This week’s Up-and-Comer is Daschle Larsen, a commercial and personal lines producer for McKinneyOlson Insurance.

Name: Daschle Larsen

Age: 29

Hometown: Elk Point

What brought you to Sioux Falls?

Sioux Falls was always on my radar for a potential landing point after graduation. With an abundance of job opportunities and social life, it was a great fit for a new graduate. Fortunately, I was offered a position at Risk Administration Services as an insurance claims adjuster. My two years at RAS served as an excellent platform for my role now as a producer at McKinneyOlson.

What keeps you in Sioux Falls?

This city offers so much opportunity for growth and development, not only professionally, but personally as well. When you can submerge yourself in a community that supports each of its members as family, it is a no-brainer to call a place like Sioux Falls home. My wife, Whitney, and I started our careers here and now our family. We have no intentions of leaving. Not only that, but by chance we are strategically placed an hour from both sets of parents – aka babysitters. Who can pass that up?

What’s your favorite thing about your job?

I love meeting new people. Every day, I am given the chance to meet someone new and learn his or her story. Each person has a unique story that makes them who they are today. If I am fortunate enough, I get to become part of that story and hopefully connect with them on a personal level.

How did you get connected to your industry?

Our hometown insurance agent urged me to consider entering the insurance industry as he thought it would be a good fit for my personality. He recommended starting in claims in order to learn the industry and then venturing into sales. Needless to say, I have followed his recommendations almost religiously. I could not have asked for a better result in landing at McKinneyOlson. It is an outstanding organization, with a company culture, work ethic and leadership team that rival any other in town. Most say they want to find a career, not a job. I am lucky to have found a career at an early age at McKinneyOlson.

You’re on the steering committee for the Young Professionals Network. What are some of your goals for the organization?

Collectively, the Young Professionals Network steering committee would like to see YPN become the premier networking group for young professionals in the Sioux Falls area. There are so many talented young professionals in this city. I think YPN could be a perfect avenue for those professionals to connect and grow both personally and professionally. We also want to integrate the Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce and YPN so there is more crossover in active membership between the two. Sioux Falls has such an unbelievably strong chamber presence. We want to ensure the young professionals of our community continue to build the chamber as so many prominent leaders in our community have done before us.

Describe YPN in three words.

Fresh, exciting, ambitious.

What’s one business you’d like to see in Sioux Falls that isn’t here now?

I would love to see a Google-, Apple- or Facebook-type business come into the Sioux Falls area. I know it is an aggressive request, but I believe Sioux Falls has the resources and means to support it. It would be a great boost for the community and economy, instantly providing jobs and a chain reaction of growth as a result.

Where do you see yourself in five years?

I hope to be continuing my career at McKinneyOlson Insurance and raising my family in Sioux Falls. In five years, my son will be turning 6, so I imagine I will just be starting the initial exposure to the chaos that is childhood activities, which seems to be an immanent and necessary stage for most parents with young children. With that said, I can’t wait.