Pulling His Weight

Andy Butcher

Matt Hodson believes that if you want to get ahead—whether that’s making the team or making a good living—you’ve got to do some heavy lifting. It’s a philosophy that has guided him from his days as an undersized high school athlete through a successful 40-plus-year career with State Farm.

Well regarded for his influence in the company, Hodson was its 2017 GAMA (General Agency Management Association) First in Class honoree for “distinguished leadership in the art and science of agency building.” He is also known and appreciated in the wider industry as something of an elder statesman through his participation in the senior-level research study group convened by LIMRA (the Life Insurance Marketing Research Association), which produces widely valued industry white papers.

Hodson still hits the weights early in the morning six days a week in his home gym before turning to his State Farm vice president role overseeing 12 managers and 600-plus agents in the Central New York and New England region. As one of the longest-serving of the company’s 38 VPAs (Vice President Agency) nationwide (26 years), he’s well known there but also recognized beyond not only for his solid track record—which includes leading one of the company’s top-performing auto and life insurance sales territories seven years running—but his undimmed enthusiasm for what he does.

“I love what I get to do,” he says—both providing financial security to everyday people and helping those who deliver those services to prosper. “I love that I get to help people run their agencies and serve customers across many states,” and he believes that State Farm’s entrepreneurial opportunity is one of “the best in America.”

Spoken like a good neighbor, which the stats suggest State Farm continues to be: more than 19,000 independent contractor agents and 66,000 employees nationwide serving over 91 million policies and accounts. The company added 1 million policies last year, helping it continue to lead the U.S. in auto and homeowners insurance.

While running a small business is not without its risks, Hodson acknowledges, he’s proud of State Farm’s industry-leading success rate for retention of new agents —approximately 85%. “Now in an entrepreneurial world, that’s crazy high, right? There’s something about that that says we must be doing something right about how we approach it.”

Hodson does his part to ensure that success rate by spending one-on-one time with 50 to 60 new agents a month on top of his area meetings. “You’d be hard-pressed to find an executive at any company that knows what’s going on in his territories and his agents’ offices better than Matt,” says one longtime State Farm leader.

“It’s checking in, using the coaching skills appropriately to find out how they’re doing . . . what needs to be worked on or even just celebrating the victories that they’re having,” Hodson says of his high commitment to connecting with his team members. “It’s something that I have chosen to do because I feel my obligation is to add value every day and that’s a way that I can.”

Success pattern

 In addition to serving on LIMRA’s A-list Research Study Group, Hodson sits on the board of industry advocacy group Finseca, having previously been a member of GAMA, one of the organizations that combined as the new entity. He welcomes the opportunity to be part of providing thought leadership to the industry and representing it to lawmakers.

“I believe in the work that we do,” he says. Helping protect people and achieve their financial dreams “is a worthwhile thing to work towards,” he says. “So, let’s make the most of every single day and every opportunity.”

Though he found a career he has enjoyed, Hodson didn’t plan on joining the insurance industry. With an engineering bent, he went to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana, because of its then-track record of having placed every graduate in a good job for the previous six years.

Winning a General Motors full-ride academic scholarship at the end of his sophomore year eased the financial challenges of attending a distinguished private school on limited means and gave him a summer internship at GM’s Buick plant in Flint, Michigan.

That experience opened the door to a job with Packard Electric in Warren, Ohio. Hodson helped launch a multimillion-dollar cost-saving project centered on reinventing battery cable production. While the future looked bright, on completing his MBA at Kent State University, he decided that he wanted to have his own business rather than work for someone else.

“So, I said, ‘Well, let’s look at this, what’s the success pattern? I could be an engineer/consultant.’ The success pattern of that was probably between 30-50%. Then I looked at the life insurance industry [and] their retention statistics were not strong. Then I looked at State Farm, at 85% over a five-year pattern, and I said, ‘What are they doing different here?’”

Confident he could make a go of things by twinning his discipline with State Farm’s support, Hodson moved to Cincinnati to start an agency. He chose the city deliberately for its population and diversified industries, which made it “an economically balanced community, which was a vital element of what I was looking for.”

Hodson hung out his shingle on June 1, 1983, and to this day, every year on that anniversary he calls his first manager, Greg King, to thank him for helping him get started in the industry. “He taught me discipline and doing right by customers in all that we do, and that applies everywhere,” says Hodson.

He quickly developed a reputation for hard work and customer service. Successfully growing his business led to Hodson being tapped for a manager’s post in Cleveland where he more than doubled the size of his group to 25 over a five-year period.

Making that transition wasn’t an easy decision, “because I always loved being an agent,” he says. But he welcomed the opportunity to multiply the individual impact he was able to have by sharing some of what he had learned with others. “I realized over time as a leader, those experiences that I had as an agent and as a manager, helping agents get started successfully, are timeless,” he says. “How we go about writing auto and homeowners insurance changes with technology, but fundamentally it’s not really different. The same principles apply.”

After six years as a manager, Hodson volunteered to lead State Farm’s efforts to increase its then-limited presence in New York City. “With a population of 7-8 million in the five boroughs alone, I felt strongly about the great opportunity it represented, and I immediately raised my hand and said, ‘I’ll take it,’ because it was an incredible marketplace.”

Having built up State Farm’s book in the five boroughs over the next several years, Hodson was then promoted to an executive assistant at the company’s Bloomington, Illinois headquarters. While there he was named a vice president of agency and asked to head up a major new initiative, taking State Farm to Connecticut.

