Page 5 of 34 · 678 total
06/05/2025 · 5 min read
Override the cognitive biases costing your agency money by running a pre-mortem before any major decision, keeping a decision journal you review quarterly, seeking structured input from people who disagree, and using the 10-10-10 framework (how will I feel in 10 minutes, 10 months, 10 years) when urgent.
06/05/2025 · 5 min read
Jay Bregman could not get hourly insurance for drone gig work, so he built Thimble to fill the gap. The lesson for agents: identify client segments where available coverage is genuinely awkward, position early as a distribution partner for solutions that fit, and deploy technology to cut friction in buying.
01/30/2025 · 6 min read
Direct mail still beats digital in tough markets because competition has collapsed and physical mail forces active engagement instead of passive scrolling. Target life events (home purchase, business filing, vehicle registration), time the drop to the trigger, and keep client communication warm so retention holds when carriers exit.
01/15/2025 · 7 min read
Risk Genius and Milo apply machine learning to insurance policy analysis and small business underwriting. Use AI for pattern recognition and document-heavy work, protect human time for trust, advocacy, and claim-time judgment. Agents who split work that way scale into underserved small business markets.
01/14/2025 · 4 min read
Chris Cheatham left law to build Risk Genius and Milo because insurance policies are pattern-recognition-heavy legal documents, exactly the work machine learning is built for. AI now reads policies, flags gaps, and makes small business insurance scalable. Agents who use the tools beat agents who treat them as threats.
01/08/2025 · 6 min read
Build referral partnerships only with partners whose clients need what you provide and whose clients you can serve back. Hire for directional feedback orientation, value-added persistence, and genuine client curiosity instead of credentials. Track every referral in both directions for 90 days, then prune what isn't producing.
01/07/2025 · 4 min read
High-efficiency agencies hire for non-obvious traits (genuine curiosity, comfort with delayed gratification, defenseless feedback intake, personalized persistence) and build referral partnerships that hold through market cycles. Ryan Schaffer's 2008 mortgage survival proved relationships outperform volume when conditions turn.
12/25/2024 · 6 min read
Ramis Hakim's final expense playbook runs on three things: ultra-specialization down to a single demographic and benefit structure, core values that are behavioral standards not wall art, and a lead system tuned to the exact ideal-client profile.
12/19/2024 · 6 min read
Agents who sustain growth over 19 years share one thing: intrinsic motivation that survives bad markets, lost carriers, and hiring mistakes. The income-only operator burns out. Acquisitions are won or lost on relationship continuity, not financials. And client conversations during easy seasons are what keep books intact when premiums triple.
12/11/2024 · 6 min read
Becky Isbell built a 24-year insurance career by investing in client relationships, honest peer networks, and personal development before she needed them. The captive-to-independent move worked because she had real relationships, not brand loyalty. Build the network during the easy years; you'll lean on it in the hard ones.
12/10/2024 · 4 min read
Becky Isbell built a 24-year insurance career around three constants: family first, deep peer-network investment, and a deliberately practiced positive mindset that directs attention to what's worth appreciating inside hard seasons. The agents who last build connection, not just conversion.
12/04/2024 · 6 min read
Self-awareness drives insurance sales success because most struggling agents fail on internal state, not product knowledge. Khashayar Fadaie reviewed his own sales conversations daily, found the gap between intention and behavior, and turned that feedback loop into the highest-leverage skill in his career.
12/03/2024 · 4 min read
Going independent in insurance trades captive support for real operational complexity. Khashayar Fadaie learned to navigate multiple carrier relationships, his own E&O, and brand-building by treating self-awareness as a business system, not a personality trait.
11/28/2024 · 6 min read
Build a referral assembly line with specialists for acquisition, sales, onboarding, service, and renewals. Each stage has a documented handoff and a built-in referral ask. Track referral rate by client segment. Dimitri Apostle scaled to $11M in premium with this model, no paid leads required.
11/20/2024 · 6 min read
Stephanie Riggins built a thriving P&C agency during the pandemic by replacing in-person networking with a systematic post-close referral sequence at day 10 to 14, hiring for hospitality-trained empathy over insurance experience, and installing scorecards and meeting cadences before they were needed.
11/19/2024 · 4 min read
Stephanie Riggins built a thriving agency starting during a pandemic with no insurance background. She credits her growth to three shifts: applying hospitality service instincts to client relationships, building referral systems that do not require in-person networking, and moving from producer thinking to owner thinking.
11/13/2024 · 5 min read
Nicholas Sakha grows his Las Vegas agency by tagging every new client with a source, then concentrating time and money on the channels that produce the highest-premium, longest-retained clients. Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube run as referral amplifiers, not cold lead generation.
11/12/2024 · 4 min read
Nicholas Sakha balances family, health, and Las Vegas agency growth by treating physical conditioning and emotional groundedness as professional inputs, not personal luxuries. Energy in client conversations comes from sleep, training, and a stable home. Burnout production hits a ceiling much sooner than sustainable production.
11/05/2024 · 4 min read
Troy Korsgaden's power positioning makes price comparison less decisive by giving the agent a specific, memorable, irreplaceable answer to 'why work with you instead of three online quotes?' Close rate goes up, retention goes up, the agent stops competing on $50 swings.
10/23/2024 · 6 min read
Hire insurance producers using behavioral scenarios and a working interview that tests coachability above everything else. Then give them autonomy over how to hit clear, accountable production targets. Less control over the how, more control over the what, scales past the founder's personal capacity.
