Page 11 of 42 · 834 total episodes
06/26/2023 · 5 min read
Payout is what your insurance agency pays you this year. Payoff is the cumulative value of every renewing client across five, ten, twenty years. A $200 commission becomes $2,000 plus referrals when retention holds. Model the full picture before you decide what to invest in retention.
06/21/2023 · 5 min read
The six traits that separate exceptional insurance agency leaders from average ones are not personality gifts, they are learnable behaviors: attitude, empathy, work ethic, coachability, self-control, and energy. Each one can be measured, trained, and reinforced inside your team if the owner is willing to model them first.
06/19/2023 · 5 min read
Working more hours shrinks an agency once the owner becomes the bottleneck. Personal labor has a 168-hour ceiling. Strategic leverage (systems, delegated tasks, producer development) raises the ceiling. Calculate your real hourly rate, then remove yourself from low-leverage work.
06/14/2023 · 5 min read
Scale surety bond operations with a structured intake that pre-educates clients, documented workflows for every step, automated status communications at each handoff, structural cross-sell logic, and tech that handles renewals so producers focus on underwriting.
06/12/2023 · 5 min read
Use AI tools like ChatGPT to draft FAQs, coverage explanations, and social posts at scale, then edit them in your voice. Build authority in a surety bond niche through video, curation, and client-friendly content before chasing original volume.
06/07/2023 · 5 min read
Agency owners know when to push and when to pivot by separating execution problems from structural problems. If better process, skill, or time would change the result, it's a dip. If the constraint is the market, carrier, or product itself, it's a cul-de-sac and the right move is to pivot.
06/05/2023 · 5 min read
The belief that keeps agency owners stuck: growth is about external inputs (more leads, better market, lower competition). The truth: growth is about internal capacity. Find your real constraint in the funnel, build leverage instead of volume, and invest in capacity slightly ahead of demand.
05/31/2023 · 5 min read
Niching down an insurance agency unlocks growth because specialization replaces price competition with expertise. Pick a vertical you already know, go deep before broad, build relationships with the niche's lawyers and CPAs, and use specific marketing. Trust compounds. Referrals follow.
05/29/2023 · 5 min read
Agency success that costs your marriage, kids, or health is not success, it's a very expensive hobby. Real success means a business that funds your life without consuming it. Redefine winning before the bill comes due.
05/24/2023 · 5 min read
Five leadership lessons from running a multimillion-dollar insurance sales team: lead with recognition (3-to-1 over correction), coach from the numbers, monitor floor chatter, anchor on process over emotion, and stay humble enough to learn from your producers.
05/22/2023 · 5 min read
Set agency goals that actually move premium: pick an annual revenue number, split into quarterly milestones, monthly production targets, weekly activity quotas, and daily contact counts. Share every level with the team and run a 30-minute monthly review on a standing agenda.
05/17/2023 · 5 min read
Three non-negotiables for P&C agency owners: an enforced communication standard with one defined channel and cadence for raising concerns, a deliberate work environment built on immediate, specific recognition, and direct conflict conversations the owner does not avoid. Skip any one and culture rots while the systems still look fine.
05/15/2023 · 5 min read
Three systems let you scale without burning out: documented processes for every repeatable function (with automation on tasks that don't need judgment), real delegation with clear authority and a review cadence, and a CRM your whole team uses as single source of truth. Skip these and growth turns into chaos.
05/10/2023 · 6 min read
Most insurance salespeople don't fail because they lack talent : they fail because nobody fixed the specific, fixable habits that kill deals before they start. Here are 10 reasons and 9 real solutions.
05/08/2023 · 5 min read
Communication is the one skill that separates thriving insurance agencies from struggling ones. Sales, retention, culture, and marketing all run through it. Master deep listening, clarity over cleverness, audience-flexed style, modeled internal feedback, and written communication that scales without you in the room.
05/03/2023 · 5 min read
Build a winning P&C team by separating sales from service as soon as you can afford it, quantifying producer output (calls, quotes, premium, close rate) instead of vague job descriptions, drawing a visible career ladder, running a daily 20-minute huddle (scoreboard, win, one focus), and enforcing consistent non-punitive accountability.
05/01/2023 · 5 min read
Internet leads are expensive and competitive. Most agencies convert under 20%. The blueprint to fix that isn't more leads : it's a faster, smarter follow-up process on the ones you already have.
04/26/2023 · 5 min read
Three leadership traits separate the best insurance agency owners from average ones: radical ownership of outcomes (no externalizing blame), coaching instead of directing (ask more than you tell), and relentless transparency about strategy and vision. None are personality, all are practiced behaviors.
04/24/2023 · 5 min read
Real retention runs on five systems: a mid-year check-in around month six, a three-call claims touchpoint sequence, an annual coverage review (not just a quote), structured referral asks, and automated CRM touchpoints. Make every step an owned, scheduled task, not wishful thinking at month eleven.
04/19/2023 · 5 min read
Build agency culture that attracts top producers by holding standards when you are not in the room, measuring producers against clear weekly metrics, structuring a real 30-day onboarding, and tying renewal retention to producer compensation.