The Insura-Preneur Podcast

Mike Furlong – Founder and CEO of Indio Technologies, Inc

Tech leader declares ‘you can’t replace the broker, but you can empower them’

When Mike Furlong was just an insurance customer, it hurt. Getting commercial insurance wasn’t just hard, it was unpleasant. Having already found success in hedge fund technology, he knew there must be a better way. 

The better way isn’t without agents or brokers. It’s without the headache… for the customer or the agent. Mike’s solution—Indio Technologies—is now trusted by thousands of agencies and brokerages throughout North America, is being used in 30 of the top 100 US agencies today, and it’s attracted $30 million in funding.

Mike shares how he sees the fast-moving insurance industry changing:

• How commercial agents can thrive by doing less of the manual-labor and drudgery they’ve been enduring for decades (with more time talking to clients)
• The unique role that ONLY an agent can play – and how emerging technologies can make agents and brokers better
• A glimpse into what the future of the commercial broker looks like, and how to get there ahead of the competition

If you have time for one conversation about the future of commercial insurance (and insurance in general) please do not miss this conversation with one of the industry’s foremost agents of change. 

What are other agents & brokers doing to thrive? What are the biggest trends affecting the retail insurance agent & broker? What are the most important strategies and tactics you need to grow faster? Find out here in the Connected Insurance Podcast, where our hosts discuss the biggest issues affecting the independent insurance agent & broker with the industry’s leading figures.

Mike Becker – CEO and Executive Vice President of the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents

PIA National CEO declares ‘Today’s agency is not yesterday’s agency’

When you sit on top of one of the largest national trade associations serving independent agents, you see a lot. Mike Becker, CEO and EVP of the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents holds nothing back in this episode. 

In this robust, fast-paced conversation, Mike shares his perspective on how agents can thrive in the Modern Insurance Age:

• How agents can keep up with the dizzying pace of change in today’s insurance landscape (and why it’s a non-optional behavior)
• The shift of power to the consumer – and what that means to the agent of today
• Legislative threats, emerging technologies, the changing role of the agency principal… Mike shares his insights on being the proactive insurance agent

If you have time to listen to one conversation about meeting the future head-on—and winning—invest the time on this one.. Whether you’re a PIA member or not, Mike shares wisdom that EVERY agent and serious insurance professional should hear. 

What are other agents & brokers doing to thrive? What are the biggest trends affecting the retail insurance agent & broker? What are the most important strategies and tactics you need to grow faster? Find out here in the Connected Insurance Podcast, where our hosts discuss the biggest issues affecting the independent insurance agent & broker with the industry’s leading figures.

Matt Davis – President of GDI Insurance

Discover how the right technology will make your agency more efficient and how a dedicated marketer can accelerate growth

Matt Davis is a second-generation owner of the highly successful GDI Insurance—and a longtime friend and client of Agency Revolution. Taking the reins of a well-established agency and bringing it to new heights is no easy task. Matt reveals how he accelerated growth and boosted efficiency in this wide-ranging discussion that covers everything from hiring a dedicated marketer to integrating the right technology, and how to handle succession planning.

Listen to this deeply insightful discussion to discover: 

• Matt’s secret to simultaneously boosting the flow of inbound leads while slashing the cost of new customer acquisition
• How GDI Insurance combines an unconventional employee structure with thoughtful automated communication to engage prospects on a deep level
• Steps multi-generational agencies need to take when working towards a succession plan

This forward-thinking agency owner reveals practical steps any agency can take to bring their agency into the modern insurance age and accelerate growth in this can’t-miss discussion. 

What are other agents & brokers doing to thrive? What are the biggest trends affecting the retail insurance agent & broker? What are the most important strategies and tactics you need to grow faster? Find out here in the Connected Insurance Podcast, where our hosts discuss the biggest issues affecting the independent insurance agent & broker with the industry’s leading figures.

Ed Page – President & COO of Relation Insurance Services

President of this $100 million revenue agency defines what separates the winners from the losers in the modern insurance landscape

When Relation Insurance Services’ revenues stalled at $70 million, they turned to someone from outside the insurance industry to revitalize their growth. Ed Page was able to implement a growth strategy that got their company back on track. 

Ed is an MIT Engineering graduate, Stanford MBA, and former CFO so you might think he would be focused more on financial management or product. According to him, however, the most important part of creating a great company: working with great people.

