Over more than twenty years, Jason Everett has grown an insurance agency from a single office in Northwest Arkansas to a multi-state operation reaching thousands of customers across Arkansas, Mississippi, and Texas. Now, he’s bringing the agency’s largest office yet to Conway, a 7,000-square-foot location that will serve as a hub for recruiting, training, and development.

The Conway office will be the agency’s seventh location. Other locations include Rogers, Searcy, and Fayetteville in Arkansas; Olive Branch, Mississippi; and Texas locations in Dallas and Wake Village.

Everett, who owns and operates Globe Life Liberty National Division Everett Agencies, said the Conway location at 505 S. Amity Road will better serve central Arkansas and the surrounding areas, including Saline, Pulaski, Pope, and Faulkner counties.

“The Conway location will be our largest office,” he said. “We will handle most of the recruiting for all of our agencies, as well as a lot of our training and development.”

Everett said the location will have about 150 agents drawn from all the agency’s locations in and out weekly, alongside five full-time employees.

The Conway office will anchor the agency’s training and development program, Everett Academy, which takes agents through three progressive levels over the course of several months. New agents will come from all locations, in person and virtually, four days a week during the first phase of the academy, EA1. They will return about three months later for EA2, and those on a management track will be brought back twice a year for the academy’s third level, EA3.

For Everett, a Faulkner County native from Greenbrier, opening a Conway office carries significance beyond just business.

“One of the best parts is the fact that these are my stomping grounds,” he said. “I’m able to be closer to my kids’ school and just be a bigger part of the community. It’s great to reconnect with a lot of the people we have known and done business with for years.”

Everett & Associates began in the late 2000s. After spending a few years working for Globe Life in Missouri, Everett was approached by the company president to start an agency in Northwest Arkansas. Moving back to Arkansas had always been a dream, and he jumped at the opportunity.

The early days brought immediate challenges. Not long after opening, the 2008 financial crisis hit.

“I remember looking out of my office one day and wondering, ‘What was I thinking?’” Everett recalled. “But thankfully, I had some good people, and they worked really hard, and we were able to come through that.”

A few years later, the company president came calling again, this time about expanding into central Arkansas.

“Being asked to do something by the president of the company always seemed like an honor, to know that they had that much trust in me,” Everett said. “But then also to be able to bring my kids back home to central Arkansas so they could be around their family, that was pretty special.”

The agency and its locations continued to expand over the years, moving into new markets, including neighboring states, Texas and Mississippi.

“At Liberty National, the $2 million a year mark was big for an agency, so when we crossed the $5 million mark, I knew things were heading in the right direction for us,” Everett said.

Everett & Associates was the first agency in Globe Life’s Liberty National Division to hit $3 million and kept that distinction at every milestone through $10 million.

As the agency has grown, Everett and his team have made a deliberate effort to keep things connected. That’s been helped by weekly Zoom meetings and leadership from its regional agency directors.

“We have really good leaders who have helped us carry out our family atmosphere, even when we’re not geographically close,” he said.

Through all the growth and success, Everett said he is most proud of the impact the agency has had on both its employees and its clients. Everett recalled one employee who came to the agency at one of his lowest points in life and, 13 years later, has built generational wealth for his family.

“To be able to hire people and allow them to leave something for their family is truly an honor,” he said. “And to be there for our clients in times of need — for that person who was just diagnosed with cancer or that person who just lost their child. To be able to have that protection they paid for, and then to be the person who can help them through that time of need is special.”