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TL:
How did you get into the insurance business?
SF: When I was 18 years old,
I was involved in a car accident, and broke my finger.
Unable to work as a laborer, my father told me to help
at the office. Thirty years later, I’m still here”
TL: What was your mother’s & father’s
name?
SF: McDara P. Folan, Jr. and
Patricia (nee Cribbin)...
TL: What did they do for a living?
SF: Dad was a partner at the
Frank O’Rourke Agency (soon to be The Folan Agency),
and mom was a mother of five who became the head of
the surgical resident staff at North Shore University
Hospital in Manhasset.
TL: If you didn’t go into insurance what would
you have done for a living?
SF: Become a successful Wall
Streeter.
TL: Who is the most influential person in your life?
SF: My Mother. She showed me
how to step over adversity. She is a fine example of
never compromising your values.
TL: If you
could have lunch with any person living or dead, who
would it be and why?
SF: President Lincoln. Born
a poor man, he became very successful and articulate.
I would love to hear about his fears and aspirations
during that trying time in our country’s history.
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TL: What was your childhood
ambition/what did you want to be when you grew up?
SF: A New York Ranger. Being
a child of the 60s, I thought being an astronaut would
be cool, too.
TL: What is the largest single
policy premium you ever wrote?
SF: I don’t remember
the premiums, but the commission on a Self-Employment
Pension paid my two kids’ Catholic high school
bill one year.
TL: Do you remember your first
sale, what was it & when?
SF: No really, but I remember
having to write assigned risk auto policies for clients’
children when I was a few years in the agency. Minimum
coverage on a 17 year old male with driver’s
training in Port Washington was $812.00!
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TL:
What is your one indulgence?
SF: Anything from the
bakery...rolls, donuts, bread, honey buns, cookies...mmm
TL: Yankee
Fan or Mets Fan?
SF: I’m one of
those few people that root for both teams, but
deep down it’s orange and blue.
TL: What
is your favorite movie?
SF: The Blues Brothers
or Trading Places.
TL: What is the strangest
place you ever closed a sale?
SF: I recently sold a
homeowners policy to the manager of the pro-shop
while he was sharpening my skates.
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TL:
Who is the most famous client you ever insured, past
or present?
SF: Bill Torrey – the
GM of the NY Islander dynasty, or the publishing company
Hartcort, Brace & Jovanovich. Billy Joel came to
our real estate department once, but he didn’t
buy the house.
TL: What was your first car?
SF: My first and favorite was
a 4-speed Mustang…unfortunately, that was the
car totaled in the accident that got me into the insurance
business.
TL: Do you remember the cost of a gallon of gas when
you first started to drive?
SF: 42 cents…I remember
all of us scrounging up $2.00 to give to the friend
who was driving that evening, and we would ride all
night. I filled my Mustang with $7.00!
TL: What is your current ride?
SF: 2008 Lexus ES350
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TL: What is the
farthest distance you ever traveled to make a sale?
SF: I sold a contractor’s
GL while at my daughter’s national softball tournament
in Raleigh, NC.
TL: What do you like most about your job?
SF:
Meeting and talking with people.
TL:
If you could have any Super Hero power what would it be?
SF: Being able to fly. No more
traffic!
TL: What
one thing has changed the most since you started working
at your agency?
SF:
Besides the color of my hair, it’s easily technology.
In 1979 we were manually rating, waiting for commercial
quotes for weeks, things lost in the mailroom, waiting
for signatures. Now everything is input, faxed, scanned
or emailed. |
