MRL #010- The Incredible True Story of Work Comp Willy, The $17MM Producer

In today's issue I'm going to tell you an incredible true story that will hopefully make you rethink what's possible.

A quick bit of housekeeping, first.

First, I suck at grammar. I have no idea how to properly write dialogue... so bare with me.

Second, I was not given permission to tell this story so I'm going to respect everyone's anonymity. The names, places, and companies have been changed.

The revenue numbers have not.

Lastly, I realize 99% of you will likely call bullshit, or have some level of skepticism. But, for a few of you out there you will take this story as inspiration to go bigger. I'm writing this for you.

I assure you this story is 100% true and recounted to the best of my memory.

Our story begins over an unimpressive pair of turkey and cheese sandwiches...

I was at lunch a few months ago with a Work Comp underwriter. We'll call him Joe.

There was no special reason for our lunch. Just the obligatory meetup that agents and underwriters do to talk shop and take advantage of corporate spending accounts.

About halfway through our lunch I asked Joe:

"Do you know of anybody that niches in just Work Comp?"

He smiled. "As a matter of fact I do."

"Before I was an underwriter I actually did loss control for ACME WC. I traveled all over the northern half of Alabama and I swear, for every 10 places I went it seemed like 9 of them were clients of a fella named Willy Wilson out of Tuscaloosa."

"No way," I said. "I'm from Tuscaloosa."

"Yeah, I don't know how he managed to do it. But, back in the 1990's and early 2000's Willy's little one man shop had more premium with us than anyone else. And not just a little bit more. Like, more than most agencies in Alabama."

"Is he still around?" I asked.

"I dont know," said Joe. "I reckon he's probably retired by now. Specially considering all that money he must of made."

We finished our lunch and said our goodbyes.

I hurried back to my truck. I was going to track down Willy. If he truly wrote that much business surely I would know someone back home who could get me in touch with him.

I figured my best first move was just to try Google. So, I took out my phone and googled "Willy Wilson Workers Comp".

Boom. There he was. His face and phone number were right there at the top of the first page.

Surely, it couldn't be that easy? I thought.

I dialed the number.

Half way through the second ring, a jovial voice with a smooth southern draw answered.

"This is Willy"

Holy shit.

"Willy, this is Max Revenue. You dont know me... but, I just had lunch with Joe Smith from ACME WC and he told me that you were somebody I need to talk to."

Willy laughed. "Oh yeah? I know Joe. What'd he tell you?"

"He told me at one time you wrote more Workers Comp in Alabama than most agencies."

Willy laughed again. "Yeah, I guess I did."

"If you don't mind me asking, how in the Hell did you manage to do that?" I asked.

"Well, its pretty simple really. I just went door to door in Tuscaloosa when I first opened my agency," he said.

"What do you mean you went door to door?" I asked.

"I mean I literally went door to door. I'd find a row of businesses every day and go from door to door and introduce myself."

"What did you say? Surely, you had some kind of pitch or something?" I pried.

"Not a whole lot, honestly. I just introduced myself. Said I was a Work Comp expert and if they ever needed help to give me a call."

"That's it?" I pleaded.

"I had written a book too," said Willy.

"I'd leave it with the business owner when I left. At that time nobody had their own book. Except me. It gave me instant authority. In hindsight, it was really my secret weapon. Think about it, nobody throws away a book. My book would just sit there on their desk until they got a bad audit or something and then they'd call me."

Willy continued...

"Also, you need to know at that time, businesses were having quite a time with Work Comp in Alabama. Lots of people needed help. Kind of like what's happening with trucking companies nowadays with all the personal injury lawyers."

"So, you just went door to door, introduced yourself and left them a book?" I continued.

"Yep, thats it."

"And, Joe said you only wrote WC? What if the client asked you to do their Auto or GL?"

"I refused. I only did WC. The way I see it, you cant be half pregnant. I positioned myself as the WC expert and I stuck to it."

"That's amazing! If you don't mind me asking, how big did you get?"

"At one time I had $17MM in revenue on the books..."

And it was just me and 10 service girls. I think we had 3,500 clients at our biggest."

"You mean premium, right?"

"No. Revenue." assured Willy.

"$17MM in revenue, that's insane!"

Willy laughed.

"What was your minimum?" I asked.

"I didn't have one," said Willy. "I would write the little guys as well as the big guys. I didn't care. If they were within an hour or two of Tuscaloosa and they had WC, I probably wrote em' at some point."

Willy and I talked for another 20 minutes.

When I figured the serendipity had run dry, I thanked him for his time and we parted ways.

I cranked up my truck and drove back to the office with my head spinning.

I couldn't wrap my mind around it. You see, Tuscaloosa is NOT a big city. Meaning...

Willy built a $17MM book in rural fucking America.

On my way back to the office I called my Dad. In the 1990's my family owned a Dry Cleaning business in town.

"Dad, do you remember a guy named Willy Wilson?"

"Oh yeah, I remember ol' Willy. He wrote my WC all the way up until I had to shut the doors in 2008."

"Holy shit! How did yall first cross paths?" I asked.

"He just walked in one day and introduced himself. He handed me a book and left. About two years later I got a real bad audit, so I called him and asked if he could help."

"Sure enough he found where they had over charged me $4,000. So. I gave him my business and he kept it till we closed."

As soon as he said that a light bulb went off in my head.

I have an auto dealer client in Tuscaloosa. For the past 4 years I've written their entire package. Except for their WC. Despite repeated efforts to snag that piece too, they've refused every year to get me their policies.

My clients words began to resurface in my mind.

"We've got a guy who handles that. He's a WC expert. He saved us a bunch of money back about 10 years ago. We'd like to stay put."

No way, it was Willy. Could it really be? I thought.

I hung up with my Dad and pulled open my files. Straight to my auto dealer. I remembered my client had accidently sent me the Dec page of their WC a few years ago.

I found it, and opened.

Sure enough. There he was... Willy.

I couldn't help but laugh.

A few hours later my phone buzzed. It was a text from Willy...

"I want to send you something I found. What's your address?"

Considering he seemed to be in his late 60's and harmless, I obliged.

5 days later this arrived at my front door step.

With a note attached that read:

“I found an old copy of my book. Hope this helps. Wishing you the best of luck. -Willy.”

Ok, that's it for this week...

We'll continue on next week.

See you next Sunday.

Kick ass take names,

Maximus F. Revenue IV