Take a look at Sam Jazayeri’s (pictured) resume, and you’ll find a ton of extra-curricular experiences listed among his broking experience. For example, on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, he joins his friend and up-and-coming comedian Andrew Packer to host the Joker Broker podcast, where the pair discuss their careers and passions for 60 minutes.
For Jazayeri – whose day job is being an insurance broker and producer team lead at PrimeService Insurance – the podcast presents an opportunity to humanize insurance and translate it in a way that’s more interesting to the average person who’s not in the industry. It’s been two years since the first episode of the podcast went live, says Jazayeri, and he’s learned that “the key thing in producing a podcast is that you have to be having fun doing it.”
The podcast has also enabled the broker to take on other extra-curriculars, such as speaking opportunities at the Insurance Brokers of Ontario’s (IBAO) Young Brokers Conference in 2019, where he presented on producing in personal lines, as well as IBAO’s College Day, where he spoke to a group of about 100 college students about broking. The IBAO likewise gave Jazayeri the opportunity to facilitate a CAIB course this year, which unfortunately was halted at week seven due to the pandemic.
“I’m eager to continue to have that sort of exposure where I can facilitate sessions because it goes back to my core motivation, which is enabling people to succeed,” explained Jazayeri.“Whether you’re doing a one-on-one with a producer or speaking to a group of producers or students, it gives me the opportunity to translate information that I have and make it more widely available.”
Today, Jazayeri is a team leader on the IBAO’s Young Brokers Council (YBC), and while he’s thrown himself into insurance completely, this wasn’t always the case. Jazayeri attended the Schulich School of Business at York University, which is when he first discovered his passion for sales. In the meantime, his parents had opened PrimeService and later offered their son a chance to work for them. While Jazayeri wasn’t initially passionate about insurance, he soon discovered all of the “hidden magic” in the broking business, he says.
“The best part and the most underappreciated part, I think, is the people aspect of it,” he continued. “Before, I thought, ‘I’m just going to be selling insurance’ and there’s a negative stigma around the word ‘insurance’ oftentimes, but I think as brokers, we’re on the good team. We’re on the team of helping the insurance companies provide their solutions to the right clients, and the clients to find the right insurance company for their insurance needs.”
His passion to help people succeed also extends to Jazayeri’s role as team lead at PrimeService. This position didn’t exist at the brokerage initially, but while he was working as a producer, the firm hired a group of brokers, as well as individuals, new to the industry. Jazayeri was actively engaged in this process and saw a need to introduce some structure to support the incoming team members. That’s when the team lead structure was born, with Jazayeri taking on one of the two leadership roles.
Just four years into his broking career, Jazayeri has already made significant contributions to the industry as well as his brokerage. However, it’s almost a certainty that he’ll find more ways to get involved in the world of broking down the road.
“It’s a reminder for me that if you pursue your passion, if you pursue what you’re interested in, things along those lines will reveal themselves to you,” he said.
