Serving as the fourth generation of the family business, Adam Grojean handles commercial insurance at the Grojean Agency in Jacksonville. With more than 20 years of experience, he helps his commercial customers both locally and across the across the U.S. find exactly what they need.
Before joining the family business, Grojean attended college at Illinois College, where he played football and studied Sociology. After applying for a few jobs in the Sociology field and talking to other professionals, he decided he’d be better suited for the agency setting—and so he began working there in 1993.
He started out on the personal insurance side of the business, working with auto and home insurance. “It was a little more cut and dry,” he explained, “You enter the details for a person, and it gives you a number. There’s not much negotiating.” But after 10 years, he switched over to the commercial side, working with restaurants, hotels, strip malls, manufacturers, and more. “It’s more of the ‘wild west’, because there are less rules and you can find different providers who can do different things for your customers. It’s like finding the right puzzle piece.”
A normal day for Grojean: He gets up at 6:15 to get going before the day begins. Then it’s three school drop-offs, work, lunchtime exercise, more time in the office, and then another round of pick-ups. The workday ends around 5:00, and then the family is busy with various activities until 9:00 or so.
If he ever has a bit of free time, Grojean tries to get in about 20 miles of running per week. His interest in distance running began about 10 years after college, when he realized he wanted to drop some of the bulk he had built up while playing college football. Over the period of about six months, he dropped 100 pounds and ran several marathons—often training by running more than 70 miles a week. With the family’s busy schedule, he still fits in runs when he can, and has managed to complete many races over the past decade. Another interesting hobby: Building and trading parts for bicycles. Whether it’s for a bike for himself, or a bike for his kids, he loves spending time building and re-building bikes.
Today, he and his wife, Amy, a graphic designer who works remotely for a company based out of St. Louis, live in Jacksonville with their five kids. They love to travel—and just recently returned from a trip to Florida and Georgia, where they explored some of the Walking Dead sets along the way. For most holidays, he and his wife come up with a fun theme for a family photo—and they go all out. With his wife’s graphic design skills, family and friends always look forward to seeing what they’ll come up with next.
A life-long Jacksonville community member, Grojean has no plans to leave. Whether he’s coaching football, out with his family, or on the road, he’s always finding new ways to lead an interesting life.
