The Sky story
A twenty-year friendship, a diverse group of people, a company merger/un-merger and family, makes up the Sky Insurance story. And here’s how it happened.
A great start
Sky Insurance began with a twenty-year friendship, between Erik Sjolie and Jenny Ebinger. Through the years they discovered that they shared the same passion for people, and enriching the lives of others. With Erik’s quick wit and sense of humor, and Jenny’s big heart and ability to understand the needs of others, the two came together and created Sky insurance brokers. We want our agency to be a “fun” environment full of excitement for both our staff and our clients. What a great use of two talented owners, to create a happy and compassionate environment for everyone. Both owners have lived in the greater Sacramento area for most of their lives. The passion for serving the community is one that has cultivated over a lifetime of love and appreciation for the community.
Iron Sharpens Iron
A funny thing happens when you form a company that is passionate about serving the community while having the time of your life doing it. You attract talented, passionate and exceptional people that share the same values, which is exactly what happened with us. It seems like fate always places us in the right place at the right time. We met some exceptional people along the way that have played a crucial role within our company, and the immediate growth we started to create. We had an all-hands-on-deck mentality, which put our agency on a fast track growth curve.
Which is still true today. Our team grew to be a very diverse group that brought talents to the agency from all different backgrounds. We had agents from fortune 100 companies, college athletes, a lawyer, published author, and even a competitive chess master. Let’s just say our team meetings never lacked great conversation and laughter. The first few years were a blur. Many long days and weekends were spent trying to build the agency to an experience that would memorable to our clients. The sacrifices it took were many, but we all had a vision of what we wanted Sky to be, and we were not willing to settle on even the minor details. As time progressed, we outgrew our first location in Sacramento and moved to a nice new building in downtown Lincoln, which gave us the room and creative space to grow to the next level. During this time an interesting thing started to happen, the insurance industry and carriers started to take notice. Doors started to open; carriers were approaching us about offering their products and services. This was a far cry from when we first began; we were the ones approaching the carriers, trying to sell our vision, hoping they would believe in us enough to give us contracts to represent their products, finally our hard work and long hours were finally paid off. We were able to partner with many of the top insurance and financial firms to be able to offer our clients the highest quality products and services. Things were going great, and we were feeling extremely blessed to have the opportunity and to work with such an amazing team and great clients.
Bigger is not always better
Not too long after we moved to Lincoln, we were approached by another insurance agency about merging our two companies. They had an established agency and we had the growth and hunger. On paper, it looked like a great fit due to our backgrounds and industry focus. We saw this as an opportunity to expand our culture and passion to a larger audience. After many months of discussion, we took the plunge and joined forces with another team. Things happened quickly and before we knew it we were moving two offices into one, integrating systems and databases. We had team members sharing workspace, some working out of a tuff shed that we used as temporary office space. Luckily, we had a team of givers, who believed in the culture we were creating, it was all hands on deck, and we all carried that spirit into the merger, willing to sacrifice for the greater good.
We learned many valuable lessons during this time. First, we realized that bigger is not always better, young companies can learn a lot from the early growing pains. Trying to bypass those growing pains, through a merger only rob us of the very valuable lesson that needed to be learned along the journey. Second, culture is incredibly valuable, our team had incredible chemistry, however, turning two companies into one can disrupt and damage even the best culture. Last, having a team with the same goals and focus is where the magic happens. When the team is not on the same page, it’s like having navigated a ship during a storm; you begin to lose passion and focus, which can affect the growth of a company. For these reasons, we realized that the merger was not the best fit. Luckily we had the opportunity to un-merge and get back to the path we were passionate about. Looking for a new home and fresh start we decided to move our team to Roseville in an office, that is still our current location today. Our office is a great location; it allows us the ability to service Placer, Sacramento and the surrounding counties. You could say that the whole merger, and the things we experienced, made us stronger and more focused than ever.
Our Tribe
The family concept is one we take very seriously. Our team is like a big family. We joke and argue like family, but one thing is for sure, we care for our people like family. We consider our clients to be an extension of our family. Our welcome cards and emails we send out to our new clients even say “welcome to the sky family.”
It’s a very important part of our culture and how we view our role with each other and our clients. Our family, genuinely likes to be around each other both inside and outside of the office.
You will often see us having group barbeques with our kids and spouses, attending Giants or Rivercats games, and even rafting down the American river.
We even like to catch new movies together or try out a new restaurant. It is not uncommon to see our kids visit the office, we even enjoy coming up with fun office events throughout the year for them to come to work with us.
Onward
Today Sky insurance brokers have turned into a healthy thriving company. We have grown a lot through our journey and are excited about what the future holds. We are truly making an impact on the community and industry. We have created an expert and passionate team that have many years of experience in the industry. We have been blessed to be able to partner with many of the top rated insurance carriers in the industry.
This allows us to service our clients with the finest insurance products that exist. We are relentless in our mission to truly become an agency like no other. We like to think we have made great progress towards our goal, but knowing we will never settle and our journey will always be moving us forward. With the insurance industry always changing, we work tirelessly to stay educated and informed and ready to serve our clients with relevant information. We understand there are many agencies you could work with, but we are confident that with our talented, caring staff, you will be blessed that you chose Sky insurance brokers to be your agency, in representing all your insurance needs. Stop by and have a cup of coffee and meet the staff, we promise you won’t want to leave.
Welcome to the family.
Sincerely,
The Sky team.