Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Best. Bloomberg Best is about the insight
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Speaker 1: seven hundred journalists and enalysts in more than a hundred
Speaker 1: twenty countries around the world. I'm at Baxter and I'm
Speaker 1: did the Spelly Greeny on this weekend edition of Bloomberg Best.
Speaker 1: Because of the components, the safety component. In addition, think
Speaker 1: of the inflation of medical cost why auto insurance is
Speaker 1: so expensive. If you could take you know, Emma for
Speaker 1: a couple of hours while I do this presentation, I
Speaker 1: will baby see your kids and you and your husband
Speaker 1: can go out on the weekend. Progressive CEO Tricia Griffith,
Speaker 1: I'm bartering for childcare for her six children. Do you
Speaker 1: own a home? Yes? Discount plus some insight into Progressive's
Speaker 1: best known personality. All this and more coming up in
Speaker 1: the next hour of Bloomberg Best to all right, and
Speaker 1: you know one thing most people love to have, right,
Speaker 1: but don't love to pay for is insurance right? That's right,
Speaker 1: denise auto insurance, homeowners insurance, liability insurance. But for those
Speaker 1: in the business, said, they look at it from the
Speaker 1: other side, right, it's all about, you know, measuring your risk. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And David Rubinstein had a chance to ask the CEO
Speaker 1: of Progressive all about it. And David starts here on
Speaker 1: the David Rubinstein Show Peer to Peer Conversations by asking
Speaker 1: Tricia Griffith about the company's business model and advertising. So
Speaker 1: for those who aren't familiar with Progressive Um and probably
Speaker 1: if you watch television, you would be familiar because you
Speaker 1: have a lot of television ads, right, And I'm just curious, Uh,
Speaker 1: why is it that automobile insurance companies seem to advertise
Speaker 1: a lot. I see your competitors advertising. You advertise a lot.
Speaker 1: Is that because people really will be guided in their
Speaker 1: insurance decision by the advertisement. It's just a really competitive industry,
Speaker 1: which is always odd because it's something you're required to have.
Speaker 1: So it's not like, you know, do you pick a
Speaker 1: different soft drink or a beverage, but it is required.
Speaker 1: But it is so competitive that to be out there
Speaker 1: and be top of mind and be in the shortlist.
Speaker 1: You really have to be advertising. So you have a
Speaker 1: famous character in your insurance uh one of your some
Speaker 1: of your ads called flow, a woman that plays UH,
Speaker 1: I guess an insurance person. Um. Does she get a
Speaker 1: certain percentage of all the all the new business she
Speaker 1: brings in because she's so so good or she doesn't
Speaker 1: have that deal. She does not have that deal? She um,
Speaker 1: she is paid for her contract and she's doing fine.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about this year now. A lot of the
Speaker 1: auto insurers are up this UH this year in part
Speaker 1: because people aren't driving as much. And the theory is,
Speaker 1: if you don't drive as much, it's hard to have
Speaker 1: an accident. So if I presume there are fewer people
Speaker 1: claiming UH, you know that they've had an accent and
Speaker 1: therefore you don't have to pay out as much. Is
Speaker 1: that why your stock is up? You think? I think
Speaker 1: that might be one piece, But I think we've also
Speaker 1: continued to grow not only market share based on units,
Speaker 1: based on policies and force and really, um, if you
Speaker 1: think about it, yes, immediately in March, vehicle miles traveled
Speaker 1: have been reduced and losses went for that. But as
Speaker 1: states have reopened, it continues to go up. And right
Speaker 1: now we're still not pre COVID level of driving. We're
Speaker 1: about eight to ten per cent down, but those lost costs,
Speaker 1: that gap is closing in because we're seeing more and
Speaker 1: more people driving more often. And so that that lasted
Speaker 1: a couple of months, and then remember many companies gave
Speaker 1: back credits or have reduced rates. Now let me ask
Speaker 1: you about that. If you get a rebate, that was
Speaker 1: because you voluntarily thought it was a good idea, or
Speaker 1: the regulators said you have to give back money. Why
Speaker 1: did the automob I'm sure started giving back money to
Speaker 1: their policy holders. We did it because it was the
Speaker 1: right thing to do. I mean, we immediately saw driving
Speaker 1: vehicle miles traveled go down. It went back up pretty
Speaker 1: quickly to twenty, etcetera. But we sat down and said, okay,
Speaker 1: this we don't want margins that big. It's not the
Speaker 1: right thing to do. We want to be competitively priced,
Speaker 1: and so we gave credits for UM both April and May,
Speaker 1: and then subsequently we're very analytically driven, so we went
Speaker 1: sort of state by states, channel by channel, product by product,
Speaker 1: and so far we've given We've had rate decreases in
Speaker 1: about thirty five states, and those those are baked in permanently.
