We hope you enjoyed the 2015 Midwest/Western Regional Farm Bureau Underwriting Conference
Presentations
Below are the presentations from the conference for your reference:
- Profitability Initiatives by Dan Bleak (pdf)
- The Changing Climate of Catastrophe Risk Underwriting by Mark Bove (pdf)
- Putting Customers First While Protecting Profitability by Emily Huling (ppt)
- Emerging Risks by Lorie Graham (pdf)
Book Recommendations
- Get It On by Keni Thomas
- Keni was a Ranger at Mogadishu
- Traction – Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman
- I just finished this and got a lot of good ideas! – Dan Bleak
- Driven, An Autobiography by Larry Miller
- The Leader Who Had No Title by Robin Sharma
- Pour Your Heart Into It by Howard Schultz
- CEO of Starbucks
- Start With Why by Simon Sinek
- Humble Inquiry by Ed Schein
- The Culture Secret by David Vik
- Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
- Story of Louis Zamperini
- The Boys in the Boat by Daniel Brown
- Story of 1936 US Olympic rowing team
- Happy for No Reason: 7 Steps to Being Happy from the Inside Out by Marci Shimoff
- Sacred Acre – it is about a high school coach in small town Iowa (Ed Thomas). The only high school coach ever on the cover of Sports Illustrated. The foreword is done by Tony Dungy. Sadly he was shot by a former player in the locker room and his son recently spoke at our Underwriting conference in Iowa. Wow, great speaker and a great story and we all got a copy of the book. He lived in the small town that was devastated by a tornado a few years ago and how he brought the town together. The is a great YouTube video that ESPN did.
- Energy Bus by Jon Gordon (foreword by Ken Blanchard)
- That’s Outside My Boat – Letting Go of What You Can’t Control by Charlie Jones
- Our claims VP read this and got some good ideas.
- 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens – Stephen Covey
- Bought this for my 16 year old daughter – she is enjoying it. Dan Bleak
- How Will You Measure Your Life by Clayton Christensen
- Quiet, The Power of Introverts – Susan Cain
- The 5 Love Languages – Gary Chapman
- Goal-Free Living by Stephen Shapiro
The following are from a list of book that Nicole Pinkham (leadership speaker at FB Executive conference) recommended.
- Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner
- The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
- Crucial Conservations by Patterson, Grenny, McMillan and Switzler
- Everyone Communicates, Few Connect by John Maxwell
- The Whole Brain Business Book
- Resilience by Eric Greitens
- The Power of Small by Thaler and Koval
- Smart Trust by Stephen Covey
- Primal Leadership by Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee
- The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor
- Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Bradberry and Greaves
- First, Break All The Rules
Dan’s (for entertainment)
- Vince Flynn books (anti-terrorism operative)
- Brad Thor books (similar genre)
- The Winner by David Baldacci (got me hooked on his writing)
- Blue Heaven by CJ Box (introduced me to his writing – good series)
- Early books by Tom Clancy (such as Clear and Present Danger)
- My Losing Season by Pat Conroy (introduced me to his other writing)
- A Perfect Day by Richard Evans
- James Herriott (4 book series – English vet stories)
- A Crooked Number, Waiting for White Horses by Nathan Jorgenson
- Every Shot I Take by Davis Love III
- Fire of the Covenant by Gerald Lund (story of Mormon handcart companies)
- Killing Lincoln by Bill O’Reilly
- Child Called “It” by Dave Pelzer – first in series. Extremely sad story, but inspiring…
- Watership Down by Richard Adams – book I read as a kid, one of my early favorites…
- The Harry Potter series
- Bend in the Road by Nicholas Sparks