Page 12 of 42 · 834 total episodes
04/17/2023 · 5 min read
Build a winning agency culture by standardizing team communication on Slack, recruiting continuously instead of when a seat opens, holding pricing discipline that filters out price-only shoppers, and articulating value at every client touchpoint.
04/12/2023 · 5 min read
Gratitude is a P&C retention system, not a feeling. Run five plays: handwritten notes, same-day referral acknowledgments, gift cards tied to claim experiences, milestone check-ins between renewals, and a 48-hour post-bind confirmation call. Trigger each one inside your CRM.
04/10/2023 · 5 min read
The zero-cost marketing strategy that out-performs ad campaigns is gratitude: handwritten notes after binding, anniversary calls, and post-claim check-ins with no pitch attached. It produces unincentivized referrals, sticky retention, and word-of-mouth growth that no paid channel can replicate.
04/05/2023 · 5 min read
Thrive in an AI-driven insurance market by building expertise clients can't get from a bot, automating routine work to free up relationship capacity, hitting internet leads with speed plus quality, and treating the grind as the floor, not the ceiling. Lead with relationship, not policy.
04/03/2023 · 5 min read
AI will not replace skilled insurance agents, but it will replace the parts of the job nobody should be doing manually. Matt Sutika says the survivors automate lead processing, qualification, and renewal admin, then redeploy human hours to trust-building on complex coverage and claim moments.
03/29/2023 · 5 min read
Keep P&C clients through rate increases by running maintenance marketing on your book: scheduled, non-commercial touches that make clients feel valued between renewals. Map a touchpoint calendar, segment by life stage, train courtesy into staff scripts, and measure retention and referrals, not just new business.
03/27/2023 · 5 min read
Your best insurance agents leave for five fixable reasons: no clear career path, lead supply that doesn't match hiring promises, no skill development, missing recognition, and a culture that doesn't match what was sold. Turnover isn't random. It's a culture problem dressed up as a hiring problem.
03/22/2023 · 5 min read
Victor Figueroa's decade-tested playbook: pick a niche and go deep, follow up until they buy on touch four or five, treat claims as the relationship-defining moment, hire people who don't need you, and align personal brand with agency brand. Fewer activities, higher intentionality.
03/20/2023 · 5 min read
Victor Figueroa is a 10-year insurance agency owner who grew up in working-class Anaheim, made hard early choices, and turned discipline forged from necessity into a thriving book. His edge is empathy, community roots, and showing up every day for a decade without negotiating with himself.
03/14/2023 · 5 min read
The hardest step to freeing yourself from your insurance agency is letting go of control. Accept that work done by someone else doesn't have to be done your way to meet the standard. Trust builds through iterations of small delegations, not declarations. Frameworks, not micromanagement.
03/08/2023 · 5 min read
Sethe Smith's second-decade ownership strategies: shift from doing to enabling, build culture through consistent behavior not values statements, track retention as hard as new sales, upgrade your peer network to other owners and coaches, and treat personal health as a business strategy.
03/06/2023 · 5 min read
Sethe Smith's first five years in insurance came down to four tactics: build prospecting skills before referrals make them optional, get comfortable with uncomfortable conversations early, invest in deep product knowledge as a competitive moat, and find one mentor doing what you want and learn everything you can.
03/01/2023 · 5 min read
Insurance agency owners cannot take vacations because they never explicitly delegated decision authority, never wrote their judgment calls into checklists, never transitioned client relationships to the team, and never developed a number-two who can run the floor. The fix is those four systems.
02/27/2023 · 5 min read
Before starting a P&C agency, plan for 18 to 24 months of runway. Expect year one to be relentless prospecting from zero, year two the service-vs-sell balancing act, and year three when renewals and referrals compound. Build systems, pick a niche, and run lead-gen alongside referrals from day one.
02/22/2023 · 5 min read
Jennifer Haring scales a values-driven insurance agency without dilution through five daily practices: storytelling that transmits values through specific client examples, enforced standards even when uncomfortable, regular client feedback reviews, slow values-aligned hiring, and an owner who holds herself to the same standards as the team.
02/20/2023 · 5 min read
Build client loyalty beyond the numbers with Jennifer Haring's heart-first playbook: empathy first in every hard renewal, plain-language explanations that assume nothing, claim moments treated as referral moments, and a team hired for values alignment, not just production potential.
02/15/2023 · 5 min read
The communication tool that changed our insurance agency is a structured channel-based team messaging platform (Slack-style). Conversations stay searchable, channels by function keep noise low, quick questions stop interrupting deep work, and CRM and phone integrations make information flow automatic instead of memory-driven.
02/13/2023 · 5 min read
Audit your insurance agency bonus structure with three questions: Is it driving the behavior I actually need right now? Does my team know exactly how it calculates and where they stand each week? Is the payout affordable against the real profitability of the policies it rewards?
02/08/2023 · 5 min read
Apply corporate insurance lessons to an independent shop with a daily scoreboard of activity metrics, a 20-minute weekly review ritual, a written client journey map from contact to renewal, recurring role-play practice, and a systematized referral ask built into peak satisfaction moments.
02/06/2023 · 5 min read
Geico taught Robert Junge four things he carried into his independent agency: structured discipline that operates regardless of motivation, regular coaching as fuel not criticism, treating every conversation as data, and management as a separately trained skill, not a reward for great sales.