"Honestly, I lucked into this industry,” said BancFirst Insurance Services Executive Vice President Sean Shadid.

“I was graduating from the University of Tulsa and trying to decide what to do, and I got an email about an interview with an insurance company for an underwriting job. I ended up landing my first job in insurance, and I’ve never looked back.” Shadid spent the early years of his career with several different insurance carriers as an underwriter. He said that his years of experience in underwriting helped his transition to the sales side of the industry when he came to BancFirst Insurance Services eight years ago.

He said that he loves what he does now.

BancFirst Insurance Services is a full-service independent insurance agency based in Oklahoma. It was named a Top 100 Property and Casualty Agency by Insurance Journal in 2022, and was also named a Big “I” Best Practices Agency in 2022.

The agency offers a broad array of property and casualty, life, health, and surety products, and serves its customers with six locations across the State of Oklahoma, as well as an additional location in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex.

“Most of my clients have considerable or complicated risk management needs,” said Shadid. “They need someone to dive in with them to figure out the best solutions for their situation. The key thing is to listen.”

“You have to spend time with the client, find out their risk appetite, and understand what they’re trying to achieve. Instead of choosing for them, I do a lot of listening and also ask a lot of questions so that I can put together an individualized, meaningful, and comprehensive program.”

Listening well and helping people one-on-one is a feature of Shadid’s life outside of BancFirst as well. “I’ve always had a passion for education,” explained Shadid. He volunteers with, and also serves on the board of, City Year Tulsa, an Americorp program that supports schools by placing volunteers in struggling schools where kids need one-on-one help. The goal of the program is to increase graduation rates for both students and schools.

Outside of BancFirst and his volunteer work with City Year, Shadid enjoys golfing and traveling with his busy family of four. Shadid said that he and his wife Heidi, their 10-year-old daughter Ryleigh, and 16-year-old son Tristan “love seeing lots of different places together.”

BancFirst’s “phenomenal culture” is what makes it such a great place to work, said Shadid. “We’re focused on people and focused on making sure our agents have what they need to take care of our customers well.”

He thinks that’s why LUBA has been such a good fit for BancFirst.

"We’ve been very impressed with LUBA’s responsiveness and openness to have a conversation. Just like us, they’re willing to dig in and really understand the companies we’re trying to get them to insure. They truly listen before making a decision, and we respect that.”