Community Focused Success
Being a successful business owner is about more than the bottom line – it’s about caring about the community where you operate. The Chamber has a long tradition of working with residents and business owners alike to improve our schools, protect our neighborhoods and encourage philanthropy. The Chamber is proud to represent some of the most community-focused businesses anywhere. The local business people profiled here are just part of the amazing business community that helps Culver City thrive every day.
“At the end of the day, it just comes down to caring about people,” she said. “It’s really just that simple.”
Janice Beighey
Tower Insurance Associates
Tower Insurance Associates, Inc has been a pillar in our community since 1961. As a third-generation insurance agency, Janice Beighey knows the Culver City community as well as anyone, after all she is a neighbor, parent, CCHS alum and an active community member.
“When most people say they are local, they mean they have an office in the community, but Tower Insurance is a part of our community,” said Beighey, who has been running the family business since 2007. “We are involved with local and national charities and organizations, like Culver City Backpacks for Kids Program, Culver City Education Foundation, Culver City Chamber of Commerce, Homeboy Industries and Rotary International. We believe that if we put our time and money where it matters the most, we all benefit.”
With more than 100 years of combined insurance experience, Beighey’s knowledgeable staff is adept at making insurance recommendations that best fit the needs of her clients. As an independent agency, Tower Insurance offers a choice of multiple insurance carriers, coverages, price, and more.
The company’s focus is to educate its clients and find the insurance coverage that best suit their unique needs and provides them with the best options. From auto, boat and motorcycle insurance to coverage for earthquakes, special events, business liability and more, Tower Insurance provides insurance products with some of the country’s most trusted companies, including Mercury, Safeco, Nationwide, Hartford, Travelers and others; but with a local, personal touch.
“Nothing is more important to us than getting to know our clients and making sure that when a claim situation arises, Team Tower will be there to make sure their interests are protected and not forgotten,” Beighey said.
In 1961, Al Wahlrab, the father of Janet Chabola; Dan White; Ernie Peters; and Merrill “Buzz” Nelson founded Tower with the belief that protecting Culver City residents meant more than just taking care of their insurance needs. It meant making sure the community was a great place to live, work and play.
When the second generation of leaders arrived on the Tower scene two decades later, Janet Wahlrab (Chabola) and her husband, Jerry, reaffirmed the legacy of integrity and community involvement, participating in a wide array of community organizations and always being there to support everything from Little League to the local schools. Over the years, the Tower office was often the hub of community activity – people talking about the schools, local politics and even, insurance.
“We can’t do business with every client face-to-face the way the original partners did,” Beighey said. “So, we do some things differently, like communicate through email, our new quarterly newsletters, docu-sign, texting and even Facebook. Instead of seeing everyone in town at mealtime at the local diner, we set up events where we see many of our clients, such as local shredding events, food drives, Santa’s Open House, annual Customer Appreciation BBQ,the George Burris Car Show and CCPD National Night Out.”
After all, with nearly 60 years of operations in Culver City, Beighey and her team know how to build relationships with their clients and community members.
“At the end of the day, it just comes down to caring about people,” she said. “It’s really just that simple.”
“Our vision is a simple one – to change the face of healthcare for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” said the Foundation’s CEO. “There are a huge number of health disparities among those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and we are trying to change that dynamic.”
Carmen Ibarra
The Achievable Foundation
Going to the doctor can be an arduous and frustrating process even in the best circumstances, but if you have cerebral palsy or suffer from autism, it can be frightening or downright dangerous.
There have been cases of doctors missing a patient’s broken hip for years or missing a tumor in the ear simply because they didn’t understand how best to work with the patient in order to conduct a proper examination.
That’s where Carmen Ibarra and The Achievable Foundation step in.
“Our vision is a simple one – to change the face of healthcare for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” said the Foundation’s CEO. “There are a huge number of health disparities among those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and we are trying to change that dynamic.”
The Achievable Foundation, headquartered in Culver City, provides a wide array of services to do just that.
The Foundation provides direct services, engaging a team of physicians well-versed in dealing with those who have intellectual and developmental disabilities, including those experienced in family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics and even psychiatry and psychology. Through its website – www.achievable.org – the Foundation allows patients to learn about what will happen during their initial visit and even includes a video showing a mock visit. The site also tries to demystify some of the misconceptions about how to deal with patients who have intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“Oftentimes, everything that happens with a patient is attributed to the disability – not because they are really in pain or uncomfortable,” she said. “It’s hard if a patient is uncooperative or non-verbal. Parents, for example, are used to having to fight to get services for their children. It’s refreshing for them to come here, where they don’t have to push and push and push to get what they need.”
And while The Achievable Foundation provides an environment that allows patients of all abilities to get the care they need, the Foundation goes a step further.
Ibarra and her team are aggressive in working to train the future health care workforce on how to most effectively deal with patients living with intellectual or developmental disabilities.
“We want to ensure that people in the workforce have some knowledge and familiarity with people who have limited access to healthcare,” said Ibarra, who added that the Foundation also focuses on advocacy, routinely fighting for better policies to address how healthcare is provided and how barriers to healthcare can be eliminated.
“I was speaking with the mother of a new patient with a disability who had sought care elsewhere and then came to us,” Ibarra said. “After the visit, she said, ‘Wow! You guys get it!’ We knew the right questions to ask and how to ask those questions.”
