Small-Town Values, Lifelong Success

For Julie Cheek Anderson, success has never been measured by the number of policies sold or years spent in business. Instead, it has always come back to something much simpler — the values she learned growing up in White County.

A 1986 graduate of White County High School, Anderson has lived in Knoxville, Nashville, Brentwood and Smyrna since graduation. Although her career eventually took her beyond the county line, she says the lessons learned in her hometown have influenced nearly every decision she has made.

Growing up in a close-knit community taught her the importance of integrity, accountability and building lasting relationships. In a town where everyone knows one another, she says a person's reputation matters, and earning trust isn't something that happens overnight. Those principles have become the foundation of how she operates Cheek Insurance today.

The business itself is also rooted in family tradition. Anderson follows generations of community leaders who dedicated their lives to serving White County. Her father built a respected career in the insurance industry, her grandfather served the community as a physician, and her great-grandfather worked as the county agent.

"My family left big shoes for me to fill," Anderson said. "Although I will never measure up to their legacy, I will always strive to give back the way they did."

Ironically, Anderson never planned to follow in her family's footsteps.

She initially joined the agency with a very specific goal in mind — helping her parents transition the business into the digital age. At a time when insurance agencies were moving away from paper applications, handwritten quotes and filing cabinets full of records, she offered to help implement online systems and modernize daily operations. Once that project was complete, she expected to move on.

Insurance itself wasn't what drew her in. In fact, she admits she thought it sounded like a fairly uneventful career. Her father, however, saw things differently.

"You can say a lot about insurance, but boring isn't one of them," he told her.

It didn't take long for Anderson to realize he was right. As she became more involved in the agency, she discovered no two days looked alike. One day might involve helping a young family protect their first home, while the next meant guiding a business owner through complex coverage options or helping someone rebuild after an unexpected loss. She soon realized the business wasn't simply about policies and paperwork—it was about being there for people during some of the most important and often most difficult moments of their lives.

That realization changed everything. What began as a short-term technology project gradually turned into a lifelong career. Anderson became a partner in the family business in 2014 before taking over as sole owner in 2018. Today, Cheek Insurance offers home, auto, business, life, group health and bond insurance, continuing the customer-first philosophy her parents built while carrying the family legacy into its next generation.

Anderson credits much of her work ethic and leadership style to the environment she experienced growing up in White County.

Her childhood was filled with simple moments that many people from her generation will remember fondly — riding bicycles through town, catching lightning bugs on summer evenings, building forts with neighborhood friends and walking to local businesses like Broadway Supermarket, P&B Grocery, Scottie's, Fred's, Spako Market and Oldham's Theater. Summers often meant finding creative ways to earn enough money for a trip to Tastee Freeze, while homecoming season included building class floats by hand instead of ordering decorations online.

Without cell phones or social media competing for attention, Anderson says children learned to entertain themselves, solve problems creatively and build friendships face-to-face. One childhood adventure even hinted at the career she would one day pursue.

She and a friend created an imaginary company they called the "Office of Complaints," where they invented problems and then worked together to solve them. Looking back, Anderson laughs that the game wasn't all that different from helping insurance clients navigate claims and find solutions during stressful times.

While Anderson is proud of what the family business has become, she says her greatest success isn't found in her career.

"My biggest success isn't my success at all," she said. "Jesus died for my sins and I chose to follow Him."

As she reflects on where life has taken her, Anderson believes White County gave her far more than a hometown. It gave her a foundation built on faith, family, hard work and service—values she says have guided her through every stage of life. Along the way, she was surrounded by teachers, pastors, civic leaders, friends and neighbors who believed in her, encouraged her to pursue her goals and reminded her that success is measured just as much by how you treat people as by what you accomplish. Those relationships, she says, have remained one of the greatest gifts of growing up in a small community, and they continue to influence both her personal life and the way she leads her business today.

That encouragement is something she hopes today's community continues to pass along.

"When I think of White County, I think of an entire tribe of people who believed in me and told me I could succeed," Anderson said. "Be that encouragement for others."