Before leading one of the most trusted agencies under Symmetry Financial Group, Bryan and his wife, Rachael, were running their own custom cabinetry and furniture design business in Asheville, North Carolina. As a master craftsman, Bryan took pride in his work, but he was tired of hitting a ceiling.

“There was a cap on what I could make in a year,” he recalls. “No matter how hard I worked, there were only so many hours in a day.”

Rachael was feeling a similar restlessness. When a chance conversation on a golf course connected their path to Symmetry Financial Group, she decided to explore a role at the company’s home office.

“Insurance wasn’t something we ever imagined doing,” Rachael laughs. “But once I got to see the company from the inside out, I realized this was different. It was about people, not policies.”

After just six months in the home office, Rachael attended her first Symmetry conference, and it changed everything. “I grabbed Casey Watkins afterward and said, ‘I quit.’ He looked shocked until I said, ‘I’m rehiring myself as an agent.’”

Bryan didn’t need convincing. “She came home and said, ‘I found what’s going to save us.’ I was studying to renew my contractor’s license at the time. I dropped it immediately and got my insurance license in seven days,” he says. “We sold the tools, closed the website, and never looked back.”

Today, the Jernigan Agency is built on that same leap of faith that started their journey. Together, Bryan and Rachael have helped hundreds of families protect what matters most while teaching new agents how to build balanced, purpose-driven lives.

“The best part of this career,” Bryan shares, “is getting to help people on both sides of the table. Families looking for financial security and agents looking for freedom. We’re a big family here, and our shared passion is helping others win.”

For Bryan, success isn’t measured by income ceilings anymore, but by impact. “What we thought was just a new career became the best thing we never saw coming,” he says. “It gave us freedom, purpose, and a chance to help others find the same.”