In this fast-paced conversation, Ed reveals that who you work with and how you treat them can be the deciding factor on whether you win or lose in the insurance industry.

Ed’s intelligence, passion, and insight are on display in this jam-packed conversation where he shares:

• The most important behaviors that brought his agency from $70 to $100 million in revenue over six years
• Actionable insights on how he built a culture that brings out the best in his team and accelerates sales
• Marketing secrets that brought remarkable growth to his agency and can do the same for yours

Our conversation with Ed revealed tips, strategies, and insights that every agency can act on quickly to get results. If you’re impressed by a topline income of $100 million, you’ll be more impressed by how they got there and what you can copy and put to use in your own agency!

What are other agents & brokers doing to thrive? What are the biggest trends affecting the retail insurance agent & broker? What are the most important strategies and tactics you need to grow faster? Find out here in the Connected Insurance Podcast, where our hosts discuss the biggest issues affecting the independent insurance agent & broker with the industry’s leading figures.

Troy Korsgaden – President & Consultant at Korsgaden International

Best-selling author and former super-agent declares, “It really is a new insurance ecosystem. Here’s what to do.”

He’s already taught thousands of agents to grow a super-agency organically like he did. Now, he’s a sought after advisor to the largest insurance carriers in the United States. 

Please don’t miss this conversation with one of the industry’s most respected advisors and former super-agent. In it, he shares his thoughts on the modern insurance age, and his secrets to thriving in these fast-moving times, including: 

• Three steps to faster organic growth that every agent can execute quickly and easily
• His personal discipline for keeping ahead of the curve when change is the only constant
• How to make price progressively irrelevant in the insurance customer journey

Listen today and get ideas you’ll put into practice tomorrow. 

What are other agents & brokers doing to thrive? What are the biggest trends affecting the retail insurance agent & broker? What are the most important strategies and tactics you need to grow faster? Find out here in the Connected Insurance Podcast, where our hosts discuss the biggest issues affecting the independent insurance agent & broker with the industry’s leading figures.

Ryan Mathisen – CEO of Glovebox

Insurtech startup CEO declares, “The agency channel is NOT broken… but here’s how we need to make it better.”

Ryan Mathisen should know how the modern insurance customer feels about insurance – before he was CEO of Glovebox, he was a principal at one of the fastest-growing personal lines agencies in North America. 

When you measure your customers in the tens of thousands, you can’t help but hear what they say and how they feel. In this fast-paced conversation, Ryan reveals:

• The three most important criteria he uses when choosing which technologies to test and adapt… and which ones to leave alone.
• A simple but powerful observation about millennials. They don’t think it’s broken – but he made it very clear what they want you to do to make it work for them. 
• His simple formula that helped fuel thirty percent higher organic growth for the last six years. (Hint: be more like a marketing firm than insurance agency).

Please don’t miss this conversation with one of the insurance industry’s most respected agent-marketers, fast-growth specialists, and now, insurtech CEOs. 

What are other agents & brokers doing to thrive? What are the biggest trends affecting the retail insurance agent & broker? What are the most important strategies and tactics you need to grow faster? Find out here in the Connected Insurance Podcast, where our hosts discuss the biggest issues affecting the independent insurance agent & broker with the industry’s leading figures.

Joel Zwicker – Business Development Team Lead at Agency Revolution

He’s dialed more than 17,000 agents & brokers. This is what they are telling him right now. 

What’s the mood of the independent insurance agency today? What do the best of the best do differently?

To help find out, Michael Jans sought out the one person who may have spoken to more agents & brokers than anyone alive. 

Joel Zwicker talks to agents & brokers for a living. He’s had thousands of in-depth conversations – often stretching over multiple months. As a former insurance agent for 11 years and current Business Development Team Leader at Agency Revolution, Joel gets a unique insight into the psychology of today’s agent. 

Here’s what he’s discovering right now:

• The conversation has changed in the last three years. Joel shares what he sees happening and what causes agents to think differently than they did before. 
• Where top-performing agents are putting their attention (and, why most agents don’t think that way).
• How more and more agents are focusing on customer experience and customer journey – instead of just getting them in the door. 

If you have time for one conversation on the state of the retail agent—and what top performers do differently—please, do not miss this podcast. Joel delivers some surprises and remarkable insight into the independent agent today, and what it takes to succeed. 

