SignalsAZ.com Prescott News Podcast - Rob Short Brings State Farm to Chino Valley

Episode Date: May 8, 2026

Send us a text and chime in!Rob Short shares how his background in recruiting, leadership, and community involvement led to opening a State Farm agency in Chino Valley. He covers insurance, financial planning, life insurance, and the importance of helping families prepare for the future. Short also discusses his connection to local schools, youth sports, and the Quad Cities community. His agency focuses on simplicity, trust, and accessible service for customers across Chino Valley, Prescott, and Prescott Valley.Check out the CAST11.com Website at: https://CAST11.com Follow the CAST11 Podcast Network on Facebook at: https://Facebook.com/CAST11AZFollow Cast11 Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/cast11_podcast_network

Dude, we're back. Yeah, together. Robert Short, now with you got your own agency, State Farm, Chita Valley, congratulations. Thank you. You and I go back a few years. We do. We should give a shout out to guidance aviation. Those guys over at the airport, yeah.

Love it. What's going on? You've got, you're up to five kids. Yep, five kids. Family man. Yes, sir. Sports addict. Sports addict.

Yeah. Are you baseball coached still? I do coach some baseball. Yeah. What's the name of the team? So I have a, I coach a couple different teams. One is the Pine Sox. So it's a local travel ball team club team here in Prescott.

Okay. So there's a-go Pine Sox. Yeah, go Pine Sox. It's a great program. We have three different age groups actually in that. So I didn't know you're going to ask me about that. But hey, that's a great thing. So my son's 11 and he plays on on that team.

Okay. There and the group of coaching there is all professional or college athletes, college baseball guys. Nice. And all of us are local. So it's pretty special. So you were in recruiting. You did that for a number of years after you and I were working at guidance aviation. You went into recruiting.

I went into news, basically. And now you just picked up an agency. You want to talk about that process a little bit? It was a former existing agency. It was, yeah. I was thrilled to get the call and to talk to them. So I was a recruiter, so for lack of a better term, a headhunter. Right. So I recruited mostly engineers and technical roles for about a decade. Was just the guy calling people on the phone, hey, you want this job. Hey, let me tell you about this job. Turned into a leadership role where I was leading a team of recruiters, training people in sales and recruiting, how to talk to talk to people, really. Right. because that's what it is, building the trust with the candidate to see if they're going to be a viable person for that job.

So it turned into me training a lot. I opened a small office here in Prescott had up to four recruiters at one time. Calendar page turned to 2025. And I was sitting there looking at what was going on in recruiting. And I was literally at my desk recruiting. And in my LinkedIn feed, a state farm recruiter popped up. which was funny to me, and I made fun of them. I literally made fun of them back. And it was a back and forth little jest, and then he called me. And when I found out that it was the Chino Valley office, I knew the agent, Penny Hubble. She had been there for years. Yeah, she was. She's a thing, right? She was a fixture in our community. She was at all of the local sports things, sponsoring teams. Your banner was up at the high school. I knew who she was. I'd met her.

several times, even though I was not with State Farm. And I just said to him, Penny Hubble's retiring. And I'm like, absolutely, let's talk about this. Because I knew the impact she had and I knew kind of what she did. So I jumped at it. Turned in to be, it was probably a six-month interview process with State Farm. Wow. So I wouldn't pass it. No, you wouldn't. You would have. You would have been out. Yeah. My like personality test. Yeah, they were taking blood samples. and everything. I know, definitely about the blest apples. Awesome.

Yep. Well, it's great for the community. I know who you are. You're a great family dude, a sports coach. Yeah. You just, you fit that bill, which is fantastic. Pass by you every day. So now I have an excuse to go in.

Overflow coffee, Chino Valley. Yeah, this is right next door to our office on, Chino Valley or on. Grab a cup of coffee. So, yep. I might need a new motorcycle policy. I bought a motorcycle in August, didn't tell my wife. That's a smart decision. I might need an insurance policy just for that.

On what? Just you're not telling your wife? Yes. I might need coverage when my back is turned. Yeah, yeah. We have a liability policy that might cover. Probably an educational policy and what not to do. Yeah.

Come on in. We'll have a talk about that, yeah. But I made some help with that. So I'm excited about this just because I know who you are. I've known you a long time. I'm how great it's going to be Frichino, and it's going to extend what Penny has established as service. But you're also a sports guy. And right now, we're trying to get Robert Short here, State Farm, another plug, to do sports for us.

What about like, you know, short sports or something like that that you regularly cover what's going on in the communities for us? Because we have three or four communities around here, at least. Yeah, I'd love it. I'd love to look into something like that. I'm a, I was a, I was a both football and baseball player locally out of Chino Valley High School. Okay. You're a Cougar. I was a Cougar, go Cougars, class of 2002.

Oh my gosh. So I played, I played four years of both of those sports. Also wrestled for a little bit. So shout out to Alan Foster. I don't know if you heard, but he's a local guy also that just got the AD spot at Chino High School. Okay. So there's just one little note there.

Lots to have the athletic director in. Yeah, he's a good guy. You'd love to meet him. So as far as local sports go, I love that aspect to give these young athletes, just a little bit of a spotlight. We got stuff going on Chino and Prescott. Prescott, Prescott Valley. Okay. Yeah, yeah, we love to.

So we're just going to recruit you on air so you have to do it. Yeah, yeah, I'd love to talk about that. I'd love to talk local sports and, you know, national sports or statewide sports, whatever it is. I'm a sports guy. So what is, because you talked about kind of making fun of when the recruiter came across. Yeah. Yep.