Speaker 1: So today when people have an accident, Today, when they
Speaker 1: do have accidents, the accidents are more expensive than they
Speaker 1: used to be. Is that because the cars and more complicated,
Speaker 1: more expensive to repair? Yeah, they absolutely are a couple
Speaker 1: of reasons. One is the components of the car. So
Speaker 1: I started as a claim drop and the cars in
Speaker 1: the bumper repair or replacement would be a couple hundred dollars,
Speaker 1: and now they could be upwards of a thousand, two
Speaker 1: thousand dollars because of the components, the safety components. In addition,
Speaker 1: think of the inflation of medical costs. So if you're
Speaker 1: injured in an accident, that's another component of the increased severity.
Speaker 1: So let's suppose i want to get some automobile insurance. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm now seventy one years old. Am I a good
Speaker 1: risk as a seventy one year old? Or you'd rather
Speaker 1: have somebody who's twenty five and more alert. That is
Speaker 1: one variable, So we we look at hundreds of variable.
Speaker 1: So depends on where you live. Do you live in
Speaker 1: a congested area, do you live in the rural area.
Speaker 1: What is your driving history? Uh? Do you have our
Speaker 1: usage based insurance? That way we know what time of
Speaker 1: day you drive, how many miles you drive, have you
Speaker 1: had any violations. There's so many things that go into it,
Speaker 1: so age is only one component. When I was a teenager,
Speaker 1: you know, I was told that teenagers are not good
Speaker 1: drivers and insurance is expensive. Is that true today? Insurance?
Speaker 1: Is it more expensive? Or teenagers are not good drivers?
Speaker 1: I will say that having six people that drive in
Speaker 1: my family that we've added over the years, we can
Speaker 1: call them youthful drivers. Uh. The issue is that many
Speaker 1: many are good, but they just don't have that maturity.
Speaker 1: They haven't had the experience. And I remember saying, because
Speaker 1: you know a lot of times you'll get rate increases
Speaker 1: if you add on a youthful driver. And I challenged
Speaker 1: that when I first got this job, and then I realized,
Speaker 1: having six youthful drivers, that there is a reason you
Speaker 1: paid a little bit more. You were in home insurance
Speaker 1: now and you bought a company that helps you get
Speaker 1: into that. Why do you want to be in a
Speaker 1: home insurance business? For us, it was really access to
Speaker 1: more of the preferred customer, especially on the independent agent sides.
Speaker 1: We had a relationship with a SI American Strategic Insurance
Speaker 1: for years. We had we had a small ownership in them,
Speaker 1: and their values were very much aligned with us, and
Speaker 1: so we decided to go ahead and purchase them. And
Speaker 1: it's been a really nice transition, a really great acquisition.
Speaker 1: And so now you know, having sort of the whole
Speaker 1: picture for whatever you want, auto home, your boat's, motorcycle, commercial.
Speaker 1: And that's why we're continuing to expand because I think
Speaker 1: it's really important to diversify. Is the home insurance business
Speaker 1: very profitable now? The home insurance business, it depends on
Speaker 1: what company you're talking about. We have struggled a little
Speaker 1: bit because of wind hail catastrophes, and we also have
Speaker 1: been obviously growing our mom all across the country. We
Speaker 1: were in about five states for many years, and so
Speaker 1: we're learning a lot about the product model. So have
Speaker 1: you looked at our results. We will be profitable, but
Speaker 1: we're doing the same thing we did on the otto side.
