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01/17/2024 · 5 min read
Digital alignment runs on three layers, in order: team alignment first, then client experience, then data flow. Process before platform, always. Before buying any tool, write the workflow it serves in one paragraph. If you can't, the tool is a dependency, not a solution.
01/15/2024 · 5 min read
Digital relevance is an ongoing practice, not a destination. Agencies survive change by treating connectivity as a survival requirement: every team member, client touchpoint, and system stays aligned in real time. Audit your formation by mapping one client journey end to end.
01/10/2024 · 6 min read
Decide remote vs. in-office on four variables: per-producer performance data, the nature of the role, your management infrastructure (outcome metrics, weekly cadence, comms), and the career stage of the team. Ideology is not a framework.
01/08/2024 · 6 min read
Traditional agency bonus programs produce a short spike and a long-term entitlement problem. Sustained producer motivation runs on three intrinsic drivers: autonomy over how they work, genuine skill development, and visible purpose. A real-time activity leaderboard and specific public recognition outperform cash bonuses at nearly every commission level.
01/03/2024 · 6 min read
The agencies that lead through InsurTech change share three internal practices: active curiosity about trends outside insurance, a discipline of running small contained experiments before big bets, and hiring for learning orientation alongside technical knowledge. The tools keep changing. The mindset that navigates them does not.
12/27/2023 · 6 min read
Build accountability into a flexible insurance agency by managing outcomes, not hours: clear production and service metrics, a predictable meeting cadence, written decision logs, explicit recognition rituals, and a quarterly in-person team gathering. The accountability is what makes the flexibility work.
12/20/2023 · 6 min read
Rigid insurance agency workplaces lose the talent war because mandatory office hours read as distrust to professionals who proved during 2020-2022 they could produce remotely. Eric Yaverbaum says flexibility paired with real outcome accountability beats compensation as a recruiting differentiator.
12/18/2023 · 6 min read
Build an innovation culture by creating active curiosity (not just psychological safety), running monthly idea sessions, keeping an actively maintained idea pool, inviting outsider perspectives, and asking curious questions before evaluating any undeveloped idea your team brings.
12/13/2023 · 6 min read
Get more breakthroughs in your agency by generating volume of ideas, not quality of ideas. Run a 60-minute team session targeting 30 ideas before any evaluation, track your personal ideaflow for two weeks, and protect one hour weekly for exploratory questions about your business.
12/04/2023 · 6 min read
A remote insurance agency only works when the management model changes, not just the location. Kathleen Quinn Votaw lays out the meeting cadence, documented role expectations, outcome-based performance management, and tool stack that have to be in place before you flip to distributed work.
11/27/2023 · 6 min read
Implement AI in your agency by starting with one specific workflow problem (lead management, renewal outreach, or service triage), running a 90-day pilot with measurable outcomes, treating change management as the real work, and matching tool sophistication to current team capability.
11/22/2023 · 6 min read
AI is reshaping insurance through lead qualification, renewal outreach, policy comparison, and service triage. Start by cleaning your client data, picking one workflow to improve, running a small experiment, and treating AI as a force multiplier for human judgment. The 12 to 18 month window matters.
11/20/2023 · 6 min read
Gary Cooper's transformation framework for insurance producers runs on three commitments: honest inventory of self-limiting beliefs, written values clarification, and accountability mirrors who tell you the truth without judgment. Tactics get taught in a weekend. Character built over years is what sustains top performance.
11/15/2023 · 6 min read
Fake it till you make it in insurance sales means acting from the identity of the advisor you're becoming, not performing false credentials. Gary Cooper's path teaches that self-concept drives production: agents who see themselves as advisors deliver advice, agents who see themselves as salespeople deliver pitches.
11/06/2023 · 6 min read
In an insurance agency M&A deal, headline price is rarely what the seller receives. Bill Snow says: negotiate earnouts only when you control the metrics, run parallel due diligence on the acquirer (talk to the last three sellers), demand auditable earnout definitions, and lock down every representation before close.
11/01/2023 · 6 min read
Bill Snow's first M&A question for agency owners isn't valuation, it's personality: do you actually want to work inside someone else's system for the 3-5 year earnout period? Builder or operator? Autonomy or structure? Answer that honestly before you read a multiple. The financial terms are negotiable. Your personality isn't.
10/30/2023 · 5 min read
Build leaders inside your agency with a structured pre-promotion track: escalating responsibilities before the title (run a meeting, mentor a new hire, lead a project), goal-oriented mentorship pairings, codified owner instincts, and measure leadership development the way you measure production. Stop being the bottleneck.
10/25/2023 · 6 min read
Merchant Fleet CEO Brendan Keegan keeps the agents who ask business questions, not policy questions: what's changing in operations the next 24 months, where's driver turnover hurting, what does loss history reveal? Most agencies plateau because the owner is still the top producer. Stop fixing problems; build people who can.
10/23/2023 · 5 min read
Outshining your boss, your carrier rep, or your referring client makes them feel diminished, and diminished people quietly remove support. In a P&C agency, the producer who feeds wins back through their manager and the owner who makes the carrier rep look good keep capacity, exceptions, and loyalty.
10/18/2023 · 6 min read
Andy Neary's pre-sold pipeline runs on four pieces: pointed authority content that filters in your psychographic ideal client, strategic visibility where they gather, a systematic referral conversation with every top client, and one long-form piece per week repurposed into three to five shorter posts. Owned email is the asset.