TO FEED AND PROTECT

Young Texas agency owner combines farming with insurance

By Christopher W. Cook

In the insurance industry, certain dedicated young professionals stand out among their peers
and are members of an elite squad of individuals. These are their stories. “Dun dun.”

Having grown up in the suburbs, I knew very little about living in the country, particularly on a farm, despite my dad’s having grown up on one. Sometimes I find it ironic that I married a farmer’s daughter.

Thanks to extended family members on my dad’s side living in a rural area, I at least knew what 4-H was, but I never participated in any related activity. Even today, when I hear the acronym FFA (Future Farmers of America), my mind goes to the scene in Napoleon Dynamite where the title character is naming off how different jars of cow’s milk are defective. “This tastes like the cow got into an onion patch.” And, yes, you should’ve read that in his voice. Gosh!

The physical labor, the long hours, the scents of varieties of manure—some of us weren’t made for the farm life. One individual, however, was—and he took it a step further.

Terren Moore, owner of Moore Farms & Insurance Services, LLC, in Greenville, Texas, developed an interest in farming when he was 15 and joined his high school’s FFA chapter. Moore started a garden and brought some of his harvest to share with classmates and their parents at an FFA meeting. Knowing that the attendees at the meeting were eating something that he grew sparked something inside Moore.

“I told my parents I wanted to do acreage, and they supported me through it,” Moore says. “I’m a first-generation farmer of vegetables. I have multiple tractors now and continue to grow my operation.”

“Invest in relationships first and foremost. Don’t look for policies to sell; look for people to form genuine and authentic relationships with. Repeat this and you won’t have to hunt for business.”

—Terren Moore
Owner
Moore Farms & Insurance

Moore furthered his education and attended Tarleton State University, graduating with a degree in agricultural services and development in 2017. During his college years, he worked jobs as a camp counselor, a greenhouse manager, and a ranch hand. Farming was his passion, and he was all in.

So, where does insurance fit into the picture?

While in college, Moore “found an organization called Texas Farm Bureau (a grassroots group that lobbies for farmers and ranchers). It had an insurance benefit, but I never considered a career in that field,” he says. But he fell in love with the concept of meeting new people constantly and started his insurance career in 2018, when he was offered a job as a personal lines agent with Farm Bureau.

Moore spent a little over three years at the agency before he opened his own in December 2021. Moore Farms & Insurance Services offers personal, commercial, and disability products, with a niche in farms and ranches.

The agency motto is to “feed and protect,” where Moore “provides fresh produce while serving your auto, home, and life insurance needs,” according to its website. While educating his clients on protecting their assets, Moore also shares his knowledge of farming and growing food with them.

Throughout his insurance career, Moore has been thankful for a number of people who have helped him along the way.

“My first mentor in the insurance business was Jeff Whitt, with Texas Farm Bureau Insurance; he gave me a shot when I was 21 years old and fresh out of college,” Moore says. “That is a high risk to hire someone so young with no experience, but he taught me how to prospect, fight objections, close business, and retain business. To this day, he is one of the best managers around.

“I have several agency-owner friends who I can now always pick up the phone and call. There are so many that I’d hate to start a list and leave someone out, but Chris Paradiso, Charles McDade, Kaleigha Cramer, Sheri Sears, Erin Neill, and Bill Butler are some, to name a few.

“There are hundreds of agents who I know and trust to help me. I am 26, so I am usually the youngest agency owner at any event. But these people take me under their wing, and I am so grateful.”

While Moore is still new to agency ownership, his determination to succeed helped early on in his career. “I left Farm Bureau as the top P-C agent in my district, as well as the top life insurance agent; I won all the trips you could win and all the bonus money,” Moore says.

The last of the trips was to San Diego, California, to attend an Unstoppable Profit Producer (UPP) event with Mike Stromsoe (see the April 2016 cover story in Rough Notes magazine). “It was an awesome event and I left with things that I could apply in my agency,” Moore says. “I also signed up for coaching.”

For young or new insurance professionals just starting out their careers, Moore advises to “invest in relationships first and foremost. Don’t look for policies to sell; look for people to form genuine and authentic relationships with. Repeat this and you won’t have to hunt for business. It is all about loving people.

“Don’t be a quitter; don’t be lazy. Be active; be healthy. You can’t be there for your clients if you are in the hospital for an illness,” he adds.

When he’s not tending his grounds or meeting with his clients, Moore enjoys traveling and meeting new people. He’s also a musician at church, where he plays piano and drums. In junior college, he played drums on a full-ride scholarship in the marching band for a few years.

He also served as the past president of his local Kiwanis chapter, which “helps children in our community who are under served. We help them financially with scholarships and donations for events,” Moore concludes.