Speaker 1: We're getting very surgical in our segmentation to understand, um
Speaker 1: the right rate for each home. Are you thinking of
Speaker 1: getting into the life insurance business and you're in the
Speaker 1: other insurance businesses, why not get into life insurance? Well,
Speaker 1: right now, we have a great relationship with an unaffiliated
Speaker 1: partner that we get a commission when we send them
Speaker 1: to the company, and that's been working really well, and
Speaker 1: we actually are considering that we have a life insurance
Speaker 1: company filed in Ohio. UM More to come on that.
Speaker 1: People say that there's eventually going to be driver lers
Speaker 1: or autonomous cars, and of course the theory is they
Speaker 1: will never have an accident because they're perfectly programmed. Is
Speaker 1: that something you worry about as cars that don't have accidents?
Speaker 1: Or you're not gonna worry about that right now? I
Speaker 1: don't worry about I mean from a society perspective, you
Speaker 1: want to have less accidents. It's good for society. Everyone
Speaker 1: has been affected by someone who's been in an auto accident. UH.
Speaker 1: What I think about, I don't put my head instand
Speaker 1: But what I think about is timing, realistic timing. That's
Speaker 1: also one of the reasons why I think about I'm
Speaker 1: not just executing on our current plan, but expanding and
Speaker 1: exploring other other uh possibilities adjacencies to to grow our business.
Speaker 1: I will tell you that when you look back at
Speaker 1: some of the headlines in two thousand twelve that say
Speaker 1: this type of car is going to be fully autonomous
Speaker 1: by tift. Uh, it'll take longer, and I know that
Speaker 1: that's said. Again we're preparing for a possible smaller auto
Speaker 1: insurance industry, but again we have so many opportunities with
Speaker 1: other adjacent models, including home and then some of the
Speaker 1: other things we've talked about, whether it's tnc or commercial
Speaker 1: or small business, all the things that we've expanded to
Speaker 1: in the last couple of years. Now. Elon Musk has
Speaker 1: said he's going to have an autonomous car out there
Speaker 1: at some point and not to distant future, and he's
Speaker 1: also said, anybody that's an insurance agent, why don't you
Speaker 1: call me up, because we want to hire insurance agents.
Speaker 1: We're going to be in the automobile insurance business. Is
Speaker 1: that something you're worried about a lot? Not really, because
Speaker 1: I think people I love our culture and I think
Speaker 1: they love we're working here, and I think that we
Speaker 1: have a huge future. I think that they're The technology
Speaker 1: is absolutely there, and I can see a car going
Speaker 1: from point eight to be in a geo fenced area,
Speaker 1: but there's a lot to be done. I think it
Speaker 1: will be a little bit longer than most people had
Speaker 1: predicted even years ago. Let's talk about progressives background. Progressive.
Speaker 1: It's a great name, Progressive, that's a very positive word. Um.
Speaker 1: Was that the original name of the company? When was
Speaker 1: the company started? Yes, it was the original name. The
Speaker 1: company was founded in nineteen thirty seven by Joe Lewis
Speaker 1: and Jack Green. And they were two attorneys in Cleveland,
Speaker 1: and they didn't know what they wanted to do, but
Speaker 1: they wanted to be able to serve the non standard
Speaker 1: customers in Cleveland that I needed insurance, and so they
Speaker 1: borrowed ten thousand from Joe Louis's mother in law, and uh,
Speaker 1: that's how Progressive was born. And you might know Peter
Speaker 1: Lewis who ran the company for a long long time. Uh,
Speaker 1: he was the second CEO, and then Glenn Renwick and
Speaker 1: then myself. How did you get started at Progressive and
Speaker 1: at the bottom? Pretty much? Is that right? Yeah? I
Speaker 1: went to Illinoi State University at marketing degree. I wanted
Speaker 1: to go into something something in marketing, but all through
Speaker 1: high school and college I worked in retail. So and
Speaker 1: oddly where I went to school is the home office
Speaker 1: of State Farm and everybody was doing internships there, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, who wants to work in insurance? So I
Speaker 1: went to a retail company for about six months. It
Speaker 1: was it was called Furrow Building Materials. It was like
Speaker 1: a think of like a Lows or a home depot.
