Tom Schueth and Mike Wingate are firm believers that when you support the community, the impact will be tenfold. People in the community who are supported will, in turn, help others.
That’s a message that has radiated through the team of more than 100-plus people at Norfolk-based Premier Marketing, an insurance brokerage firm for which Schueth and Wingate are co-founders and managing partners.
Premier’s unwavering commitment to community outreach, combined with its reputation as one of the most respected insurance brokerages in the U.S., led to the company’s selection as a 2023 Norfolk Area Business Hall of Fame inductee.
The hall of fame is a recognition program started in 2017 by the Daily News and First National Bank of Omaha to honor deserving local and area businesses for their longevity, commitment to their employees and involvement in civic and charitable affairs.
A nomination letter submitted by Barbara Stahlecker described Premier Marketing as “a shining example of how a business should lead in the community.”
“Premier Marketing is the most charitable organization I’ve ever known,” Stahlecker wrote. “They have been extremely generous with their time and their willingness to support those in the community who might be in need.”
Premier has been a part of the Norfolk business community since 1968, when Albert “Skip” Wingate established the insurance brokerage firm Mutual Protective Service. Skip was Mike Wingate’s father and Schueth’s father-in-law.
Skip had been delivering bread in the late 1960s when he decided that he needed an occupation that would increase his income and thus allow him to more sufficiently support his family.
That desire led Skip to meeting someone who’d been involved with insurance, planting the company’s seeds.
“And from there, he was just a natural at it,” Schueth said. “He could meet anyone, anytime, any day. And that’s what he did. And he worked very hard to build a very successful general agency.”
By 1998, when Skip retired, the company had grown to 300 active agents. Schueth and Mike Wingate, who both started at Premier in 1989, acquired the business and rebranded the company as Premier Senior Marketing.
Premier Senior Marketing quickly grew — adding additional divisions, expanding beyond the “senior marketing” label and eventually serving tens of thousands of agents in all 50 states. Brent Ehlers, vice president of sales and marketing, said Premier works with 58,000 agents nationwide.
“Evolution came when we started bringing on more people here and finding great people that come in that really, really have the same mindset that we’re looking for — how we worked with agents, how we treated agents, how we worked with our team here and really created a great working environment,” Schueth said. “… We had the goal of, ‘Let’s take this thing nationally.’
“And so over 25 years ago, that’s what we did. We decided, ‘Let’s take this in a bigger direction and see where we can take that.’ ”
Premier’s clients consist of agents nationwide who are looking to get into the life, health and wealth business. Those agents then service the needs of consumers.
“Our job is not only to help with the opportunity for the agents that are interested in getting contracted, but being anything from their back office, to their support staff, to their sales help, to marketing, to any of those things that can help them help consumers with their needs,” Ehlers said.
Ehlers said that what helped Premier Marketing grow into what it is today is when Schueth and Wingate leveraged opportunities that partnered the company with the Medicare business. Premier had explored becoming involved with Medicare as the result of losing a primary carrier in 2001.
“And that’s really what launched us to grow to the number of people that we hired over the years and the number of agents that we then were able to bring on because of that opportunity,” Ehlers said.
‘Give until it hurts’
Premier Marketing has long been involved in community outreach, generously supporting local nonprofits.
The list of philanthropic efforts the business has engaged in includes “adopting” dozens of families in need during the Christmas season; donating to the United Way and Northeast Nebraska Animal Shelter; working with Briggs & Barrett and Orphan Grain Train; supporting domestic violence shelters; sponsoring blood drives; and encouraging employees to become mentors for children through the TeamMates program.
Justin Reifert, vice president of health sales, said Schueth and Wingate have stressed the importance of supporting the community to Premier’s staff. The insurance wholesaling industry gives its employees eminent opportunities, Reifert said, and Premier has made it a goal to give back.
Such a large number of Premier employees wanted to contribute to community outreach that the business started a 501(c)(3) organization, called Premier Community Outreach.
“We wanted to give more, and it became harder to do without (the nonprofit),” Reifert said.
Reifert serves as the nonprofit organization’s president. Ten people, including five executive board members, help operate Premier Community Outreach.
Kasey Doud, vice president of operations, said the nonprofit stemmed from Schueth’s and Wingate’s charitable giving and the rest of the company’s desire to be a part of it.
“So a lot of the employees kind of followed in their footsteps of wanting to give back to the community,” Doud said. “We used to have a motto: ‘Give until it hurts.’ And it makes sure that we could give back to the community where we could.”
Several years ago, a family that didn’t have any connection to Premier lost nearly everything in a house fire, Doud said. The Premier staff rallied together to raise enough money so that the family could meet its essential needs.
Reifert said Premier takes part in an annual park cleanup, where employees volunteer their time to pick up trash around the community.
Premier also contributes to Meals on Wheels America. The business donates five to 10 trees every year to be planted at city parks.
Further, Premier hosts an annual fundraiser golf tournament for which the proceeds go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. This year’s tournament raised $75,000.
Recently, Premier gave a $24,000 check to Norfolk Public Schools’ LIFE Communication program to be used for new equipment.
‘A relationship business’
Premier’s leaders describe the life, health and wealth industry as “a relationship business.” It’s the foundation of how employees were brought up by Schueth and Wingate, Ehlers said.
“It really is about the relationships,” he said. “It’s not about one carrier we work with or five or whomever we’re doing business with now, or a product per se. … We’re here to help them through whatever challenges they’re going through, because a lot of people that we work with, they’re not paid unless they make sales.
“So their livelihood — the food, the shoes that they buy their kids or the grandkids’ Christmas presents and things like that — makes us feel proud.”
Schueth said the success of Premier is because of the work of every one of its employees, not just the company’s leaders.
“Sometimes, some of us have the vision. But let’s not kid ourselves, the heavy lifting comes from the entire team,” Schueth said. “And it’s extremely important that we all work very closely together. Because if one of us is off, we all can be off. And so, I’ll put this team here against anyone out there in our industry in the United States. They’re fabulous.”
He added that Premier feels honored to be inducted into the hall of fame.
“It’s very humbling, and we never would have guessed when we started this thing — I’m sure Skip 55 years ago or even Mike and I 25 years ago when we came in and acquired it — that this is where we’d be today.
“We’re all very blessed with a great team here. And it’s very humbling to be part of the other successful businesses in the hall of fame.”
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