Duane Dewsbury

About Duane

I grew up in Cloquet, Minnesota in a log cabin our family built together. We had wind power electricity, we chopped wood for heat and pumped water from our well. We endured melting the frost on the toilet seat with our bums in the outhouse. By age 16, I had enough of this and hitch-hiked to Texas and joined up with the Bill Hames Carnival. I spent 4 years working as a games concessionaire and learned my face-to-face sales skills during this time.

At the age of 20, I decided it was time to become a responsible adult, and I joined the U.S. Navy, where I served for 20 years as a journalist and public affairs officer. I served and lived in Spain for four years, and married locally twice. I had two sons and a daughter. I then moved on to serve another two years in Puerto Rico. While in the Navy, I learned my communication and relationship-building skills, as well as leadership. During this time the internet revolution was upon us, and I was active in developing in this arena. I built www.Navy.com during my service, which was later handed over to BBD&O, a Madison Avenue marketing firm.

I retired from the Navy in 2001 and entered the automotive business as a car salesman. I quickly progressed to management and spent most of my five years as a Finance and Insurance Manager. Here, I sold my first insurance policies (credit life, and credit accident and health). I was ranked in the top 3 of 22 stores for the last couple of years. During this time, I became a single father to my daughter, and it was the most enjoyable time of my life.

In 2006, I built TheFedoraStore.com, an online retail website for men's headwear, along with a storefront in Custer, SD. By the end, I had grown this business to over $1MM a year in sales revenue with a 30% profit margin. In 2011 during the financial meltdown, sales were starting to slip. At the same time, OneClick Ventures came to me offering to purchase the business. After some negotiation, I sold the business and hit the road.

My new wife and I purchased a diesel pusher motorhome and hit the road, traveling America for a few years, and settled in Temecula, California at a luxury RV resort. In 2013 my wife was tired of traveling, so I decided to get into the long-haul trucking business. I leased a truck and bought a trailer, paid it all off in 3 years, and continued my independent business until July 2023. Life-cycle issues with my equipment led me to sell it all off and close the business. I settled in Prescott, AZ as a single man in 2022.

I am now off and running, starting my third business as an independent insurance agent working from home. I am excited about the opportunity, and I still have the same drive and dedication that I had building businesses in the past, and look forward to an enjoyable future and partnership with Trailstone Insurance.