Speaker 1: I was like, what am I doing? I'm mixing paints.
Speaker 1: I'm actually forklift certified. And I was driving home one
Speaker 1: day with my hard hat and I said, I gotta
Speaker 1: I gotta look for something different. And what I wanted
Speaker 1: to do is work somewhere for a couple of years,
Speaker 1: pay off my school loans, and then go to get
Speaker 1: my m b A. So I went home and opened
Speaker 1: the classified ads. I'd never heard of Progressive. At that time,
Speaker 1: we were less than a billion, and I thought, clean
Speaker 1: drop trainy, this sounds interesting, nineteen thousand, that will help
Speaker 1: me pay off my debt and made the call. So
Speaker 1: the job is will be a claim adjuster. Correct. So
Speaker 1: what I would do if if I've had your claim
Speaker 1: and you were injured, I would go out and talk
Speaker 1: to you about your injury and and guide you through that.
Speaker 1: I would crawl under your car and let you know
Speaker 1: how much it took to get it repaired. I would
Speaker 1: kind of manage your whole file. I did. I also
Speaker 1: did special line, so I was a motorcycle wrap UH,
Speaker 1: and I basically handled the entire file. So I was
Speaker 1: in body shops, crawling under cars, and in your house
Speaker 1: talking to you about your injury. You've obviously risen up
Speaker 1: from the lowest position to the highest position, and you
Speaker 1: had many different positions in between. One of them, which
Speaker 1: is very unusual to have for a CEO, maybe sadly,
Speaker 1: is to be the head of human resources. So how
Speaker 1: did you go from being the head of human resources
Speaker 1: to being the CEO? Well that you to me to
Speaker 1: actually take get the HR or old job from having
Speaker 1: mostly claims experience during the fifth first fifteen years, I
Speaker 1: had a little bit of sales and a little bit
Speaker 1: of claims. And Glenn Renwick, at the time, my predecessor UH,
Speaker 1: interviewed me it was it was actually an odd circumstance.
Speaker 1: I went for it. I wasn't going to because I
Speaker 1: don't I don't have any HR experience. I have some
Speaker 1: maternity leaves, but that's about it. And people kept calling
Speaker 1: me from around the company saying, you have to go
Speaker 1: for this. You love diversity, you love metrics, we need this.
Speaker 1: So finally I had a pre interview lunch with Glenn
Speaker 1: to see if I could even go for it. Uh,
Speaker 1: he put my name in the hat and gave me
Speaker 1: the opportunity, and I will always say it was a
Speaker 1: risk for him. He does not say that, but that
Speaker 1: was really the turning point in my career. And then
Speaker 1: you know he was He watched me and I did
Speaker 1: that for six years and made a lot of big
Speaker 1: changes that we still have now. And the president of
Speaker 1: Claims came up, and that's my dream job because I
Speaker 1: love claims, I love helping customers. I was able to
Speaker 1: do that. That's seventy cents of every dollar premium comes
Speaker 1: in your paying on claims, so that's the big business piece.
Speaker 1: And then he gave me all things customer facing, so
Speaker 1: I had our call centers and claims and then I
Speaker 1: was CEO before the CEO role. So I really credit
Speaker 1: Glenn for guiding me, giving me opportunities, coaching me, and
Speaker 1: sponsoring me. So as kind of human resources, you must
Speaker 1: have instituted some policies that changed the company's face. Because
Speaker 1: your company has been voted the number one most diverse
Speaker 1: company in the United States and some surveys. Is that's
Speaker 1: something that you implemented and put into into practice. Yes.
