We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dayana Torres a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Dayana , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

Growing up, my parents own businesses both in the U.S and Venezuela ( where I was born) so I always knew at some point I’d want to take the risk of becoming a business owner. Growing up and during my adult life, I always thought the business would be in retail and/or a restaurant, A few things that hindered me were financial positioning and the fact that I can’t cook!!! After getting divorced and having to relocate to a completely different city, with little rt no money I resorted to what I knew which is call centers and call center management. I was laid off on my birthday and after going back to school I started to work with a State Farm agent as an agent team member. One day she asked ” what do you think about becoming an agent and owning your own business?” In my head I thought “Score!!” I replied to her that I loved the idea I just was not financially sound to start a business. Her and I worked together and at the time I opened, I had saved a little money, borrowed from my universal life policy and took the risk of becoming a State Farm Insurance agent on December, 1st 2018. I struggled a bit but grew quickly and after a few years of hard work, sweat, dream and action we started to make money. 6 years into being an agent, I wouldn’t have it any other way, I have grown professionally and personally, I get to help my community by helping them mitigate possible risks, serve by volunteering and all by also being able to be present with my family.

At the time I took the risk of opening my business, I had no idea where I’d be 2, 5 or even 6 years but I knew that I did not have a plan B so I also knew that this had to work since I had every bit of money invested in it and well I wanted to show my kids that with a plan, hard work, integrity and a vision they could make things happen for me.

I am so thankful that 2 people saw that I was worthy of this opportunity and that I had the support of my husband and kids who worked and still work with me to continue to grow my business. I love that my team is passionate about this business like I am.
Always the good risks in the end it pays off!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a mom of 4 kids, 2 of which are now adults, I have 2 younger kids (teens), one son in law and a gorgeous grandbaby (7 months old baby girl). I am married to a pretty remarkable man! As a mom I try to be super present with my family, I want my kids and husband to know that I love them and when I am with them I want to make sure that they feel loved and cared for. I am easy going and love to travel, as far as family I think the one thing I have been able to pass on to my kids, love for learning and traveling.

When I am at the office, I try to ensure that my team knows I am present for them and our customers with training or helping with phones or just asking about their day. I work with insurance: auto-home-life-health-renters-business, etc. I love what I do because I am helping our customers discover risks for exposure that they have no idea they have. My team and I educate on needs for life insurance and income replacement policies. Our jobs are really to help people, we want to make sure that our customers know what type of coverage overall they need to have and allow them to make an informed decision from there.

My personal mission is to radiate love, so anyone I come in contact with I hope they feel that.
Our customers love walking into our office, I always hear “your office always smells so good” “I love coming to this office everyone is so nice it feels like a home” “everyone is always smiling and so nice” ” you are the top Dog on google in this town”
I love to hear those comments it helps me stay focused with my team so that they always have a positive environment. I have always loved working with people so this is perfect for me, I not only work with people, I get to employ amazing team members and help people with the insurance and financial needs! It is truly a win-win for me.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

We do yearly meetings with our customer, a lot of them are with me since I am the face of the business but my team engages with customers every day.
During hurricanes we call all of our elderly customers and offer to deliver canned goods and water to those that accept our help. we personally deliver groceries to ensure that they are not left with nothing if they can’t make it to the grocery store.
We also volunteer, we have a charity called payit4ward that we do a couple of events a year, a car show that we attend once a year, we have volunteered with foster kids with a local home and habitat for humanity as well.
We send birthday ( and call customers to wish them a happy birthday) and holiday cards, when we speak to a customer and they have had an event we all send them signed cards from the team.

We try to engage as much as possible with our customers and ensure that they know we care about them.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

Goodness! During my first year I was scared all year about payroll, I came into business with very little money, we borrowed from my husbands 401K and have since paid back that loan, we borrowed from my universal life policy as well. I spent the vast majority of my 1st year in business working many days, nights and weekends to ensure that my team was paid and we made it work. During that first year, my 2 daughter was hospitalized for a week and my husband got into a bad car accident. Thankfully I was mobile and had a lot of support so we made it work financially and with 0 collateral damage.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.dayanatorreslocalagent.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/SFagentdayanatorres/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DayanaTorresStateFarmAgent/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/dayana-torres-state-farm-insurance-agent-deland