Board Spotlight: Tina Blackwell Romaine

 August 29, 2024     0 Comments     FAIA Newsroom


FAIA's Board of Directors is made up of volunteer leaders who give generously of their time and expertise to serve the association and our industry. Next up on our Board Spotlight is Tina Blackwell Romaine. Tina, who took over her family’s insurance agency, talked about why it’s important for young agents to work hard and remain optimistic about the future. 

Tina Blackwell Romaine, ARM

Director, FAIA Board of Directors

Agency Name: Blackwell Insurance 
Title: Agency Principal
Location: Panama City, FL, Santa Rosa Beach, FL
 
What led you to decide to pursue a career in insurance?  
 
When I was in 8th grade, I promised my father I would go to Florida, major in marketing, move to Atlanta, get a job as a construction underwriter trainee, and then eventually come back and work with him. I did all that, and then I also took a job as a broker at the largest brokerage firm in the world, Marsh, prior to moving back to Panama City in 2006 and taking over the day-to-day operations here. 
 
Who has made the biggest impact on your career and what was the most impactful lesson you learned from them?  
 
I have been fortunate to have had a lot of wonderful mentors throughout my career on the carrier side, on the brokerage side, and when I came back and worked with my father. But the thing that my dad told me when I first started is, “Tina, if you show up every day in this business and work hard, one day you will wake up and you will have this huge treasure chest of knowledge, and you will be able to help people every single day.” And that was probably the best advice that I got when I started my career. Knowledge and success, professionally and monetarily, takes time, but the great thing is if the work is put in, the opportunity is immense. 
 
Do you have any advice for young agents that you wish you had received at the very beginning of your career?  
 
I tell everyone in our environment this every day: If you do not get a deal or lose one, you cannot take it personally and take it home. You need to leave it at the door, enjoy your friends and family, and hit it as hard as you can the next day, because you must be hardworking and optimistic. When one door closes, another door opens. I wish, if I could go back, that I would not have dwelled on failures from the day-to-day, and been more focused on what kind of success I would have the next day. 
 
Why did you choose to commit your time to serving the association as a Board member?  
 
I started my insurance career in January of 1998 and, as an independent agency, we have been through so many twists and turns in the Florida insurance marketplace. We had thousands of claims after Hurricane Michael. We saw every claim to the finish line, and I thought that the Florida property insurance marketplace was so tough then that I finally had something to contribute and make it better for my colleagues and our consumers.  
 
The one thing that I have always enjoyed the most about this industry is the people that work in the industry. They're all hardworking, smart, they want to solve problems, and they want to help people. We're all in the business of trust and I have always had so many amazing friendships and relationships in this business, and I think it's what makes it wonderful. So, to have friends and peers nominate me for the board was a huge honor and really made me feel very appreciated at a time when I felt like I could help. 
 
Can you give us one word that best describes how you work?  
 
Hard and efficient. I have worked really hard my entire career to streamline operations, to make tricky products simplistic for our clients, and try to be as efficient as possible with our time in our agency. In this business, you've got to be a hard worker, and you've got to be able to be able to prioritize your time, because there are so many demands on any given day. So, we focus a lot on preparation, we close deals with our clients with clean, concise, insurance summaries so they know what they bought, and try to create efficiencies in our organization so if people are looking for information about what they can expect, we can give them that information in a five-minute call.  
 
What would your colleagues be surprised to know about you?  
 
When there were COVID lockdowns and there was nothing to do, we started a band, and I was a terrible, but very passionate, lead singer. Since I am Tina, I was the lead singer for the “Quarantina” band, and every Friday or Saturday night of every weekend, we would put out a song. It just gave us something to do that was fun to keep our spirits high during COVID. My husband played the guitar, and we would have people fill in, like a neighbor who played bongos or one of my best friend's daughters who played the piano, and we would do it in our driveway. 
 
The person we interviewed before you was Brian Chapman, Jr., and they had this question for you: "If you had one place you had to go live for the rest of your life, besides where you currently live, where would you go?" 
 
That is hard, because I love Florida! I love everything about it, and I love that this state provides the most fun, recreational opportunities at any given moment, while also giving you the opportunity to work like you were in New York. So, I don't know where else I would live; it would probably have to be somewhere else in Florida. I lived in Atlanta for almost 10 years, and while I did enjoy it, my heart has always been and will always be in Florida. I love where I live, and I think it's the most beautiful place in the world. 
 
What professional accomplishment are you most proud of? 
 
I would say when I took over my father's Insurance agency. He had all paper files and a fax machine and since then, I’ve taken the insurance agency into the electronic era. Also, surviving and living through a category five hurricane. That was the only other thing that concerned me as an independent agency principal. But now, looking back, I'm so proud of where we've come, and I'm so proud of where we're going. 
 
What’s a product or service that has been a game changer for you? Either at your agency or personally.  
 
The thing that has made us most efficient is defining our client targets and being able to say no when it's not a good fit, empowering our team to pre-qualify potential clients to make sure that they're going to be clients that will appreciate the value-add service that we provide. That has been the most efficient thing that we have done, as an organization, along with the utilization of technology to communicate with our clients, whether it be phone call, email, or text, has also really ramped up the number of tasks that we can complete in a day. Lastly, something that has really worked for our agency is picking niche markets where we can be the best in that industry segment. 
 
What’s the biggest professional obstacle you’ve overcome? 
 
I've never given up on this business or let any type of failure make us lose steam toward the success of the future. When I've had difficult times in this agency, my aunt always gave me the best advice. She said, “Tina, you have to eat an elephant one bite at a time.” And that advice resonates with me because when you're in the throes of thousands of claims at one time, having perseverance and an attitude of gratitude has really made the future bright and exciting for us. My dad was so passionate about this business that I was fortunate to have his mentorship and advice for 20 years because he taught me there's nothing that you can't overcome; you just have to go through the process. 
 

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