Speaker 1: We started our diversity inclusion initiatives really in earnest when
Speaker 1: I was there. We started our first employee resource groups,
Speaker 1: which was Progressive African American Network and our LGBT plus
Speaker 1: now we have nine. We really set forth the strategy
Speaker 1: of how we're going to make sure everyone can bring
Speaker 1: their whole self to work. It was a big piece
Speaker 1: of our culture and we started looking at the data.
Speaker 1: We continue to work on it, though it's not something
Speaker 1: that you can ever get a check mark. And if
Speaker 1: you look at at senior leadership, we have opportunities there
Speaker 1: and in fact we're working on some really aggressive objectives
Speaker 1: for the next five years with my team to continue
Speaker 1: to change that. Your chairman of your board is a woman,
Speaker 1: and obviously you're a woman. Is there any other Fortune
Speaker 1: five Hunter company where the chairman is a woman and
Speaker 1: the CEO as a woman. There must be none. I
Speaker 1: don't think so. And we actually have twelve twelve members
Speaker 1: of our board and six or women and one of
Speaker 1: the female as a person of color. So when you
Speaker 1: were for the CEO and guess in line to be
Speaker 1: the CEO, did you think that they were going to
Speaker 1: give the job to a woman, or you thought this
Speaker 1: will revert to the normal forum and we'll find a
Speaker 1: nice white male that we can give it to. I
Speaker 1: was hoping to give it to the person that thought
Speaker 1: was the best fit for Progressive at the best time.
Speaker 1: And I remember interviewing with the board for several years
Speaker 1: during the process, and one of the board members said
Speaker 1: to me, so you want to be a CEO, And
Speaker 1: I said, no, I want to be the CEO Progressive
Speaker 1: And that was what really was meaningful to me. So
Speaker 1: had I not found the role, I'd still be here.
Speaker 1: And um, and there were lots of other opportunities to
Speaker 1: have a great CEO other than myself. So UM, when
Speaker 1: you were able to go into your office, you were
Speaker 1: well known for walking into the cafeteria and sitting down
Speaker 1: with the average person. Why did you do that? Why
Speaker 1: didn't you just eat in your office with other executives?
Speaker 1: Because that is my way of getting to know people
Speaker 1: and and really feeling what's going on with the company.
Speaker 1: And when you break bread with people, they open up
Speaker 1: to you, not just about great things, but about things
Speaker 1: you they want to change. And for me, I think
Speaker 1: because of my roots as a claimed rep trainee. I
Speaker 1: was wondered what the executed and we don't have an
Speaker 1: executive cafeteria. All of his eat in the regular cafeteria.
Speaker 1: It's a very different type of company from that perspective.
Speaker 1: But literally it motivated me to be a better leader.
Speaker 1: Every time I walked up to a table of you know,
Speaker 1: five people and said may I join you? And they
Speaker 1: gave that horrible look like please, no, please no, and
Speaker 1: I sat down. I had five new friends, and I
Speaker 1: just to me, it's it's an important part to be approachable.
Speaker 1: If you feel connected and you trust your leader, you're
Speaker 1: going to run through the wall for them. So when
Speaker 1: you sit down with people at the employee cafeteria, did
Speaker 1: they ever say, by the way, i'm underpaid? There's that,
Speaker 1: never a thing, never say that. They'll sometimes talk about
Speaker 1: how they wish they could make more, what can they do,
Speaker 1: how can they get there? People are pretty pretty open
Speaker 1: and honest with me. So as I talked to you,
Speaker 1: you're not in your office, I assume you're at your home.
Speaker 1: That's correct, him in my little library off of our bedroom.
