The Agent Leader Podcast

Your agency’s next stage of growth may depend on the people you’re overlooking. When agency leaders think about growth, producers and sales leaders usually come to mind first. But what about the people who interact with clients every day, protect relationships, strengthen retention, and create capacity for future growth? In this episode of the Agent Leader Podcast, Brent Kelly challenges agency le...

AI is changing the insurance industry fast. Seth Zaremba, founder of b. atomic, joins Brent to discuss how the agencies that learn to use it strategically can gain a serious advantage in the ability to scale. Drawing on his experience as a producer, agency owner, and insurtech entrepreneur, Seth challenges traditional ways of thinking about agency operations, team capacity, and profitability. The...

Improvement doesn't happen simply because an agency has a good strategy. It happens when leaders consistently review what is working, learn from the results, make the right adjustments, and keep moving forward. In the final episode of this four-part series, Brent Kelly explores the fourth discipline: Optimize . Optimization isn't about constantly changing strategies or adding more activity...

Most agencies don't have an idea problem, they have an execution problem. They already know plenty of ways to grow, but when every idea becomes a priority, nothing gets the focus required to produce results. In this episode of the Agent Leader Podcast, Brent Kelly continues the four-discipline series: Clarify, Align, Execute, and Optimize, and focuses on execution - turning the right strategy into...

Are your people working hard, but not always working together? In this episode, Brent Kelly continues the four-step process for building a Best Version Possible agency: Clarify → Align → Execute → Optimize. After last week's conversation about clarity, Brent explains why the next step is alignment, and why many agencies don't have a people problem at all. They have an alignment problem. Yo...

What if the most expensive problem in your agency isn’t the one you’re currently solving? Agency leaders are constantly taking action, but more activity doesn’t always mean more progress. Before adding people, technology, leads or another initiative, you need clarity around what actually matters most. In this episode, Brent Kelly introduces the first discipline in the Sitkins framework: Clarify. Q...

What does it really take to become a better leader? In this episode of the Agent Leader Podcast , Brent Kelly is joined by Karl Sherrill, Chief Development Officer at Highstreet Partners, for a conversation about leadership, self-awareness, accountability, and execution. Karl shares why great leaders focus on creating an environment where people can thrive, and why sometimes the most important lea...

Exceptional insurance agencies don't become exceptional by accident. They become exceptional by consistently practicing the right disciplines. In this episode of The Agent Leader Podcast, Brent Kelly explores a question that Roger Sitkins first posed years ago: What does the best version possible of an insurance agency actually look like? After years of coaching hundreds of agencies, Brent has...

AI is changing the insurance industry, but the biggest opportunity isn't replacing people, it's helping people become better. In this episode of The Agent Leader Podcast, Brent Kelly sits down with Eric Witges, CEO of FSB Insurance Agency, to discuss how his agency is using AI to improve preparation, sales conversations, leadership, team alignment, and client relationships. But this episod...

Most agency leaders think their biggest growth challenges are external. Recruiting. Market conditions. Competition. Carrier relationships. But what if the biggest limitation is actually your leadership capacity? In this episode, Brent Kelly explains why great leaders don't simply create results, they create capacity. You'll learn how expanding your own leadership and developing others allo...

What if the biggest thing holding your agency back isn't talent, effort, or opportunity? What if it's alignment? In this episode of The Agent Leader Podcast , Brent Kelly challenges one of the most common assumptions in the insurance industry: that growth problems are solved by hiring more producers, increasing activity, or finding more clients. While those things have their place, they&#3...

Confidence isn’t something leaders have, it’s something they create. In this episode of The Agent Leader Podcast, Brent Kelly shares why confidence is one of the most contagious forces inside an insurance agency, and how your team is taking its cues from you every single day. Brent breaks down how elite agencies build confidence through clarity, consistency, and accountability. You’ll learn: Why g...

Most agency leaders don't wake up and decide to become average. Instead, average happens slowly, through tolerated behaviors, avoided conversations, weakened standards, and leadership drift. In this episode, Brent Kelly explains why the biggest threat to agency growth isn't usually talent, competition, or market conditions. It's the gradual acceptance of mediocrity. You'll learn: W...

