Josie Paiz has been in the insurance business for over 39 years but who is counting? She also is the only woman to own a locally owned independent insurance agency that she knows of right now and she isn’t stopping there.
Ask her where she envisions her business in five to 10 years and she says “very competitive.”
“My philosophy has always been, whether their (customers) premiums are $5 or $500 or $5,000 my personal commitment to them is all the same,” she said. “And I have a lot of existing clients that are very dedicated and loyal to me that have followed me to the agency.”
She has been a life-long Gallup resident with an impressive resume that dates back to even before she turned 15 in high school, when she got herself involved in a group called, “Office Education” where she had to have an office job.
So, she did what every determined teenager would do and sought after an office job answering phones and typing policies up manually. Luckily the owner of the agency was involved in church, real estate and insurance, which would be the beginning of her career in insurance agencies.
She graduated from Gallup High School and she says that since there really wasn’t a school you could go to learn insurance. She was self-taught.
“You are either going to like it or you are not going to like it,” she said. “I’ve learned a lot from a lot of different people. All of the agents taught me different things at the agencies that I worked with. They were very detailed and very business-orientated and they taught me to not be afraid of the big agents in Albuquerque.”
She says that she worked for three separate agencies before launching Amazing Grace Insurance.
However, there came a point in her life where she was ready to step away from the insurance business until she started working for Amazing Grace Personal Care. The owner, Tom Crider, opened her eyes to a completely different field than what she was used to.
In the process of that, she and Crider started talking, and since she was already fully licensed and “grand-fathered in,” it was agreed that she would continue selling the insurance that she was already selling. So, they opened Amazing Grace Insurance.
“Tom wanted me to pick a different name – Josie Paiz’s Insurance Agency, but it wasn’t going to get any kind of patriots to Tom, and none of this would have been possible, first without the Lord, and second without Tom,” she said.
Amazing Grace Insurance has been in business since June 2015, and is a bustling office. Paiz considers it a family business because it is staffed with four people: her husband, as her assistant; her daughter as the administrative assistant, and her son, as the information technology guy.
“It’s different from anywhere else I have ever worked because it’s family,” she said. “I think that if you have that love for family and you love what you are doing and it is not about money, and it is more about pride, and your customers and how they feel and how they are going to look at you.”
She says that compared to the other agencies, here in town, Amazing Grace Insurance is small, but she is up for the challenge. Step inside her office, and it’s a lot like a home – warm and inviting – complete with pictures on the wall, whimsical and modern decor, and pretty furnishings.
Amazing Grace Insurance offers commercial insurance, which is property, liability, workers comp, bonding and anything that the business needs in order for them to function fully. They also offer policies for homeowners, automobiles, mobile homes, motorcycles, boats, and life insurance. They also offer Aflac Insurance.
“There’s only so much business in Gallup because we are a small community,” she said. “It comes down to personal service. I really believe that. We are going to do well. You have to dream big and you have to believe.”
For more information call (505) 863-8083.
By Chrissy Largo
Sun Correspondent