She said much of the Foundation’s success is spending extra time with its patients and being very methodical in how everything from an office visit to a routine physical examination is conducted.
“We do a lot of work to get someone comfortable with being examined,” she said. “It’s just the little things that are so normal for you and I, but we take the time to take our patients through it step by step: what happens in the waiting room, what will happen during the exam. Our appointment times are twice the length of traditional appointments.”
Unfortunately, studies have shown that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities have poorer health and poorer access to health care. But Ibarra, who lives in Culver City, said she loves her job because her Foundation is working to rectify that every single day.
“We really are changing the face of healthcare,” she said.
“It feels really good to be a source of offering goodness,” said Jameson, whose Culver City Neighbors magazine highlights a feature story about a local family, resident or couple and everything good happening in the community. “It brings the community and the business owners who service Culver City together.”
CHIQEETA JAMESON
Culver City Neighbors magazine
Sales expert and author Chiqeeta Jameson is having the time of her life!
After three decades of selling and teaching others how to sell, Jameson is taking on a new challenge that brings her community together.
“It feels really good to be a source of offering goodness,” said Jameson, whose Culver City Neighbors magazine highlights a feature story about a local family, resident or couple and everything good happening in the community. “It brings the community and the business owners who service Culver City together.”
The glossy, monthly magazine, started by Jameson in April 2018, is delivered by mail to a targeted readership and is chock full of positive stories, highlighting the best Culver City has to offer.
There’s a monthly feature on Culver City Unified School District leaders that showcases the district’s schools and the special people who help them succeed. There’s a section called “In the Line of Duty,” which highlights a Culver City police officer, a Culver City firefighter and a local mail carrier each month. And then there’s “Culver City Shout Out.”
“That’s an opportunity for anyone in the community to let everyone know about someone they appreciate – a teacher, a neighbor, a family member. All of our content is written by the people in our community, for the people in our community and about the people in our community,” Jameson said.
Of course, the magazine stays alive by selling sponsorships or advertising, the cost of which is even more affordable than direct mail advertising, according to Jameson. But the real focus of Culver City Neighbors is the neighbor-focused content.
“I have some rules about what I will put in the magazine,” she said. “All the content must be educational, compelling, useful and positive. I’m not interested in anything political, negative or controversial.”
Jameson said she is always looking for more good news to share with her readers and even issued a challenge to local non-profit organizations who want to tell their stories to Culver City: “There are 300-plus local non-profit organizations out there, and I’m willing to give a platform to any non-profit who wants to write about what they are doing.”
Despite the constant deadline pressure and the hours she invests in making sure every advertisement and every story is perfect, Jameson said she’s really enjoying the latest chapter of her business life.
“I’m having such a ball with Culver City Neighbors,” she said. “I just love doing this.”
“It feels really good to be a source of offering goodness,” said Jameson, whose Culver City Neighbors magazine highlights a feature story about a local family, resident or couple and everything good happening in the community. “It brings the community and the business owners who service Culver City together.”
Shant Keoroghlian
General manager of Culver City Toyota
At just 42, Shant Keoroghlian has already logged nearly a quarter century in the car business. The general manager of Culver City Toyota grew up as a self-described “grease monkey” in a family whose lives centered around cars.
“My father was in the gas station business,” he said. “My brother has a body shop. My brother-in-law has a body shop. I was selling cars when I was in high school. My entire family is in the car business. We all kind of bleed oil.”
Keoroghlian said he continued selling cars in college and eventually gave up the classroom for the showroom.
“I was studying business, and I said to myself, ‘I’m already in business. What more are they going to teach me in college?’” he said.
Today, Keoroghlian oversees 180 associates handling all aspects of the dealership from parts to service to sales, and the store is a major contributor to the Culver City economy.
Not only do his employees all spend time and money in the city, but the dealership is one of the top two or three tax generators in the city, Keoroghlian said.
“We do about $8 million in revenue a month,” he said. “That’s a lot of tax dollars generated.”
Culver City Toyota sells about 400 cars a month, ranking in the top 20 among Toyota dealerships in Southern California. But it does even better in the service department, where it services upwards of 5,000 cars a month, ranking it in the top five among Southern California Toyota dealerships.
Sales aside, Keoroghlian said Culver City Toyota’s real secret sauce really is developing a positive relationship with the community.
The dealership is part of the Ken Garff Automotive Group, which has more than 50 stores throughout Utah, Texas, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada and California. The brand slogan is “We Hear You,” and a commitment to customers giving them an exceptional experience.
“With our time and investment, we have really changed how people in the community see us,” said Keoroghlian, who added that when the Ken Garff Automotive Group took over six years ago, there was some reputation repair work that needed to be done. “The community bond is key for me. We are really trying to make contributions to local businesses, high school groups, the Exchange Club, the City Council. Partnering with the chamber is a big deal.”
From supporting local groups to creating a warm, friendly and inviting environment for his customers, Keoroghlian is succeeding in making Culver City Toyota a model dealership.
“I’m very community driven,” he said. I believe that any successful business has to give back. And regardless of whether you are buying a car or servicing your car, I want you to feel comfortable stopping by and saying ‘Hi.’ Our coffee is always free.”