T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY Tyler Peschong (left, holding his son) and members of his family and his State Farm team are pictured outside of the agency’s new office at 2110 S. Center St. on Tuesday. They officially moved in last week.

Since Class of 2008 MHS graduate Tyler Peschong returned to his hometown in 2020 and took over the State Farm insurance agency previously run by his father Mike about 2 ½ years back, he’s pursued both personal and professional growth. About seven months ago, he took another major step in that journey by purchasing the Brick House building at 2110 S. Center St., and the move from the previous location at 101 E. Linn St. to the new space, which was formerly owned by Kristin and Kurt Polley, became official last week.

“I don’t know if it’s something we decided or (it just happened). The staff, the team were probably tired of being on top of each other working, especially my sales team. There were about five of them working in about 60 square feet,” he said. “So it just got too tight. We loved it on Linn Street, and we actually looked for a little while uptown to see if we could stay in that kind of location, but this opportunity came about, and we’re just really lucky and blessed.”

Unlike the previous arrangement, State Farm is now the sole occupant of the building, and Peschong said that while they may currently have more space than they need, that might not be the case for long if the team continues to grow. He now has a staff of 14 between full and part-timers, including 10 licensed agents — when he started, there were only three licensed agents.

And while he’s happy to help customers with any insurance needs that may arise, Peschong’s mission has always been about more than dollars and cents — for example, his #MTownProud video series has highlighted a number of local small businesses and organizations making an impact in the community.

“I hope to retire, like, 30 years from now, and I hope that when it’s all said and done that no one’s like ‘Man, he was really good at car insurance.’ It’s never been the goal. I was really blessed to learn from my dad, and when my dad retired, no one ever came in and was like ‘Hey, you were awesome at insurance.’ It was all about impact and just being there for people,” Peschong said. “So it’s just something I want to really build on, you know? It’s something that’s very important to me. This community means a lot to me. It means a lot to my family, and so it just means a ton to us to give back to the community in as many ways as we possibly can because they’ve supported us in good times and bad times. It’s just such a cool community in that way, so that impact piece is really what it’s all about for us and, really, the culture of what we’re trying to create here and hope that our customers feel.”

Peschong, who is preparing to welcome his fourth child with his wife Kaylee this summer, is excited to see his State Farm staff grow along with his family, and he feels that the new space gives the entire team the chance to be at their best going forward.

“I feel like we’ve got our feet under us. Everything’s been up and running. It’s been smooth getting things shifted over here. We’re very lucky that way,” he said. “My wife’s pregnant with our fourth (child), but she’s been painting walls and stuff. She’s just a rockstar and such a big piece of it.”

Whenever he presents to younger people on his line of work, Peschong, in his 12 years of doing so, has yet to see a hand raised when he asks if anyone gets fired up about insurance, but many of his interns have nonetheless had the chance to learn valuable lessons about entrepreneurship and what it might look like to run their own business someday — as an example, one of his top interns is interested in becoming a personal trainer. Some of the interns who have started with Peschong as seniors in high school are still working for him as they attend college.

“You’ve gotta be able to find clients. You have to be able to attract people to your business, and so I want to teach them how to do that. And so hopefully they spread their wings,” he said. “I’d love for it to be at State Farm and they take this career path as long as they want to, but if it’s not, I want to equip them to be in a better position to go attack whatever they do want to do.”

Now that he’s settled into his new office, Peschong can turn his focus back to one of his biggest priorities: preparing for his beloved Minnesota Vikings to finally win that elusive Super Bowl.

“My son and I practiced celebrating it last week. I’m not even kidding you. We have it on the calendar. It’s already set in stone. It’s done. They don’t even need to play the games,” he said.

To learn more about Peschong’s agency, visit https://www.mtownproud.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/mtownproud.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.