Agent Spotlight: Laurie Borne

Laurie Borne shares how she’s cooked up success in insurance sales.

The smell of warm, freshly baked sugar cookies shaped like reindeer, snowmen and Christmas trees cool on the counter as a second batch slide into the hot oven…

Laurie Borne’s kitchen is not only where she creates beautifully decorated iced sugar cookies but also the hub of her recipe for insurance sales success. Nearly twenty years ago, 19-year-old Laurie got her start working in a contract bond department when the insurance bug bit her.

For the next ten years, she learned the property and casualty side of insurance and focused on bonding contractor accounts. Laurie briefly retired to be a stay-at-home mom to a son and daughter but then returned to the world of insurance, trying her hand in the healthcare niche. Once her children were grown and off to college, Laurie did what any dedicated mom would do–she packed up and moved to Madison, Mississippi to be closer to them. 

“We had always enjoyed the Madison community, venturing there on shopping trips with my daughter,” said Borne. “I gained some dear, supportive friends who help build each other up. It’s truly been a blessing.” 

She wanted a new challenge in the healthcare niche, so she joined HUB International because of the company’s outstanding reputation. “My main focus is hospitals, nursing homes, contractor accounts and nursing home management companies,” said Borne, who began working with LUBA Workers’ Comp nearly 30 years ago. 

“I always tell people I don’t just sell insurance, I sell confidence and peace of mind because I show clients where potential exposure is for their business. I’ve learned over the years that LUBA cares as much about people as I do. I worked the desk and know what it takes to be responsive, fair, and on top of managing quotes, claims, and loss prevention,” said Borne. 

“LUBA is hands-down one of the best choices I continue to make for my clients. I have about 90% of my book of business with LUBA because I trust them to do what’s fair and to take care of my clients and their workers.”

As an empty nester, with her son now living and working in Dallas as a CPA and her daughter earning a Master’s Degree in Higher Education, Laurie connected her past with a new hobby. When Laurie was a five-year-old, she lost her mother. Thankfully, Laurie’s dad saved a box of her mother’s personal belongings, including a journal and other items which he gave to Laurie when she became an adult. Laurie was fascinated to discover that her mother’s style of writing and thinking was much like her own. She also learned that her mom loved to bake just as Laurie had done so many times before with her own daughter. “In a way, baking provides me the opportunity to connect with my mom.” Laurie wanted to learn a new hobby, so she studied how to make gourmet iced sugar cookies. She now sells her treats on her social media page: Stella’s Grub. Since the pandemic began, Laurie’s hobby has also been profitable (over 100 orders), and she enjoys connecting to a memory of her mother. If you’re close to Madison, Mississippi, look up Stella’s Grub and HUB International’s “sweetest” insurance agent, Laurie Borne, to get some gourmet sugar cookies baked with lots of love and a hint of insurance prowess.