You’ve heard us talk about this quaint and small (but vibrant!) community we call home here in Southern Oregon.
This is the kind of place where you’ll start to recognize faces the more time you spend here. This is why we like to introduce you to the new members on our team, so that you can become familiar with a face you’ll see more and more of, and grow to love hearing their story.
This community, and even this whole valley, may be small, but it does still grow! And, as our own office team grows, we rejoice in knowing that we still get to serve the community with yet another long time community member.
With that, we would love to introduce you to Krissa Shoesmith.
Who is Krissa Shoesmith?
Ashland Insurance is truly committed to serving those in this place we get to call home. In a way, it’s so much sweeter to serve the community as a community– I mean, just take a look at our agents and you’ll see how many have deep roots right here in Oregon!
When you first start chatting with Krissa, you’ll hear her shared vision in serving the very place she has called home for the majority of her life.
Born in Grants Pass, and graduated from Grants Pass High School, Krissa grew up in the same neighborhoods so many of us have. She went to the same schools we have, and has grown to know the faces of her fellow community members as they cross paths getting coffee, grabbing groceries, or picking up kids from school.
As Krissa Shoesmith began moving through, and developing her career, her roots sunk deeper, finding new ways to serve the community around her.
Growing with the Community as a Part of the Community
Krissa’s career path feels like an embodiment of the steps each of us take through adulthood.
Everyone has their beginning jobs, and Krissa did too. Settling into the groove of working with her crew as the Assistant General Manager at a drive-up food chain, Krissa was ready to shift gears onto the next phase of what would become a purposeful budding career.
Eager and ready for that next step, she took the leap, becoming the Relationship Manager at a national bank. Being a Relationship Manager is an important role to hold– these are the folks that assist customers of the bank in achieving their own financial goals. To do this, there is a deep level of trust and awareness cultivated between the two. It’s in this trust and honesty driven service that opened a space Krissa found purpose with ease.
As you’ll discover, Krissa does things in a way that undoubtedly expresses her commitment to her community. To do the work she sets out to do, meeting her fellow community members’ needs in a right and protected way, she did not shy away from getting the appropriate licenses and training.
This is seen again when she takes the next leap, moving from her role at the national bank as the Relationship Manager into her next as a mortgage loan originator.
Just as some of her clients at the bank were saving money– and doing so effectively with the knowledge and guidance of Krissa– in order to prepare for their first home purchase, it was as if Krissa herself was ready to make that move with them. In knowing the community base she would be serving from her time in banking, she excelled in her role in the mortgage industry.
As a mortgage loan originator, Krissa highlighted her ability to communicate detailed information in ways that made the mortgage process a whole lot less scary, and a whole lot more approachable, knowing that owning a home was possible.
Finding the right mortgage is incredibly important as it is deeply tied to your current financial footing as well as your financial outlook over the future. This close, and at times seemingly confidential, look into the lives of her clients was something Krissa was familiar with from her time working in banking. And even more so, the ability to speak openly and comfortably about these personal financial areas was something that came naturally to Krissa.
She worked with local families to help them get into the homes that fitted them best by guiding them through finding the financial support they needed. Krissa has a way of seeing her clients genuinely for who they are and for who (and where) they wanted to be.
It’s almost as if her career embodied the process so many of us go through– after school you work to save your money, and then buy a home. She moved into the next step as naturally as the first two– filling that home with a family.
Krissa Shoesmith and Her Family, Another Part of the Community
Outside of her time at Ashland Insurance, Krissa has a life and a home as full as her career.
Krissa Shoesmith is a mother of two girls, 6 and 7 years old. And, being as bright and present as Krissa is, you can imagine what her daughters shine right back to her.
A home as full as this can really keep Krissa on the go, though she still gets to enjoy the quieter moments at home.
If she’s not out and about with the girls, Krissa enjoys streaming on twitch and playing a wide array of video games.
It’s a simple pastime, but her catalog of games embodies a full spectrum of stories, missions, and classics to truly give Krissa the leisure needed to resolve some stress from the comfort of her home.
From Disney’s Dreamlight Valley and Animal Crossing, to Call of Duty and the classic Legend of Zelda saga, Krissa gets to plug in and travel the realms. She even gets to enjoy playing Dreamlight Valley and Animal Crossing with her girls.
Looking to her fun in the future, though, she is eager for more camping trips and travel in general. In growing up right here in Southern Oregon, and even the greater Pacific Northwest, she knows the ample opportunities to pitch a tent and gaze up at all the beauty around us.
Krissa Shoesmith & Ashland Insurance
Coming full circle in her career path, it’s no surprise Krissa took another leap and landed in insurance.
Working at Caliber Home Loans, Krissa was introduced to Ashland Insurance. The next step became clear, and in April of this year she joined Ashland Insurance in serving the community in a new way. In this process, she has done it the way she does best: connecting with the community and her work, acquiring her licenses to ensure she can serve her clients in the ways they need.
Currently, Krissa Shoesmith holds the title of a Personal Lines Account Manager.
She focuses on reviewing all lines, keeping information and coverage up to date. In keeping coverage up to date, Krissa is helping soften the claims experience should anything come up– having the right insurance means you’d have the right coverage to take care of you when you need it most.
Krissa wants to make sure her clients aren’t afraid to call with questions or needs– she’s in your corner. She’ll answer all your questions, develop new, fitting quotes, and keep in contact with you for when you need it.
It’s just like looking around our neighborhoods and knowing we are lucky to have a tight knit community that is available when we need it.
At Ashland Insurance, Krissa Shoesmith specializes in Property and Casualty Insurance. This is where she is drawn as she gets to work with folks that are buying homes– the familiar demographic she has worked with prior throughout her career.
In knowing the overwhelm that can come at this crucial time of making a big decision, she wishes to bring a fresh experience, supporting those with her knowledge and experience right there where they are.
With what she has seen and helped folks go through, she understands the “bigness” of this step in life– whether the home itself is big or not, what you keep inside is immeasurable in what it may mean to each person.
What Keeps Krissa Shoesmith Excited?
What gets you excited? What keeps you going?
A simple question with a simple answer:
“I still get to help people.”
Krissa holds a passion for helping specific communities as they are reaching the big milestones in their lives. Whether its first time home buyers, or small business owners, Krissa has found fulfillment in setting them up for their next steps.
And she is confident that in working with her, and her drive to ensure each person always knows there is someone in their corner, they will know what questions to ask next.
It’s in this same breath of expressing her drive to help that she gives her own gratitude to the organizations that have helped her and her family.
Doernbecher Children’s Hospital at OHSU has provided the support and care needed for one of Krissa’s daughters, who was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. Their presence has left an imprint of genuine care that she and her daughters fill with gratitude. To ensure the continued care, not only for her own daughter, but for the community as a whole, Krissa donates and supports Doernbecher and OHSU whenever she can.
Coming Full Circle with Krissa Shoesmith
In hearing Krissa share her journey– to go from working as the relationship manager in banking to securing fitting financial support as a mortgage loan originator, and then landing in the insurance industry– it feels like she is truly coming full circle in meeting the community where they are, and where they are moving to next.
Through her movements in her career, she said one of her main requirements has always been helping the community.
I think it’s safe to say, where she has landed here with Ashland Insurance, is fulfilling just that.
“Southern Oregon is my home. It’s where I raise my family and build my future. I plan to continue to invest in it– this is where I want to be. I’m not going anywhere”