Speaker 1: And have you been running progressive from your little office
Speaker 1: there for a couple of months now. Yes, Ever since
Speaker 1: mid March, I go in sometimes once a week just
Speaker 1: to get my mail and to check things out, but
Speaker 1: I don't see anyone. And in fact, where I'm sitting here,
Speaker 1: my son who's in film school, filmed me weekly for
Speaker 1: several months so I could send a video out to
Speaker 1: all of the progressive people. Has it been difficult to
Speaker 1: run the company remotely this way? It hasn't been difficult
Speaker 1: for me. It's been unusual well, and I don't love
Speaker 1: it because I love the interaction. I think the biggest
Speaker 1: part is the claims organization, because that is face to face,
Speaker 1: especially when you're looking at vehicles. Um. But we immediately
Speaker 1: were able to use videos and pictures to do the
Speaker 1: best job we could to estimate vehicles, and we're doing
Speaker 1: pretty well, and I'm I'm very proud of the organization.
Speaker 1: When the world comes back, which hopefully it will be
Speaker 1: in some point in time, when we have a vaccine,
Speaker 1: do you expect that all your employees will come back
Speaker 1: and work in the offices or now do you think
Speaker 1: you could have people working remotely and maybe save money
Speaker 1: by not have as much office space. How do you
Speaker 1: think about this in the future? Prior to COVID, we
Speaker 1: already had about of our call center people in some claims,
Speaker 1: people that work from home just because it works better
Speaker 1: for them. Um. I imagine we're doing some surveying as
Speaker 1: we think about returning of what percentage will that still
Speaker 1: work for. I think in person, in the office hallway
Speaker 1: conversations are so important. So although I think it might
Speaker 1: increase from that, if you fast forward and there's a
Speaker 1: vaccine and people feel comfortable, I think a lot of
Speaker 1: people will come into the office. I think that that
Speaker 1: is something that we worked through. We've done a really
Speaker 1: great job, especially with technology, but I know many people
Speaker 1: really miss it. You and your husband have six children, right,
Speaker 1: is that right? Six children? Yes, hers and ours all right,
Speaker 1: So when you have six children and you're running a company,
Speaker 1: isn't that kind of complicated? I mean, how do you
Speaker 1: have time in the day to do anything else? It
Speaker 1: was very complicated as I was as I was growing
Speaker 1: in going up through the ranks, and my husband worked
Speaker 1: as well when I was in HR for a couple
Speaker 1: of years. UM. He also we met it progressive, so
Speaker 1: he worked there and we both had travel jobs. And
Speaker 1: at one point he said, when our oldest was going
Speaker 1: into high school. He said, you know, one of us
Speaker 1: probably needs to stay home. I think you have a
Speaker 1: longer runway. And uh so he decided to stay home.
Speaker 1: But I think I treat it like everything else, assume
Speaker 1: something might go wrong. And so when we were both
Speaker 1: traveling and I knew I had a big presentation, I
Speaker 1: knew that morning I would go into somebody's room and
Speaker 1: someone would have an ear infection. And so I created
Speaker 1: a network of friends that stayed home, and I did
Speaker 1: an old fashioned bartering system. So if you could take
Speaker 1: you know, Emma for a couple of hours while I
Speaker 1: do this presentation, I will babysit your kids, and you
Speaker 1: and your husband can go out on the weekend. I
Speaker 1: treated it. I always had planned beast indeed, just like
Speaker 1: you do in business. What would you say the leadership
Speaker 1: qualities that you brought to the table or that you
Speaker 1: most admire. I mean, I think the ones I brought
Speaker 1: to the table were being genuine, being authentic, communicating, uh
Speaker 1: you know, just um all the time, painting the picture
Speaker 1: of where I want the company to go. And I
Speaker 1: think that's really important. I think people, uh, you know
Speaker 1: you only you're only a leader of people want to
Speaker 1: follow you, So do people want to follow you? Do?