Most agency owners know they need help, but hiring the right people feels harder than ever. In this episode, Brent sits down with Valerie Bowden , founder of CRDLE, to discuss why African virtual assistants are becoming one of the biggest untapped opportunities for growing businesses. Valerie shares how companies are finding highly educated, experienced professionals while creating meaningful care...

Why do some agencies thrive in difficult markets while others struggle under the same conditions? In this solo episode, Brent Kelly explores one of the most powerful leadership concepts agency leaders often overlook: context. The way you interpret market conditions, staffing challenges, and opportunities for growth directly impacts the decisions you make, the behaviors you reinforce, and ultimatel...

Agency leaders often focus on activity, accountability, and results, but what if the real issue is happening beneath the surface? In this episode of the Agent Leader Podcast, Brent Kelly sits down with sales call reluctance expert and master certified coach Connie Kadansky to unpack the psychology that silently holds producers back from prospecting, asking better questions, and confidently growing...

Most insurance agencies are doing pretty good. But according to Roger Sitkins, that’s exactly the danger. In this episode of The Agent Leader Podcast, Brent Kelly and Roger Sitkins unpack the idea that “average is full” and why agencies that settle for average growth, average accountability, and average performance limit their long-term potential. Roger introduces the 15-30-300 framework for elite...

On this episode of the Agent Leader Podcast, Brent Kelly dives into one of the most important leadership disciplines for agency growth: controlling the controllables. Too many agency leaders get consumed by external chaos like staffing challenges, market disruption, carrier pressure, and economic uncertainty. While those realities absolutely impact your agency, elite organizations separate themsel...

Most insurance agents say they’re different. Few can actually prove it. In this episode of the Agent Leader Podcast, Brent Kelly sits down with Dustin Boss, co-founder of Emerge Apps, to break down how elite agencies are shifting from transactional selling to true risk advisory, and why that shift is no longer optional. Dustin shares how his journey from “insurance agent kid” to tech innovator led...

Most agencies assume their best producer should become their sales leader. It sounds logical, but it can also be one of the biggest growth constraints in your agency. In this episode of The Agent Leader, Brent Kelly explores the reality of the player-coach model and why it often works early, but stalls growth later. You’ll learn: Why top producers and great sales leaders require different mindsets...

What actually turns the crank on employee engagement? Right now, only 31% of employees are fully engaged at work, and more than half are simply going through the motions. For agency leaders, that represents both a challenge and a massive opportunity. In this episode of the Agent Leader Podcast, Brent Kelly sits down with Sadie Bauman of iC3 to explore what really drives engagement, and how leaders...

Most agencies don’t slow down because they’re failing, they slow down because of hidden drag. In this episode, Brent Kelly breaks down what’s really dragging your agency down, even if you’re growing, profitable, and doing “all the right things.” The reality? Growth often hides inefficiencies instead of fixing them. Using a powerful “parachute” analogy, Brent uncovers the invisible friction that li...

What does it really take to become a high-performing agency leader? In this episode, Brent Kelly sits down with Chris Paradiso to explore the habits, mindset, and leadership principles that drive long-term success. From the power of relationships and accountability to the role of discipline and grit, Chris shares what separates average performance from elite execution. Chris also discusses how AI...

Why do producers fail? Most agency leaders assume the answer is lack of discipline, motivation, or talent. But after working with thousands of producers across hundreds of agencies, Brent Kelly has found a different truth: Most producers don’t fail because of talent. They fail because the system around them makes success difficult. In this episode of the Agent Leader Podcast, Brent breaks down the...

As an agency leader, one of the most frustrating moments is when your agency is doing well, but growth suddenly feels harder than it should. You have good people. The agency is profitable. Clients are happy. Yet something feels stuck. In this episode of The Agent Leader Podcast , Brent Kelly explains why even successful agencies eventually hit a plateau and why the real constraint is often leaders...