Culture, accountability, roles, and compensation. How top agencies build teams that produce without burning out the owner.
31 episodes from Craig Pretzinger & Jason Feltman, hosts of The Insurance Dudes Podcast
02/14/2022 · 5 min read
Better insurance agency hiring comes from building a pipeline before you are desperate, screening for activity tolerance and coachability, running behavioral interviews and role play, then moving fast on the offer once you have decided. Slow in screening, fast in close.
12/08/2021 · 5 min read
Plan agency hires twelve to eighteen months ahead of the need, write a fit profile before you start the search, and onboard with a defined ninety-day path. That sequence prevents the two failure modes that keep most agencies understaffed or badly staffed.
10/14/2021 · 6 min read
Structured onboarding has four parts: pre-start preparation, a detailed first-week agenda, a written 30-60-90 day plan, and weekly check-ins for the first 90 days. Cutting early turnover even 20 percent pays for itself many times. Make hard underperformance calls early.
10/14/2021 · 6 min read
Filter candidates with a follow-instructions test embedded in the job post, use behavioral questions tied to resilience and coachability, and run an observed 30-minute sales simulation before any offer. Then run 30, 60, and 90 day checkpoints. Catch misfits at month one, not month four.
10/13/2021 · 6 min read
Build a hiring circuit that runs even when no role is open: visible employer brand, formal referral program with a real bonus, monthly conversations with potential future hires, specific job descriptions that filter by self-selection, and behavioral interviews with a real skills sample.
10/13/2021 · 6 min read
Dave Williams's hiring circuit has five phases: attraction with a job post written as a sales document, initial filtering, structured behavioral interviews, observed performance simulation, and a 90-day onboarding ramp. Treat every bad hire as a circuit gap to fix, not a person to blame.
10/09/2021 · 5 min read
Lackluster leadership kills agencies through four quiet failures: abdication dressed as delegation, inconsistency that erodes trust, a feedback deficit that makes good work invisible, and pure reactive firefighting that never lets strategic work happen.
10/09/2021 · 5 min read
Bad leadership costs an agency its best people, best clients, and production ceiling. It shows up in five patterns: feedback only flows during problems, standards get applied unevenly, the owner is the decision bottleneck, hard conversations get postponed, and vision is announced once and never reinforced.
10/07/2021 · 6 min read
Delegation sticks when the owner debriefs instead of intervening, makes performance metrics visible, and builds redundancy across the team. Kirk Baker also flags the hard call: when a team member won't take ownership, the long-term cost of keeping them is bigger than the transition out.
10/06/2021 · 6 min read
Real delegation transfers ownership, not just the task. Kirk Baker sorts agency work into three tiers, points the owner only at tier-one decisions, and uses an explicit authority map so team members stop bouncing every question back to the top of the org chart.
09/27/2021 · 6 min read
Seven staff principles that separate well-run agencies: clarity beats motivation, real-time feedback beats annual reviews, recognition isn't optional, culture is what you tolerate, hire attitude train skill, weekly one-on-ones, and exit promptly with grace.
09/24/2021 · 6 min read
The agency owners who build great teams share two characteristics: they have high hiring standards and they act on performance problems quickly. Most owners have the first or the second, rarely both.
09/17/2021 · 6 min read
Insurance hiring is brutal because licensing filters out potential, commission scares off salaried candidates, and the industry lacks employer brand recognition. Survive by running a warm pipeline year-round, shortening your interview process, and testing behavior instead of trusting resumes.
08/28/2021 · 5 min read
A real agency hiring system has four parts: outcome-based role definition (30/60/90 day wins), wider sourcing into adjacent industries, structured behavioral interviews, and a 90-day onboarding plan with milestones. Skip any one and you get a revolving door.
08/28/2021 · 5 min read
Build a repeatable insurance agency hiring process with three components: a written candidate profile of behaviors and attitudes (not just licenses), a warm pipeline of 2-3 candidates you keep loose contact with year-round, and structured interviews that test specific job behaviors live.
04/09/2021 · 6 min read
Onboard new agency team members successfully with three structural moves: a real cultural orientation conversation with the owner in week one, an assigned buddy for the first 30 days, and early wins designed into the first two weeks. Hire for values alignment using behavioral stories, not posted-values agreement.
12/04/2020 · 7 min read
Run insurance agency meetings that drive production with a written, time-boxed agenda, a five-minute wins round, numbers before narrative, every decision owned and dated, and a hard stop on time. Use three formats: daily huddle, weekly production review, monthly strategy review.
11/13/2020 · 9 min read
Belief precedes evidence, not the reverse. Agents genuinely convinced their agency will hit a number approach every hire, every investment, and every hard week differently than agents hoping it might. Plant the conviction deliberately, protect it from corrosive inputs, then transfer it to your team through story and evidence.
09/28/2020 · 6 min read
At episode 205, Jason Feltman names the principle that runs through every Insurance Dudes conversation: full ownership of your agency's results. Not market blame, not carrier blame. The lever is in your hands. Celebrate the team, take the responsibility, keep building.
09/04/2020 · 6 min read
Empathy is a production multiplier, not a soft skill. Lead with curiosity in one-on-ones, learn each producer's actual motivator, deliver hard feedback in a way it lands, and treat conversations as information gathering. Highest leverage: staff retention, client retention, owner decisions.