Lee Nickels has known for a while that being in the insurance business was something he would be extremely well suited for. After all, Nickels’ dad was in the insurance business for the majority of his life.
However, the one thing Lee did not know is where exactly he would be working and what company he would be selling insurance for.
Last week marked one year since Nickels set up shop in Russellville as a certified agent for State Farm Insurance. Nickels was born in Columbus, Mississippi and lived for 10 years in Horn Lake, Mississippi, in a county of about 180,000 people. Transitioning from a county with a population nearly five times that of Franklin County has been a major adjustment for Nickels and his family.
“It’s definitely a different atmosphere than where I’m from,” Nickels said. “The toughest thing, I think, for us in terms of making adjustments has been the social aspect of things. The shopping, dining, and things like that.”
Nickels graduated from New Hope high school in Mississippi in 1998 and went on to receive his bachelor’s degree from Mississippi State University in 2003. He and his wife of 12 years, Mary, have four children named Callie, Harrison, Sadie and Jacob, with another little one on the way.
Nickels worked for a few different companies, including New York Life Insurance as an associate, before making the switch to working for State Farm. After working for State Farm for a few years, Nickels knew that this was the company in which he wanted to attempt to move up.
“I have always been on the business-minded side of things, and I tried to look for the place that would be the best investment for my family and me,” Nickels said. “After working with State Farm for a few years, I decided that this is where I want to work, and I knew they would treat me right.”
From October of 2011 to February of 2017, Nickels served as an agent team member before going into training to become a Sales Agent himself. According to Nickels, there are three ways that a State Farm agent gets their start: They can either take over once an agent passes away, once an agent retires, or if the company decides on a new location for a new agent to open up. Once he completed his training, Nickels was assigned to Russellville to take over once longtime State Farm agent Gus Garrard decided to retire.
Before he was assigned to open up his own office in Russellville, Nickels said that while he had not heard of the town before that moment, he was excited to move forward to a new chapter in his and his family’s life.
“I was an approved State Farm candidate for about a year-and-a-half, and once you become approved by State Farm you get access to a website that details where exactly there are openings,” Nickels said. “I had honestly never heard of Russellville before I saw the opening here. You can’t just go where you want to go; you have to go where there’s an opening. But at the same time, my wife and I wanted to keep it relatively close to our family in Mississippi, and Russellville seemed like the perfect spot for us.
“So far that’s been right.”
On August 1, Nickels received confirmation that he was now a under a permanent contract to remain with State Farm after he and his staff posted fantastic numbers over the past year. According to Nickels, State Farm takes a couple of things into consideration when they look into extending permanent contracts to agents. Some of the things they take a look at are performance reviews, overall numbers for the year and determining if the agent has learned to overcome objections as well.
Nickels said that if it had not been for the great work by his staff, achieving the important milestone would not have been possible.
“My team has done tremendous work this past year in getting us to where we needed to be in order for us to get that contract,” Nickels said. “Marilyn Hutto is my office manager, and Jesse McLain and Lucy Berryman are my account managers. They have done an awesome job for our office this past year.”
One thing that a lot of people tend not to know about Nickels and his staff is that while they do offer your basic insurance packages like home, auto and life insurance, they offer other services as well. Some of the other packages they offer are home mortgages, auto loans and Medicare supplements. According to Nickels, he is also in the process of getting approved to help people with their investment planning. Nickels encourages anyone looking for help in starting their 401K or other investment plans to go by and see him to get started.
The reception that Nickels has received since coming to Russellville has been an outpouring of support that, according to him, has been a tremendous boost to him and his family.
“It’s been a tough journey getting to this point where I am at now, and when you have to put everything behind you and move to a new place to start up your business, it can make you nervous,” Nickels said. “But everyone here in Russellville has been extremely kind to not only me but also my family and my staff as well, and we are just so appreciative of everyone that has allowed us to help them over the past year. We look forward to many more years here in Russellville.”
While his family, staff and the people of Russellville have been very supportive of him, Nickels says that without God none of this would have been possible.
“I just want to give thanks to God, because without the Lord in my life I would be nothing. The power of Jesus Christ is amazing and what compels me to move forward in life,” Nickels said. “The most important thing to me is to run a Christian business the way the Lord wants us to and just do our best to serve him. To me that is the most important thing, showing the love and kindness that our Lord and Savior would want us to show. Without him, none of this would be possible.”
