Tennessee Living

About the Author - Dan Batey

Dan Batey is communications specialist for Tennessee Farm Bureau Insurance and can be reached at .

You may think I’m new to this magazine, but you’ve read my scribblings before.

About eight years ago, the folks at the Tennessee Farm Bureau wanted to publish a magazine for their members. I had been producing the Tennessee Farm Bureau News since 1996, so I was a logical choice to tackle the job.

I packed up my computer, holed up in a rented cabin near Sevierville and developed the initial concept of Tennessee Home & Farm. Several days later I came down from the mountain with a prototype, and we went to work.

For the first two years of the magazine’s existence, my tiny little company – an office assistant, a couple of freelancers and me – labored mightily to produce the magazine. To meet deadlines, I worked around the clock, eating at my desk and sleeping on a cot in the office.

It was about like a puppy pulling a freight train. Finally, mercifully, we were able to attract the attention of Journal Communications, a company that is actually geared up to produce custom magazines. Tennessee Home
& Farm went on to win awards, and I got off the office cot and went on home.

That lasted until about a year ago, when Farm Bureau Insurance decided to set up a corporate communications department. This time, a little older and a little wiser, I put on my necktie and came on board full time.

Things started off sort of slow. The necktie part I could handle, but I had spent most of my adult life as a free-range entrepreneur and was straining to sit still through all the meetings.

It felt a little strange, too, to hear people talk about a “passion for insurance.” You don’t often hear those two words together.

The turning point came just before dawn last February as I woke up with a wadded-up sportcoat under my head. No, it wasn’t my old office cot. I was in a Farm Bureau Insurance car next to a convenience store at Parker’s Crossroads. My old news-gathering instincts had kicked in, and I had bolted off to Jackson to take photos of tornado damage.

For days our company mobilized to assess damages and pay claims. I saw our people come together as a team, calmly and professionally taking care of victims. I saw our office people hug customers who were more than just customers – they were friends, too.

And there it was. Passion for insurance. Passion for helping people put their lives back together. Passion for serving our customers.

It seems that, in my life at least, any job worth doing calls for sleeping in odd places – whether it’s an office cot or the driver’s seat of a gray Impala. 

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Magazine:
Tennessee Home & Farm, Fall 2010 Edition Edition

Headline:
A Passion for Insurance

Summary:
New communications specialist relies on journalism background to learn the ropes.

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