EP83:Jake and Belle Crause: Service-Minded Leaders | MOVE

On this episode of MOVE, you'll hear an interview with Jake and Belle Crause, who are no strangers when it comes to being part of an elite, special and – most importantly -- winning team.

The couple chatted with Mac Heffner to talk about how they joined The Alliance, and took advantage of the opportunity.

The Crauses both had impressive military careers in the Army, where they couldn’t always tell people what they had done.

Now, they can tell the world and invite them to join The Alliance too.

Jake remembers the first time he saw Belle was right after finishing basic training in the Army in Huntsville, Ala.

Jake, who served for 22 years before retiring in September of 2018, was in a break room when Belle walked in the room.

“I was struck by her immediately,” Jake said of seeing his future wife. “She was pretty, she had a great smile, and she doesn’t remember meeting me but that was how we met.”

If Belle had followed the path of most people in the small town where she grew up in southeastern Kentucky, she would never have met Jake.

Belle was the first in her family to graduate from high school. Her family’s home didn’t have running water until she was a teenager. Most women in her town were married and had children before they turned 20. It was a poor town, where people don’t dream big and most never leave. Belle wanted more.

She read about different places in the world. An army recruiter came to her school when she was 13 and told her she had options. That gave her the lifeline she needed to live a different life than the people she grew up around. Belle knew she was going to join the Army.

“I couldn’t fathom staying where I was,” Belle said. “Once you get a taste of that freedom and get a taste that there could be more, you starve for it. You are always after the next level of how you can do more and how you can do better.”

On the other side of the country, Jake grew up south of Seattle, Wash. in a town called Kent. As a young boy, Jake went to a state fair and saw an airplane show. He knew the sky was where he wanted to be when he grew up. While Jake had opportunities, he didn’t have enough money to attend college.

Jake’s path was the Army. It was also his ticket to become a pilot.

After meeting at basic training, the couple dated for about six months. They were married on a beach in Florida as they were finishing up Explosive Ordinance Disposal training. Jake deployed a week later. This was basically the routine during the next 22 years.

Belle served for eight years in the Army but was badly injured during an explosion in June of 1996. The blast at the Khobar Towers in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia killed 19 people and threw Belle across the room, injuring her back.

“There’s days where she is down because of her back. She takes away my excuses and a lot of other people’s excuses by going out and still doing that,” Jake said. “Her military service was very significant, and I want everybody to know that.”

As Jake continued deploying for months at a time, Belle raised the couple’s two children – Heidi and Jacob. Eventually, Jake joined a Special Operations Aviation Regiment called the Night Stalkers. He flew in more than 15 combat deployments, some of which movies have been made about.

As Jake clearly had an identity with the military, Belle was losing her role as stay-at-home mom. Her kids were adults, and she need to find a new purpose.    

“I was looking for something more when the opportunity of The Alliance came around,” Belle said. “The kids had gotten older, and I was getting into a new phase of life where it wasn’t so centered around raising the children and the home front as much. That’s when this opportunity came along.”

In 2016, Jake was still in the military, but kept seeing fellow Night Stalker Brandon Bules talking to people on the phone or listening to conference calls. Jake finally asked Bules what he was doing. Jake wanted no part of sales or insurance, but he thought Belle would be great at it.

Jake was right, and he eventually warmed up to the idea of working with The Alliance too. Jake said the culture attracted him, which was something he loved about the Army.

“I don’t know where I got this negative perception about sales and insurance,” Jake said. “I knew Brandon was up to something. He’s always been business-minded, and I could just tell he was working on something. Now, looking back, I know he was listening to calls like The Wednesday Call. I finally asked him about it, and I initially rejected it. But, I knew Belle could do it. I pictured her being able to pick it up and run with it.”

Belle got her license in June of 2016. Jake was deployed at the time, but she was able to run business one day each week on Saturday. She did that for six months, and soon realized she could sell life insurance. She also found a new family, and she said fell in love with the people at The Alliance.

“Everything I had done for the last 10 years, the kids were outgrowing it,” Belle said. “I needed something else to identify with. I was grateful I had been a stay-at-home mom, but children grow up and they don’t need you as much. It was scary. I needed a next step. It was a crossroads I was at when I went to that first meeting in Seattle.”

After initially not wanting any part of The Alliance, Jake changed his tune.

“My negative view quickly changed once I met some of the people because I could see the joy in people’s eyes and see the dreams they had,” Jake said. “It changed quickly. I saw it as something we could do together. We had never really been able to work together toward the same goal and dream. This was something we could do together, and I didn’t’ have to leave for months at a time to do it.”

After working part-time for the first six months, Belle increased the time she spent working and eventually moved to full time.

The turning point for the Crauses came after attending a National Convention at The Alliance’s headquarters in Burlington, N.C. The next week Belle wrote almost $18,000. The fire was lit, and the couple hasn’t slowed down since.

“We got nuggets at that convention that turned into belief,” Belle said. “I saw what people were achieving, and I knew we could do it too. I saw people just like me. They were new to insurance too, and they were doing it with a high level of success.”

In the last three years, Jake Crause was able to retire from the Army and work with The Alliance full time. The Crauses have won trips to Hawaii and Paris. They’ve already won the Alaskan Cruise trip in 2022. While in Paris, the Crauses dined atop the Eiffel Tower with Tim and Nicky Long, another member of the Night Stalkers who also joined The Alliance.

They documented the experience by taking a photo together.

“Travel in The Alliance is way different than traveling in the Army,” Jake said. “They never left gifts on my bed in Iraq and Iran. It was a bit of a shock for us to travel like we do with The Alliance.”

Beyond the trips and travel, the world of possibilities has opened for the Crauses. Jake says that is thanks to the vision of The Alliance’s President and CEO Andy Albright.

“Andy Albright has expanded our whole thought process about what is possible,” Jake said. “We had very narrow ideas of what life was going to be like for us. We won the lottery when we found The Alliance.”

The Crauses are excited about where they are now but are bullish about their future with The Alliance. They believe the best is yet to come, no matter what your goals and dreams are.

“It is achievable if you just do the right things and put in the work,” Belle said. “When you start going on some of these trips, you start to see what is possible. If you work hard at it, it can be done. The entire country is like our backyard now. We used to have limiting factors, and now we don’t. It’s just a quick airplane ride away.”

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