What is one thing, if you got it that has surprised you, you went through a lot of training. Yeah. We all take it for granted, right, as consumers. Another insurance agent. We all needed health, auto home, all that stuff. What's one thing that you went, oh, this is important. I'm glad I learned this and I can be of service.

Yeah, absolutely. Yes, I will say on air and publicly, and I told this to the recruiters, I was not excited. I told them I'm not excited about doing a whole bunch of home and auto insurance. Like that doesn't get me out of bed in the morning, but it's serving the people that does. Right. And State Farm impressed me in the amount of products they offer that people don't know about. So I'm a registered investment advisor now. We offer investment products to our customers the same way in Edward Jones or another company will. And I did not know that. I had no idea because you see State Farm, you see Home and Auto. You don't see that. One thing I learned through this also, to answer your question directly, is the need for life insurance. So I see it because I have five kids. But I also didn't know just the number of people that don't have it.

And I'm shocked. You know, you talk to people and you're like, obviously. It's relatively inexpensive. But it's mandatory that you have on auto policy. Right. And if you have a mortgage, you have to have homes. You have to have that. So now you're like, but the life is something you make a choice in.

And I'm, I was, that's one thing that I've been impressed on. That's a great real, by the way. I want to touch on that because I, introduced my daughter upon graduation from college as a gift. I gave her a chunk of money to start an investment account. Sure. Those financial tools really didn't exist when I was graduating. They were just coming around. And so there's an outfit in town here that, and I love it because he calls my daughter once a quarter. Yep. And he just checking in, how you doing? Here's what's going on. and how much have you saved?

And he then calls me and doesn't reveal what they talked about. But he says, your daughter's doing really great. Good for her. And so for me as a father to have that service, I just, and then I always call her. I go, so how are you doing? He wouldn't give me the numbers. And she tells me, she says, dad, this is how much cash I've saved. This is how much I've invested.

This is what my portfolio looks like. I had none of that, none of it when I was that age. Yeah. And now she's got a rainy day account. Good for her. So she could survive probably four to six months right now. Yeah. And she's just in the market.

Yeah. I didn't have that. Nope. None of that. And it's so accessible now. Our phones have apps. I have the E-Trade app and a fidelity app. Yep.

To know that you provide that is super interesting to me. And that's something I know we have to be really careful talking about. It's true. Stuff we can't do. I know. Yep. I've got FINRA on my back. Right.

So, but that you do offer that, that knowledge. And this isn't one of those stock, brokery, commission-based things. You're offering a simple service. It's so different now that it was back when I was that age. And that's just more trustworthy. It's more transparent. Yeah, I think that's the key. It's more transparent.

Right. Yeah. So that's exciting me to hear that. Absolutely. And we could talk about that, certainly at another time, what you're allowed to talk about. I would let you lead that. Yeah. I'd have to go back and do some research on that because you want to say things.

But what am I allowed to say there? You're not allowed to say a lot in that regard and whatnot. But to know that, yeah, we do offer that. But if I have another daughter or another kid or, hey, you need to start an investment account now for retirement, I can send them their Robert Short State Farm. Yep. That's all I need to know. It's impressive because most people like to keep things simple. And personal finance is exactly that.

It's personal. And you can chase gains here and there. But simplicity sometimes makes more of a difference than catching a better rate here or there. If you catch what I'm saying. If you're bundling your home and auto with State Farm and you got your life, oh, and you have an IRA there too. It's all in one place. And it's backed by some some bridge. companies in the investment world that you can do that very simply yeah and if i have a control panel

where it's got all that stuff right there that's where i goes you'll be able to do you'll you'll get the same kind of treatment that that others we have we're fully you know internet enabled web based all that kind of stuff you'll be able to just like didn't know that just like the big dogs yeah that's why we need to talk more yeah exactly just don't want to get you in trouble with yeah whatever whatever yeah those are the ones those are the ones will come after us so you're right Right next to Overflow. And is that near the pet supply place? Yeah, we share a building with PetRite.

So shout out to my neighbors at PetRite and Warren's Feed. They have two locations there in town. So I can grab my coffee. Yep. My whole crack corn for my chickens. You can grab a chicken feed, yep, absolutely. And I can get my motorcycle policy. You get your motorcycle policy and you can grab a puppy.

They have puppies there too sometimes. I mean, it's all in one place. I have a problem. Yeah. It's easy. Come on in for the policy. Canyines and corn. Your wife would not care if you came home with another sheep dog.

No, we have seven dogs and 58 goats. Yeah, you just get lost out there. Just though the puppy in the yard, they'll take care of it. I need a policy for another dog. But excited to have you, Robert Short State Farm. What's a number of people could call? Yep. So if you know this.

928-636-3377. That's my number. And I'm assuming that you're all hooked up with Google and all that. All hooked up with Google. State Farm, Chino Valley. And your mug comes up. State Farm. You all come right there.

And so maybe you can start a sports show or a local new show for the best partner rep, and then you can have overflow. Overflow. We could do it at overflow. And then maybe a puppy adoption. There you go. Yeah, puppy adoption. Polishes and puppies.

Come on in. You get a hold of puppy. and get a quote. So who says no? Says no to that. And sports. And sports, yeah. Absolutely.

Thanks for coming in. Great catching up. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me. You'd come back and do sports or news for something for us? I would love to. I would love to. You know, baseball playoffs are coming up for high school.

The season's winding down. We have nobody to talk about. Chino and Prescott are looking like top teams in the air. Short sports. By Robert. Short State Farm, maybe. We'll see. Let's do it.

Good, dude. I'll see you, man. Thank you, sir. Thank you.