Women at Work
Insurance agent brings strong faith to her business
Shanna Stuckey, a LUTCF at Farm Bureau Insurance has been blessed throughout her insurance profession. She has been working in the insurance industry since January 2009, and is just starting her 13th year.
Although the insurance industry is challenging, Stuckey has taken the path of work hard with dedication. She exemplifies a personality that wants to help people and strive to fulfill what help is needed. Because she has a passionate drive to help others in this profession, it's been an inspiration to perform her duties in this line of work.
"I think the biggest challenge in the insurance business is the—“I thought that was covered!” statement and also just the lack of knowledge and understanding about how insurance works in the general public," Stuckey implied.
She added, "It was for me, as it is for many, just “something you have to have.” She mentioned after she got into the business, she learned very quickly that there is quite a lot to insurance that many do not realize.
She said, "I try very hard to make sure when I am discussing insurance with my clients that they know what they are getting and what is covered. So client education is paramount to me."
"It is way easier to have those education conversations on the front end than the heartbreaking conversations after a loss," she added.
Stuckey went to Malvern High School, but moved her senior year and graduated from North Garland High School in Garland,Texas. She studied business management at Richland College in Dallas, Texas.
Stuckey mentioned she studied life, health, property and casualty insurance at ISTA in Little Rock in 2008 and passed the licensing exam; then in 2010 she received her LUTCF designation in insurance from The American College.
She has achieved and accomplished a lot throughout her 13-year career and feels the journey God has allowed her to experience has helps Stuckey become a strong person in the business world.
"I feel like God sometimes puts you on the path when you don’t even realize where you are going. After a 13-year career in facilities management, in Dallas, life brought us back to Arkansas," Stuckey said.
She added, "I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up when I got a call from a dear friend and colleague about an opportunity in the insurance business."
"It was a total leap of faith, having zero experience in the business, but I jumped head first into the deep end of the pool and never looked back. It has been a true blessing," she said.
Growing up, Stuckey has lived in several places, but Malvern is a place she loves to call home. She said, "I guess if I have any roots very deep they are here in Malvern. I was born in Duncan, Oklahoma. We moved all up and down the central U.S. with my Dad working as one of the hardest working pipe liners I know."
She feels blessed to have children and family raised in Malvern, that has a caring spirit in the community.
Stuckey mentioned, "I met and married a Malvern boy along the way and life took us to Texas for a good little minute, but Malvern was home. We were blessed enough to be able to come back and raise our boys here in the little hometown that we love."
One asset Stuckey loves about her job has been the people she works with. She feels she is surrounded by an outstanding group of colleagues and that has been a blessing.
"I am very blessed to work with a fantastic work family. In today’s world I feel like it is sometimes difficult to ‘plan’ because you really are never 100 percent sure where God will lead you, but if my plan and His align, I plan to stay at Farm Bureau where I have the opportunity to do a job that I have grown to love and help families protect what they have worked so hard for," Stuckey said.
Even with a great working
family, Stuckey also feels blessed about her actual family of her husband and sons.
“My greatest blessing is my family. I love spending time with my husband and my boys,” Stuckey said.
She mentioned Up until last year when her youngest graduated from Malvern High school, she spent lots of time volunteering for Scouts and Band and Sports and whatever else they were into—that took her down the road with them.
“I enjoy decorating and doing projects and luckily, I have a great guy that is always up for whatever crazy project or event I have gotten us into,” she said.
She has a lot of great memories and experiences with her family and many fun moments with her husband.
There was a year she told him she needed to spray paint more than 100 wine bottles, in freezing temps, in the garage, for a project she said she was working on; but Stuckey emphasized, “I’m pretty sure he questioned my sanity.” But nonetheless, Stuckey said he did set up an area and put a heater in the garage so she could get it done.
For activities to enjoy when not conducting business of insurance Stuckey said, “I love to cook and am always game to take a recipe and see if I can do a little ‘somethin – somethin’ to make it better.”
She mentioned, “One of the ladies that I work with says that my food tastes so good because it is cooked with a “little bit of love”. I wholeheartedly agree,” she said.
Also, Stuckey loves to decorate and do craft projects, flower arrangements, parties, gatherings, etc. “If you need something jazzed up, I’m your gal— just follow the trail of glue and glitter,” she said.
Since the insurance business has been a productive career for Stuckey, she believes her inspiration to work hard has been her dad.
“My dad is one of the hardest working people I know. He has taught me that oftentimes we can’t make sense of what is going on in life, but watching him truly live his life walking by faith and working hard for everything that we ever had was an inspiration for me,” Stuckey said.
“I was very blessed to have so many great mentors along the path of both of my careers. I just try to do the best I can with what God gave me in every situation and hopefully help and mentor others along the way. You know walk the walk,” she added.
Stuckey values the importance to devoting 100% of dedication to the workplace. She feels blessed and honored to share her experience amongst hard working women that loves to help people in the working industry. She has met many people from her involvement in the community and is truly blessed for this opportunity to be considered for an honor to exemplify a dedicated working woman in the community.
“It is an honor to be selected for this profile. I have had the opportunity to work with so many awesome ladies in our county through different paths that I took before and after coming to Farm Bureau,” she said.
She added, “Working with and through the Chamber, Brickfest, Community Holiday Meals, ASUTR College Foundation Board and so many other community events and organizations has shown me just that. There are so many hard-working women in this area that truly love our little community and just want to make it a better place to call home.”
Stuckey included, “To be counted among those highlighted is truly a privilege and a blessing.”