What are other agents & brokers doing to thrive? What are the biggest trends affecting the retail insurance agent & broker? What are the most important strategies and tactics you need to grow faster? Find out here in the Connected Insurance Podcast, where our hosts discuss the biggest issues affecting the independent insurance agent & broker with the industry’s leading figures.

Rich Savino – Managing Partner at the Broadfield Group

PIA’s National Agent of the Year delivers straight talk to agents everywhere

Once a year the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents declares one agent—out of many hundreds of thousands—to be recognized as Agent of the Year. This year, longtime Agency Revolution client Rich Savino, CPIA, CIC, and Managing Partner at the Broadfield Group, was honored. Not only does Rich have 42 years of experience in the insurance industry, he runs an agency that strives to be as modern as the day is new – with the growth, loyalty, and reputation to prove it.

In this very important episode, Rich Savino shares:

• Why he looks 2-3 years ahead to navigate the course of his agency in the ever-changing insurance marketplace.
• How his agency chooses among the many new emerging technologies.
• His view on the opportunities for the independent agent, and why many agents will get left behind.

If you’re an agency principal, or if you work in the independent agency space, don’t miss this conversation with the industry’s most respected agent.

What are other agents & brokers doing to thrive? What are the biggest trends affecting the retail insurance agent & broker? What are the most important strategies and tactics you need to grow faster? Find out here in the Connected Insurance Podcast, where our hosts discuss the biggest issues affecting the independent insurance agent & broker with the industry’s leading figures.

Michael Jans – The 4 Stages of ‘The Marketer’ in the Modern Insurance Agency

How the marketer fits into today’s insurance agency model

Should you hire a marketer for your agency? What should they do? How do you manage them for maximum results?

The ‘shape’ of agencies is quickly changing to meet the modern consumer. More and more agencies are hiring part to full-time marketers to help them scale their organic growth.

Michael Jans calls on his nearly 30 years of insurance marketing experience to answer this emerging problem. To help agency principals—and marketers—clarify their thinking about this important position, Michael presents a 4 stage model that builds a framework for the contemporary agency:

• What are the ‘4 Stages’ of marketing in the modern agency – and, precisely what should you expect from your marketer at each stage?
• Michael identifies 7 Principles for the modern marketer… each one will help guide you to find and guide the activities of marketing in your agency.
• How do you hire a marketer and what should you look for? Michael identifies 8 aspects of ‘marketing as a profession’ to help guide your own strategic thinking about how your agency reaches the marketplace and earns trust and business.

Please don’t miss this conversation with one of the industry’s most respected and experienced marketers. Whether you’re an agency principal or an agency marketer, this podcast will help you get answers on how to move your marketing to the next level.

What are other agents & brokers doing to thrive? What are the biggest trends affecting the retail insurance agent & broker? What are the most important strategies and tactics you need to grow faster? Find out here in the Connected Insurance Podcast, where our hosts discuss the biggest issues affecting the independent insurance agent & broker with the industry’s leading figures.

Chuck Blondino – Director of Agency Capabilities and Programs at Safeco Insurance… Returns with 2019 Safeco Survey Data Insights

What the most successful agents are doing today according to the latest Safeco and Liberty Mutual agency survey

Want to know what’s working today? And you want proof?

You’ll get both in this fast-paced, data-loaded conversation with Chuck Blondino, Director of Agency Capabilities and Programs at Safeco Insurance. Chuck returns to the podcast to share the most important data from the latest Safeco and Liberty Mutual agency survey. Listen to this discussion to discover what the most successful personal and commercial lines agencies are doing to get ahead:

• The eight marketing behaviors most reported by the fastest growing agencies in the US.
• Precisely what personal lines agents are doing to grow 13-20% and commercial lines agents by 19-30%.
• The central theme of “connected marketing” that drives the most successful marketing for top performers.

It’s rare that we get solid data on the levers of performance. Chuck delivers it here – and every agent & broker in North America should listen. You’ll get clarity and confidence like never before!

What are other agents & brokers doing to thrive? What are the biggest trends affecting the retail insurance agent & broker? What are the most important strategies and tactics you need to grow faster? Find out here in the Connected Insurance Podcast, where our hosts discuss the biggest issues affecting the independent insurance agent & broker with the industry’s leading figures.