Find, hire, and retain A-players. Recruiting strategies, onboarding systems, and compensation models for insurance agencies.
82 episodes from Craig Pretzinger & Jason Feltman, hosts of The Insurance Dudes Podcast
06/02/2026 · 11 min read
Most insurance agencies hire the same way they did a decade ago and wonder why results do not change. A structured five-step system, from outcome-based role definition through a deliberate 90-day ramp, cuts time-to-hire and doubles retention. The process is the problem, not the people.
05/25/2026 · 8 min read
Most insurance agency staff who quit are not leaving for money. They leave because of burnout, unclear expectations, poor leadership feedback, and no visible career path. Fix the emotional environment first and your retention dollars go three times further.
05/16/2026 · 10 min read
Recruiting and training P&C producers is a pipeline, not a gamble: source from defined channels, screen against a scorecard, then run a structured training program with ride-alongs and role-play. The Insurance Dudes covered this across 800+ episodes. Here is the system.
05/05/2026 · 9 min read
Insurance agency employee turnover costs 75-150% of annual salary per lost producer. Here's what the latest BLS, Reagan Consulting, and industry data reveals about finding and keeping your best agents.
02/27/2026 · 6 min read
DISC profile is a description, not a prescription. Use it as a conversation starter, not a binary filter. Values alignment, sales-strength attributes (especially need for approval), and life stability predict producer retention better than a high D, high I template.
02/20/2026 · 6 min read
The five-step P&C agency hiring system: run paid traffic continuously so the pipeline is full before you need it, use assessments to see past interview polish, run group interviews to expose real behavior, use one-on-ones to choose between filtered finalists, then onboard with 30/60/90 success metrics and daily activity standards.
01/09/2026 · 6 min read
Sustainable agency growth comes from depth, not from chasing new leads. Serve existing clients with advisory reviews, learn underwriting so you advocate better, build a real business plan before going independent, and hire with a 30/60/90 success scorecard.
11/07/2025 · 5 min read
Read attribution patterns in how candidates describe past jobs, study what they value outside work, test their planning capacity, trust early value-mismatch signals, and walk away before commitment locks you in. Casual conversation is more diagnostic than any structured interview.
08/01/2025 · 5 min read
Surviving a scratch agency through a hard market means increasing client communication during rate cycles instead of going quiet, hiring producers for resilience indicators not production history, building retention systems in quiet periods, and treating AI as a tool to remove repetitive workflow tasks, not a replacement for trusted advisors.
07/16/2025 · 5 min read
Build an insurance agency worth working for by screening producers harder, running honest performance conversations at week three (not month three), and helping every producer articulate their why. Culture, not a $10K raise, is what keeps the good ones.
07/09/2025 · 5 min read
Tung Le grew a Houston Allstate agency from launch in March 2020 to $12 million in premium by separating service and sales headcount past a critical book size, using zip code loss ratio data to guide marketing spend, and refusing to onboard bad hires under scaling pressure.
06/12/2025 · 5 min read
BJ Hill built Summit Insurance to $18M in premium in Loveland, Colorado by running his agency like a championship basketball team: culture in the daily reps, structured 90-day onboarding, accountability without blame, sharp self-awareness, and grit that outlasts talent.
06/05/2025 · 5 min read
David Carothers built his Tampa commercial agency by hiring baseball coaches, teachers, retail managers, and veterans, never other insurance agents. Screen for character (coachability, persistence, work ethic), then train product knowledge in-house through scripts, role plays, and mentor pairings.
06/05/2025 · 5 min read
Dave Williams scaled a multi-million dollar agency by treating recruiting like a sales funnel, hiring for mindset and training for skills, defining explicit cultural values instead of assuming them, and building team wellness as a performance driver. Most owners hire reactively, take whoever shows up, and lose those hires fast.
07/24/2024 · 6 min read
Build a producer team that actually closes by defining 30/60/90-day success milestones in numbers, running behavioral past-action interviews, matching candidate motivation type to your culture and comp plan, and treating onboarding as the final phase of the hiring decision.
04/23/2024 · 6 min read
Let someone go without destroying agency culture by making sure it isn't a surprise (clear expectations long before), preparing the exact words in advance, handling pay and references quickly, and showing calm forward-looking leadership to the remaining team in the days after.
03/28/2024 · 6 min read
Waiting for a vacancy is the most expensive hiring mistake an insurance agency makes. Build a continuous pipeline through proactive recruiting, warm candidate relationships, team referrals, structured internships, and a written ideal-candidate profile.
02/26/2024 · 5 min read
The biggest hidden cost in your agency is a retained underperformer, not leads or rent. Cultural erosion, opportunity cost, and a quietly lowered hiring standard. Fix it with proactive hiring (warm pipeline always running), structured behavioral interviews, and 90-day ramp-up pay.
01/31/2024 · 6 min read
Build core values by examining your agency's actual decisions, not what sounds good. Write a mission specific enough to guide a real hiring choice. Set a vision with a number and a timeline. When all three are real and repeated across team interactions, they become a decision-making system.
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.