20 under 40: Aaron Struck

Favorite quote or saying, why?

Bob Biggs, my college football coach, once said: “It doesn’t matter who you are, how old you are or the successes you’ve had. There’s always someone younger, smarter, who’s working harder than you and is trying to take your job.”

There are a lot of similarities between sports and life and I’ve tried to maintain this sense of urgency every day I step into my office.

Community or professional highlights:

I started Struck Insurance Services by myself in 2007 at age 26 with a desk out of my garage. I originally started SIS solely as a group medical benefits brokerage firm but as time went on we’ve grown to be a single source for insurance for companies throughout the Central Valley, and in 2014 we changed our name to Struck Insurance Services from Struck Employee Benefits to reflect this.

Some of our recent awards from our carriers are: No. 1 brokerage firm in California for Sutter Health Plus; top 2 percent of all brokerage firms in Northern California for Blue Shield (based off new business and retention); top percent of all Northern California brokerage firms in California for Kaiser Permanente (Kaiser won’t give exact stats on where I or other insurance firms rank. They can only say I “rank in the top number of groups I manage and overall premium”).

Community service and outreach:

Guest lecturer at UC Davis, Managerial Economics; guest lecturer at Stanislaus State; member of Modesto Rotary Club 2007 to present; past board member of Modesto Christian School; past board member of Youth for Christ; leadership Modesto graduate (2008-2009); member of Neighborhood Church. My wife is a speech pathologist for Ceres School District (10 years).

Your life changed when:

On New Year’s Day, 2007. I was newly married, unemployed, and the house we were renting was just broken into on Christmas Eve. I contemplated going back to school, working for other firms or taking a chance on myself and starting my own business. I had no idea how to accomplish starting a new business or what that even meant, but I figured since I had no children and no mortgage our risk was low. The plan was to give myself two years then reassess; if I didn’t enjoy my carrier or I didn’t meet my expectations of success, I’d fire myself and revisit school or change careers altogether. So on Jan. 2, 2007, I started Struck Insurance Services with my cellphone and a desk in my garage. The No. 1 question I’m asked pertains to my planning and how I penciled everything out. A lot of students think starting a company mirrors (Facebook founder) Mark Zuckerberg’s experience in the “Social Network” but that wasn’t my reality. I’m a fairly risk-averse person but my wife believed in me and more importantly, I believed in myself. At the two-year mark I reassessed and although I still didn’t have the means to pay myself, I was building momentum and headed in the right direction. In hindsight, even if we were losing money hand over fist I still wouldn’t have quit; I was too stubborn to not see it through.

What do you want people to know most about you?

That I take both my career and my job as a father very seriously. Raising two boys in a God-honoring way in today’s culture is not an easy task. Continually pausing and reflecting on the mistakes I’ve made, both personally and professionally, has allowed me to grow as a father and business owner tremendously. Early in my career my primary goal was to just grow and acquire; however, the more I grew the more I quickly realized I couldn’t do this alone and the more I realized how selfish I could be. With having such a small office it’s impossible to grow if I only cared about the needs of myself so creating the right culture and treating my employees exceptionally well was, and is, important to me.

What do you like most about living here?

I love the entrepreneurial spirit that lives in this town. It’s the graciousness and welcoming attitudes of Modesto business owners that have partnered with me despite only being 26 (yet looking much younger) when I started. What was true nine years ago when I started and is still true today: If I do what I say I’m going to do and have the mentality to be as aggressive as possible to help my customers, it doesn’t matter how old or young someone is. People can rally behind that. This mentality was important at our beginning and remains at the core of who we are as a company.

Why is community involvement important?

Every person feels their town is small but what makes Modesto truly unique is the small-town feel that business owners have with each other. Serving alongside each other outside of a professional setting has always been important. Whether it’s serving on local nonprofit boards or simply participating in Love Modesto, linking arms with fellow community members has always been a piece of what makes Modesto so unique.

This story was originally published August 21, 2016 at 6:09 AM with the headline "20 under 40: Aaron Struck."