampella of EAB Insurance Group

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jacquelyn Zampella. 

Jacquelyn, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
“I’m never getting into the insurance industry.” I probably uttered that phrase at least five dozen times from the ages of 13-17. When your mom works in an agency that was started by your grandmother, people can’t help but wonder if you’ll follow in those footsteps. Rightfully so. My grandmother started E.A. Boniakowski Agency (now EAB Insurance Group) in 1951, in a small room in the basement of her New Jersey house. Almost 70 years later, that same agency has over 30 employees and offices in 2 states. Over the years my mom has assumed the principal role and I’ve seen her thrive in a male-dominated industry. The agency has more than tripled its book of business under her helm and I’ve watched in amazement as she sits on agency councils, heads ups boards, and empowers other female leaders. But like I said earlier, insurance just wasn’t for me. I practically grew up in my family’s agency. My mom filed away client policies, answered phones, and even held certain meetings – all with a baby attached to her hip. I’m surprised my first spoken word wasn’t “deductible”. And while I appreciated the flexibility that came with my mom being her own boss (she could attend all my sports games, be my girl scout leader, chaperone class trips…) I didn’t think that getting into the family business was my cup of tea. Yes, there was the appeal of the free trips and golf “meetings”, but I didn’t really find insurance all that interesting. 

When it came time for college, I ended up attending Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA without any idea of what I wanted to major in, I took all the basic business and general ed classes that I needed in order to graduate. Surfing 101 was actually a class and Adam Sandler had a membership at the school’s fitness center. The university taught me a great deal about being far from the comforts of home, having to adapt to a new environment, and how to remain focused on schoolwork with a beach 200 yards away. I fell in love with storytelling and photography and decided to combine the two to study tv and film production. 

I graduated from Pepperdine with a degree in Television Production and went right to work producing for a Hollywood director named Tom Shadyac. You may have seen some of his movies – Ace Ventura, Liar Liar, Nutty Professor, Patch Adams, Bruce Almighty, etc. In 2011, we made a documentary called “I Am” that was widely successful (in terms of documentaries…). We traveled around the country screening the movie at different film festivals, went on Oprah, The Ellen Show, and various other daytime tv talk shows, sharing the movie and its message. The film’s main theme shined a light on how connected we all are and about how important it is to live an authentic life by following your passions. For me, it caused a quarter-life crisis. 

After six years, I left Tom and the job in LA and decided to backpack around South America and Southeast Asia for a year volunteering at orphanages and helping local communities. 

When I returned from Southeast Asia, an opportunity arose to work with an amazing charity in Colorado. I entered the charity world and quickly realized it was a lot like sales. Each day I would “sell” the mission of the charity and our work to potential high dollar donors in the hopes that they would buy sponsorships, donate auction items, supplies, etc. The work was extremely fulfilling, and I was able to see the impact of my efforts every time I visited the main hospital and campus. 

Besides the commute to and from Denver, I truly loved the job and felt like this could be my long-term career. In March of 2017, I received a call from UC Heath Hospital that I had been approved to be an altruistic kidney donor. I know I skipped a lot of information there, but that’s a whole different personal story! I started the medical tests, blood work, and psych evaluations and was approved to donate in July. On November 8, 2017, I donated my left kidney to a 21-year-old stranger in Oregon. He had been on dialysis for years and was rapidly going into full kidney failure with only months to live. With the donation, not only was he able to get a kidney but someone gave on his behalf to someone else, who also had someone giving on their behalf, and so on…we were able to start a chain of seven people that got kidneys. My parents flew out to Colorado to be there for the surgery and stayed with me for the first few days of recovery. Anyone who knows my mom knows she never sits still – never. So, it came as no surprise to me when she suggested I study to get my insurance license while I was recovering from kidney surgery. I wasn’t actively planning on entering into the insurance business, but her rationale was if I got my P&C license now, I’d have it in case I ever needed it in the future. Besides, I had ALL this extra time during recovery to just read about insurance – so fun! I self-studied online and got my P&C license in the state of CO. 

Not long after my surgery date, my one kidney and I went back to work for the charity. As incredible as the company was, like all huge companies, there were rules in place about PTO, vacation, and sick days. “Giving a kidney to a stranger” wasn’t exactly on their list of acceptable FMLA leave reasons so I was forced to use all of my vacation and sick hours for my 12-day recovery. After that, it was back to work – commuting 90 minutes each way to my office in downtown Denver. I quickly realized post-surgery this was not sustainable. One day during the miserable commute home I called my mom, probably to complain about how much I hated traffic and how tired I still was, blah, blah, blah and she cut me off and said “see I told you, you should get into insurance. You could have an office out there near your house and you wouldn’t have to be in the car commuting 3 hours a day”. Why are moms always right? For the first time, the idea didn’t sound that bad. 

When we talked later that weekend, I brought up the insurance thing again and she was excited to tell me about a new partnership her our agency was now a part of that used a four-step process, what value-added services we could provide and how many agencies simply weren’t taking the time to work with clients like this. This was much different than slinging insurance policies at the cheapest possible price. While I knew my family’s agency offered many value-added services before, I liked how intentional the new process was. I was sold. I left my charity job in the middle of 2018 and jumped headfirst into the family business. I am currently designing and building risk management programs for growth-oriented companies while still heading up innovation at my family’s agency. I strive every day to learn and understand each client’s unique story and then work with them to build a plan that we can carry into the future. I love what I do. I wouldn’t call it “selling insurance”, cause that’s boring and what I do is far from boring! I hope that my passion for serving each client is apparent in my relationship with them and my goal is to help their business thrive by eliminating uncertainty in their current insurance program and maximizing outside resources at no additional costs to improve their bottom line. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The path to insurance for me wasn’t a clear-cut easy road – heck it took donating a kidney to make me realize my family business is where I belonged! 

We’ve been impressed with EAB Insurance Group, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
This agency was started by my grandmother over 70 years ago with the humble philosophy that if your treat people right and do the right thing, success will follow. Shortly after she founded the agency, she involved my grandfather, and what started out as a two-person, husband-and-wife operation has since grown into a firm of 25+ employees, licensed in over 20 states. We still embrace the philosophy of providing real, honest expertise and getting the job done right the first time. As we continue to grow and evolve as a business, our clients will always be the center of our world. Unlike a traditional insurance agency, we take a more holistic risk management approach that partners with our clients (and sometimes even prospects) to keep their insurance costs low and maximize outside risk management resources at no additional cost to them. Our passion will always be to proactively protect families, businesses, and organizations – beyond insurance – better than anyone else. We aim to apply creativity, enthusiasm, and spirit to develop solutions and we learn from every experience! We also believe just as strongly in giving back to the community. EAB Insurance Group takes pride in providing financial and volunteer support to more than 25 local nonprofit organizations that provide essential services to the community. 

Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?

In the summer of 1996, my parents took my brother and me to visit my aunt and uncle who had relocated to Healy, Alaska which is right outside of Denali National Park. Even though it’s a part of the US, Alaska is a world of its own! We saw grizzlies, huskies, moose and even had the luck of seeing My. McKinley in all her glory. During the summer in Alaska, it’s sunny 21 hours of the day so as a kid, it was the dream to stay up past 10 pm and have the sun still be shining bright in the sky! 

Contact Info:

• Email: jzampella@eabprotects.com
• Website: www.eabprotects.com
• Instagram: @eabprotects
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EABProtects/