The company hadn’t broken ground in a new state in 35 years, but Hodson was undeterred, believing he could draw on his previous experience in Ohio, New Jersey and New York City to make a go of it. And he was proved right—State Farm marks its 25th anniversary in Connecticut, in 2025, with 131 agents and ranking No. 3 in the state for auto insurance and fourth for homeowners. “So, it’s been a success story,” he says, noting with typical appreciation of others that big wins are usually achieved “by a large group of people.”

One of those who was part of that Connecticut initiative was PJ Furnari, now a field sales leader in New York’s Greater Capital District overseeing 53 agents. She’s grateful for Hodson’s coaching and example through the years, challenging people to reach for more and helping them get there.

“The lesson I’ve learned from Matt first and foremost is whatever goal you have, add 20% on for him, and that is still true to this day,” she says. Hodson’s leadership is “results-oriented, goal-oriented,” she observes. “He doesn’t let a lot of noise get in the way. He’ll listen when you vent, and then he’ll move you forward, as a coach should.”

Hodson’s monthly all-sales-leaders four-hour calls are legendary, Furnari says. “He’s not talking [all that time]. He talks for about 15 minutes of it and the rest of it is him bringing resources to us to help. It’s a great way to share best practices to stay on track for what our goals and objectives are.”

Work ethic

Hodson’s work ethic was forged in his early years, and he credits his parents, coaches and other mentors for that. “I was raised by a mom and dad that gave me every ounce of love that I ever needed, and food and clothing,” he says, “but we didn’t have a lot more per se, and that’s OK.”

Coming from a humble background, “ever since I was old enough to lift a bale of hay, I earned a living every summer making a dollar, so if I had any spending money it was because I was working for it.” That reality fueled not only his drive but his entrepreneurial spirit, as when he ended up in a foot cast after injuring his ankle playing basketball.

“As a laborer, I’m not worth much to an employer, so at that point, I was out of a job,” he remembers. “But I had to make a buck. So, I went round to the farmers and the local people and said, ‘I’ll paint your house,’ because I could stand on a ladder with that cast on my leg and the other one being good and still paint. And guess what? I found out I could actually do better as a painter than as a laborer.”

His determination was further instilled as an aspiring college football player. When his high school coaches told him that he’d never make it because he was too small, he turned to the weight room, putting on 40 pounds between his senior year there and junior year in college. Not only did he make the team, where he lettered for four years, playing four different positions, he was named captain. He also competed as a decathlete and set a javelin record that held for a decade—and later played semipro football for a time.

Hodson brought that discipline to his insurance career, believing the same principles of diligence and determination pay dividends—one time delighting those at a company meeting when he dropped on stage to pump out some handclap pushups.

His formative training experiences shaped the outlook he shares in a LinkedIn profile quote from famed football coach Vince Lombardi: “I firmly believe that any person’s finest hour—their greatest fulfillment to all they hold dear—is that moment when they have worked their heart out in a good cause and lie exhausted on the field of battle—victorious.”

Leadership strengths

Hodson attributes State Farm’s high success rate for incoming agents to the company’s rigorous selection process. “We’re very picky about selection and we are very deliberate about informing people, so they know what they’re getting involved in,” he says. “They understand the capital, the energy, the leadership, what they have to do to execute.”

Hodson has his eye out for three qualities in particular when he’s assessing whether someone has that entrepreneurial spirit. First, they have to be able to manage a certain degree of risk. “That’s an important aspect of it,” he says. “Ownership that I can drive my own destiny, I’m confident enough to [do that] because we can’t control all the factors in building an agency—what happens in the community and all the other things.”

Next, there’s the work ethic Hodson models himself—a typical weekday if he is not meeting agents in the field is 7:30 am to 6:30 pm, with a few hours over the weekend to be ready for Monday.

“Is that extraordinary for my opportunity? I don’t think so,” he says. “I think it fits right in with what other executives and other companies even in the business world are expected to do. Some have to do a lot more.”

Hodson also believes in modeling what he expects from others. Being prepared to put in the hard work is simply “a vital piece,” he says. “Early days in the early years. As a State Farm agent, you’re putting in massive hours. Move that 60 hours a week to 80 hours a week as you are building and growing your agency.” There’s plenty of State Farm support, he emphasizes, “but still, it requires a lot of work.”

Finally, there’s coachability. “This is a big factor, because while we want to start with good talent, conditions and things change over time,” Hodson says. While agents operate independently, “our ability to help [them] continue to have success over the years is partially dependent upon their coachability and their agreement.”

Put those three elements together, he concludes, “and we’ve got the ingredients for a successful agent.”

As a leader-coach-mentor you have to believe in your people above all, Hodson says. But that doesn’t mean being soft. “You’re going to work with them to help them become the very best that they can be,” he says, thinking back to his high school football coach and college track and field coach who both were “very hard, very disciplined.” But “when you grow up through that, you learn an innate skill, that you can overcome the challenges; you’ve been there before.”

Hodson cites team recruitment and retention as one of the biggest challenges he sees facing agents. “Attrition happens for all businesses and agents have to deal with that challenge as well, as independent contractors,” he says. The answer is “proactively recruiting, staying ahead, having additional capacity through different periods of growth so that when they do have turnover—someone’s spouse moves to the other side of the country, and they follow them—it’s expected.”