Speaker 1: Do you? Do? You have? You know, a great attitude
Speaker 1: but also a certain paranoia to make sure that we're
Speaker 1: always doing well. And for me, I think what I'm
Speaker 1: most proud of and I think why I continue to
Speaker 1: get jobs after that hr job was I form really
Speaker 1: great teams. I don't always have to be the smartest
Speaker 1: person in the room. I know collectively what a team needs,
Speaker 1: and I love having really great debates. And the only
Speaker 1: thing better than those debates are the unity, the power
Speaker 1: in the unity. When you come you know, you come
Speaker 1: out and you're you're solidified as a management team, as
Speaker 1: a leadership team. So sometimes people say it's very difficult
Speaker 1: for women to have it all, to have a family
Speaker 1: and also have a great professional career. It's obviously possible.
Speaker 1: You would You've obviously done it. So what would you
Speaker 1: say is that the trick to having it all and
Speaker 1: and getting it all done? If you were to give
Speaker 1: advice to some younger woman, I think there's sometimes there's
Speaker 1: things you don't give up. So Jack played high school
Speaker 1: and college football. It was important for me to go
Speaker 1: to as many games as I could have his and
Speaker 1: I worked my way around that so I could do that,
Speaker 1: and sometimes that meant working, you know, at ten o'clock
Speaker 1: at night to catch up on things. But it was
Speaker 1: worth it because my kids tell me even now, they're like,
Speaker 1: you went to more things than most stay at home
Speaker 1: moms because I was so obsessed with making sure I
Speaker 1: got to almost everything. So if you were go to
Speaker 1: a football game or something like that with your kids,
Speaker 1: do people come up to you and say you're the
Speaker 1: CEO of Progressive or you try to avoid telling people
Speaker 1: you're the CEO Progressive when you go to those kind
Speaker 1: of family events. It's funny because my husband says all
Speaker 1: the time, why do you play twenty games with everyone?
Speaker 1: Because people will say where do you work? And I'll
Speaker 1: say for insurance company? Where in Cleveland? What do you do?
Speaker 1: I'm corporate, so I'll do all these things so fun
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, I'm the CEO. UM. What I have
Speaker 1: found if you're on a plane when they're when you
Speaker 1: used to be on planes, or you're somewhere, a good
Speaker 1: way to not get in the conversation is they'll say
Speaker 1: what do you do? And I say, I fell insurance,
Speaker 1: and then no one talks to you. So that's why
Speaker 1: I found the right the right thing. I've no people.
Speaker 1: I live in a smaller town and my kids went
Speaker 1: to a small Catholic school, so everybody knows me. When
Speaker 1: I got the job. The day that it was announced,
Speaker 1: I was headed to our son's school after the workday
Speaker 1: to go to his lacrosse game, and our PR department
Speaker 1: kept saying, you know, the Wall Street Journal wants to
Speaker 1: talk to you. This place wants to talk to you.
Speaker 1: And I said, I'm headed to a lacrosse game. Let
Speaker 1: me call my mom, let me call my sisters, let
Speaker 1: me enjoy this. And um, I finally said, stop calling
Speaker 1: me because I wanted to be present in the moment.
Speaker 1: And actually I talked to my five other children and
Speaker 1: Jack was on the field, and uh, during halftime, I
Speaker 1: went up and I said hi, and I went to
Speaker 1: talent and I said, hey, I need to tell you
Speaker 1: some news. He goes, I know, Mrs Ceo, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's your trendy on Twitter. Suppose somebody came to you
Speaker 1: from Ohio and said, you've run one of the best
Speaker 1: companies in Ohio. You should be governor of Ohio. Would
Speaker 1: you have any interest in running for office. I think
Speaker 1: government would frustrate me. I like to get things done,
Speaker 1: I like to move forward, and I'm a big believer
Speaker 1: in compromise. So for me, I I don't think government
Speaker 1: is in the future for me, I think I loved
Speaker 1: I'd love to do some philanthropy, maybe a border to
Speaker 1: who I'm on a public board now and uh, and
Speaker 1: do some things with my husband to help the country.
Speaker 1: And the higher calling of private equity that doesn't appeal
Speaker 1: to you, I'll let you do that. And you've been
Speaker 1: listening to Tricia Griffith, CEO of Progressive on the David
Speaker 1: Rubinstein Show. Peer to Peer Conversations